Full Artist Statement

My name is Andrew Sharrock; I live in Southport, which is a seaside town in the North West of
England and is on Sefton’s beautiful coastline, I am very happy to share my ICM photography journey with you all.

Prior to photography I have always loved art from an early age. My photography journey began almost 20 years ago and I first began using a film camera which is a Pentax ME Super which my Dad gave me, after a while I made my transition to digital. A passion of mine has always been landscape photography, the Lake District has been one of the locations I have documented visually quite extensively, and my influences here have been renowned landscape photographer ‘Martin Lawrence’ whose vistas and intimacy of what he captures is incredible, and the late great ‘Alfred Wainwright’, author of the 7 pictorial guide books to the Lakeland fells, a name unknown by many but iconic status to those who enjoy wandering the mountain tops of the Lake District, although not a photographer Wainwright is my biggest ever inspiration in photography, it took Wainwright 12 years to complete all his guide books, I ask myself what drove Wainwright, love, dedication, devotion? I believe these entire factors drove him, what I also believe is that these factors drive us in what we create ourselves.

I completed my photography degree in July 2019 when I and my fellow graduates became the ‘Class of 2019’, graduating at 45 with a BA Honours is one of the proudest moments of my life, I hope that my 2 children will look on this as something to aspire to themselves and believe that with a positive mindset you can achieve anything no matter your age. On this part of my photography journey I was presented with an opportunity and a challenge by my degree course leader, for my honours project I was challenged to take my photography in a new direction, as a pose to traditional landscape I was influenced to take on a different perspective, right there and then I was given new purpose and direction which deepened my relationship with photography and even more so connecting me more with my inner creative spirit. This introduced me to the world of ‘Intentional Camera Movement’, this I solidly believe is an art form, my camera becoming my canvas, creating work for anybody viewing it would look as though it has been painted, this has well and truly elevated me; one of my influences
is ‘Andrew S Gray’ who is based in the North East of England whose work I admire very much. 

I have been using Intentional Camera Movement now for over 2 years; in all honesty I have not looked back, stepping into the realms of the fine artist, abstract and impressionism has opened endless possibilities for creation. I then wanted to produce work what many would consider to be beyond photography, I feel the deeper I go the more I will discover making this an endless possibility and thinking outside the box with what I produce, I feel now I have an even deeper relationship with my craft, environment and subject matter, these elements on their own excite me and I always look forward to going out to create work, embracing the opportunity.

My favourite subjects are nature, a particular favourite time of the day for me to be creating images is at dusk for sunset, and no matter which environment you are in the opportunity for creation is always there, near to me is ‘Ainsdale Pinewoods’ and the beautiful ‘Sefton Coastline’ for which there is over 15 miles of, just up north from me is the Lake District, A lot of my work is created in these environments, because I love these places so much the connection with me is there all the time.

My work is created using a variety of techniques, for one I always shoot free hand, I do not ever use a tripod as I want complete freedom of movement with the camera, to reduce time and provide the shutter delay I need to create my images I use a Cokin 5 stopper filter, I am certainly not a fair weather person either so any conditions are great to get out in, I particularly enjoy moody skies especially when I am out on Sefton’s Coastline, sometimes the rougher the conditions the better. I will use objects in my image making, this can dictate what technique to use, there are some of my creations that include Southport Pier, and we also have numerous shipwrecks on our coastline that not only give historical interest but visual appeal and fascination. I particularly love the horizon in the middle of my images; a great influence here with me is Japanese Photographer ‘Hiroshi Sugimoto’ who is renowned for travelling to different countries to photograph seascapes.

Another location in my hometown is the Marine Lake where some of the light reflections are beautiful, a huge influence here is German photographer Andreas Gursky in his visual documentation of Hong Kong harbour, the Marine Lake I have used for a variety of reasons, this provides opportunity to allow the environment to do the movement for you and here I tend not to move my camera at all and this goes to show you don’t need to necessarily move your camera to achieve your desired results, another opportunity here is during stormy weather when the lake surface is very rough and images that I created are very dramatic using a delayed time on my exposure.

Being artistic from a young age and living on the coastline I feel has shaped my vision from an early age even the days before I began using a camera, my solid belief is what we create is unique to ourselves, that on its own is why what we create is so beautiful and why we are energized to create, to always strive forward and to evolve, continually refining ourselves as artists and loving what we do.

What we create is who we are.