As a photographer I am always curious about how we can capture and show emotion and intimacy. There are many ways to take photographs and these have probably all been explored by now. However for certain sorts of pictures an exploration of a style seems correct. These photographs have been a long time in coming to fruition, partly because my initial interest was sparked by a room. I was working on Slow Photography at Hull Artists Research Initiative (HARI) and found an empty space at the top of the building which was white with one wall of windows which allowed a flood of light. I immediately wondered what how I could transform the light by covering these huge windows with tracing paper to diffuse it and, secondly, what I might shoot there.

A period of thought and I concocted the idea of working with someone on the theme of intimacy. This is a fuzzy concept in some ways as intimacy can range from familial love, long standing and deep relationships to more random friendships which may or may not be intimate in the sexual sense. However intimacy implies some trust between people and an ability to be with someone without barriers.

I also wanted to consider the way in which I might style this as well as who I may be inspired by. I considered three people whose work I knew. Casper Faassen whose work with people behind glass makes a certain distance as well as showing an intimacy from which you yourself are kept by the barrier between you that he has created. Secondly the work of Saul Leiter, best known for street photography perhaps but whose photographs of his friends, wife and lovers in his flat in New York mostly during the forties, fifties and sixties (see In My Room ) capture a complicit act between the photographer and his subjects which few other people manage. Finally the work of Eliza Loveheart whose work is mainly on Flickr. She is a photographer who photographs herself, largely in her home, but in a way that is both intimate and descriptive. She often describes her work as a personal diary and you can see why. She rarely allows anyone else to photograph her but I had met her several times and knew that she had a deep knowledge of photography and its history and that she would understand the concepts. I was also interested in any ideas and views that she would bring.

Luckily Eliza was happy to collaborate and we eventually spent time shooting together. These pictures are a result of that and the techniques used remain private for now but I think they work in slowing things down and making people work harder. Hard edged, highly defined, well focused pictures work sometimes but intimacy suggest a far less defined map and a need for a greater interpretation of understanding between people.