PAUL GALLAGHER

What kicked off your interest in photography? When I left school at 16, I embarked on a graphic design course at Southport College of Art. I liked art and wanted to be a designer. One of the modules was photography, because we had to understand the photographic process. They sent us out to take pictures and we learned how to develop and print them in the darkroom. It was an intensive few weeks.

I loved the whole process and got hooked on it. By the end of the course I had given up graphics and majored in photography.

What was special about photography for you?

I found it really empowering. Unlike other subjects, where the lecturers would say we had to design or create an image of a specific thing, all they did was ask us to bring back images that conveyed things like ‘vertical emphasis’ or ‘a change in the weather’. The choice of exactly what to photograph and how to process and present it was a personal decision.

We were also encouraged to look at photography books in the library, and