I think my interest in photography started a long time after my first photography related memory. I have been interested in photography from about the age of 18. Over the last ten years, I’ve thought about my approach, and through this thinking, I’ve slowly started arriving at a place where sometimes a picture comes together in a way that feels like my own.

The process of making and thinking about photography has been my way to interface and engage with the world. The world, for me, is inconceivably beautiful but also full of problems and absurdities, and my process is a reflection of this engagement. I mostly work for myself and it can be mentally challenging when photographs don’t work. I think to be a photographer, one needs to be able to embrace failure – failure can be taxing but also revealing.

What I think is powerful is life, to look at life is powerful, it changes you, and a camera enables that to some degree. So yes, I agree that, in certain contexts, ‘common things’ can become beautiful, but I think those things are often beautiful even before they are looked at through a lens.

I wouldn't consider myself a filmmaker at this point in time. I studied film and knew quite early into my studies that I was more interested in photography. However, some of the strategies I learnt in filmmaking have been very useful in making the sort of photographs that I make now. Slowing things down and consciously engaging with time between me and my subjects is a device that I learnt through filmmaking and still employ on the shoots that I do.

In the last few years, I’ve moved away from making work in the studio. In the past, I was drawn to what the world can express about photography, but now, I’m more interested in what photography can express about the world. So, my interest has grown outside. I learnt how to use lights in the studio and this has carried through into going out into the world and taking pictures of people with a studio setup. I think this studio influence approach still comes through in my pictures.

I normally start with a location, space or place that interests me in one way or the other. I've found that if people are familiar with the space they're in, the interaction between the person and the space is a lot more accented. Often, when a person is comfortable in a space, something comes out in the picture that is revealing about that relationship and interaction.

At this point in time, I’m not sure if I want to express any specific idea about South Africa, however, I think it would be right to say that my ideas are universal but born out of a South African context. I've become aware of the fact that my lens has pointed more and more towards certain types of interiors. The relation between an environment and the people in that environment is very interesting to me. Photography allows me to connect dots between places and people. Making connections helps me make sense of the world.

South African writers have been inspirational – Eugene Marais, Herman Charles Bosman, Rian Malan. Reading allows me to visualise pictures. Besides that, I love David Goldblatt, Santu Mofokeng and Jeff Wall. Reading is what inspires me most though.

In a way, yes, I started photographing seriously only after I purchased a medium format camera. I want my pictures to look like how I see the world without a camera, without any photographic ‘effect’. In my opinion, what large format film cameras capture is as close to what I see with my eyes.

I want to express things as clearly as possible, and sometimes, that requires a bit of labour, so I think what’s recognisable is the labour. My pictures are a result of many different types of labour brought together. I would also say that the interactions I have with people are usually awkward and maybe this comes through.

I think it can be totally counterproductive. Especially looking at my contemporaries’ work. I think looking too much can result in making flat homogeneous workm especially if what you're looking at is on social media. In saying that, I also think it's really important to try and understand the context that you're working in and react to it in some way.

I would like to continue making photographs that mean something to me, that for me is the bottom line. If I can do that, I'll be happy.