My name is Stuart Kerr, I am the photographer.
For a long time I only saw myself as a “bloke with a camera” or just someone who enjoyed making photos and actually referring to myself as a photographer felt odd so I avoided doing it. There were a couple of things that contributed to changing that. The first was that people wanted prints of my images on their walls, starting with family, then friends, then some colleagues and finally some complete strangers who found my website and wanted to buy my photos. The second major change was receiving my LRPS, an accreditation from the Royal Photographic Society that recognised me as someone who can take a half decent photo.
Photography is my art, I can’t paint or draw and I reckon my sculpting skills aren’t up to much either but with a press of a button and some digital manipulation I can create something that is visually pleasing. I’m predominantly self-taught, I did an Open University course that taught me the basics and have been on a few workshops but most of my understanding of the principles of photography has come from reading books, looking at other photographer’s work and taking pictures.
My day job means I get up before 6am Monday to Friday, so come the weekend my lie-ins are precious and I no longer have the urge to get out of bed before sunrise to get "the shot". This doesn't mean I enjoy photography any less than I used to, I'm just less obsessive about it. Every photography trip is still special, perhaps even more so now, and I will still research locations, sunrise & sunset times, high tide & low tide and weather patterns. This forward-planning gives me a better chance of capturing that "lucky" shot.
Why FiveTimes5?
Constructivism was an artistic and architectural movement that originated in Russia during 1919 which rejected the idea of “art for art’s sake” in favour of art as a practice directed towards social purposes. Many of the Soviet propaganda posters around World War II were based around Constructivism. It appeals to me because of the bold colours and the geometric shapes.
In Moscow in 1921 there was an abstract art exhibition featuring five pieces of work by each of the five prominent Soviet Constructivism artists of the time (Rodchenko, Popova, Vesnin, Ekster and Stepanova). The exhibition was titled 5×5=25.
I liked the name, so I borrowed it.