Jonny Monk

A friend of mine from the Casual Connoisseur forums, Jonny Monk is a photographer based in Oswestry. While many photographers come from 'arty' backgrounds, Jonny grew up in a family with no real artistic inclinations. However he believes this has helped him to develop a unique style as a lack of obvious influences to draw upon has forced him to experiment in order to discover the best results.

His interest in photography wasn't apparent at an early age but was instead sparked by a present from his father. Jonny explains, "my interest has only been harboured in the last two to three years after my father bought me an old Canon EOS 300D camera to take on a school trip to New York." Since then Jonny has described photography as an "absolute passion" which started with travel photography but then moved on to more artistic and unique takes on well known local areas and landmarks.

Jonny is quick to maintain that photography, in general, isn't an obsessive interest. "I don't carry a camera round with me all the time. I just wake up one day in the mood and see how it turns out. Except when I'm on a photography assignment or a job." He also believes that photography is accessible to everyone in form or another. "Personally, I think that photography is one of those past times and interests that everyone seems to have, whether they pursue it in an artistic sense, just the annual holiday and Christmas snaps, or even just to capture the odd memory of nights out with friends. So in that case, one could argue it's been an interest in everyone's lives, for all of their lives."

Jonny is entirely self-taught and is a firm believer in 'individualism'. But, in his opinion, this has clear benefits. "You won't get noticed if you're the same as everyone else now will you? Picasso was self taught, apparently demonstrating sublime talent during his youth, and look where he is now. (He's dead, but you know what I mean.)"

While he believes that different cameras can open up different possibilities in regards to special effects, Jonny believes ultimately that it is the skill of the man behind the camera who makes a good photograph. "it's down to the photographer to use his/her vision to come up with an aesthetically appealing image. Cameras create the opportunity to expand the image artistically, be it depth of field (how blurred selected parts of the image are), film effects, exposure settings etc. But overall, I'd say it's down to the skill and keen eye of the chap or chapette holding the thing."

Despite struggling (or not wanting) to pinpoint his style, Jonny is most interested in taking unique slants on an area or location, even though it often contradicts the common conception of that place. "Bringing the overlooked to people's attention is quite interesting. A personal representation of an everyday item, which makes people think about it and notice something new is a nice experience. I take pride in bringing beauty to a decayed urban area for example. I also like finding imperfections in areas deemed as 'beautiful'."

An admirer of the works of Gregory Crewsdon and Martin Parr, Jonny is currently pursuing photography as a profession. Armed with a range of both digital and film cameras (and an iPhone app called Hipstamatic) Jonny says "the commissions are building up quite nicely and it's finally looking like it might well happen".

Jonny's photos can be found and bought from his website. You can also follow him on his new blog.