I am having troubled dreams at present

But I am not troubled at all

In the first I saw a huge spaceship

Crash into a high rise block of apartments

With devastating results

But I could not tell anyone

As my room was empty

In the dream that followed

I was with you

With my camera in my hand

As we were in the middle of an exciting and colourful festival

I tried to take the opportunity

To record the scene

But my camera was empty

And you had vanished from view

As a photographer I have always considered it an advantage to begin a relationship with your subject be it an inanimate object or a person

When I say a relationship I really mean that I begin a friendship with the person I am working with

I feel that this improves the quality of the photographs I take

When I work on commercial shoots I often find that I do not have much time to get to know the models and because of this the results can be artificial

But this is often what the customers are looking for so the discipline can work both ways

Yesterday I decided to take a photograph of a bowl of apples which had come from our orchard

But before I started I spent the morning with the apples in front of me

They were living creatures and I needed their friendship

I have not told anyone about my dreams

But they trouble me

In other dreams I am on a speeding train and cannot pay my fare

Or in a shop paying for my goods

When I drop my purse

And cannot find the coins

Which have rolled in all directions

I am a successful photographer and I live with my family in seclusion

We return to civilisation whenever we choose to return

At first it was an experiment as we had tired of the city

But we soon found that we liked it

Some have accused me of being reclusive

But I disagree with that idea

I am highly amused by my next assignment

As I have been asked by Harpers

To shoot a series of photos

Celebrating the simplicity of life

I think they are expecting Walden like results

But I am not so sure that is what they will receive

As I am no Thoreau

I often wonder if the man himself

During his time near Walden Pond

Had troubling dreams

If I could ever meet him

This would be the first question

I would ask

His famous work has often been referred to as performance art

Perhaps I am a performance artist

And not a photographer

I obsessively record our day to day lives in minute detail

As the seasons change around us

I want people to share this stage

But I will not share my dreams

That linger beneath the surface