Life Through The Lens: Richard P Walton, an award winning photographer who captures images from around the world.

Mr Walton recently won the documentary category of The Societies International 20x16 Annual Photography Print Competition. He has also won The Societies Masters Photography award.

To see more of his work visit: http://www.richardpwalton.co.uk/

Image1: Pritchard and Dainton, Death Valley

This portrait of Pritchard and Dainton (MTV’s Dirty Sanchez) was taken in Death Valley National Park during the 2012 Gumball 3000 ‘coast to coast’

rally from New York to LA. Driving across America was so much fun, we hired an open top Ford Mustang for rally which made the trip feel so legit. I’ve always wanted to road trip in America after watching so many films, it exceeded my expectations, such brilliant memories from this trip. Whilst driving through the national park we were all a bit hungover from a night out in Las Vegas and were running low on petrol in the car.

The buzz was amazing, wondering if we would find a petrol station, it was so hot there I was dreading breaking down. I would highly recommend a road trip in America, especially a drive through Death Valley. This photograph went on to be the DVD cover for the Pritchard vs Dainton documentary ‘The Rise and Falls’.

Image2: The NATO summit

I had recently watched a documentary about Don McCullin, a documentary photographer who is such a powerful story teller. It inspired me to go out and shoot some documentary photographs, most of my photography is generally portraiture and wedding photography so when I heard the NATO summit was going to be in Newport I hoped it would be a good opportunity for something different. I had a great day photographing the protest and it has sparked lots of new ideas for some projects outside of my regular photography. This photo was taken at the road block they created outside the Celtic Manor on Chepstow road, the little girl waving whilst the Police officer just stared back blankly said a lot, the fact that he had a number on his head also represented a lot to me. I was in the right place at the right time I guess.

Image3: The journey of life

This photograph was shot during a wedding in Plymouth, the road was part of the journey from the Church to the reception, I knew we had to stop and make the most of it. I stood on my car and put the camera high in the air using a monopod, the wind came at just the right time and blew the vale off to the right side. To me the long road going off in the distance is also a little bit symbolic, it represents the journey of life.

I have always tried to create wedding photographs that are a little different, I think that it’s really important to have something more than just a record of the day, it’s the only time (hopefully) they will do this so I want to try and create something special for them.

Image4: Don’t beat yourself up

This is composite image of a personal trainer I pieced together, the idea was to create something that represented the battle you can create against yourself when being a creative, you are very often your own worst critic and this was to simply say ‘Don’t beat yourself up’ you can be critical about your work but just remember that anything artistic is a by product of an experience. If we can have good experiences then the good stuff will come. I don’t think any true artist will sit back and say their work is amazing but it’s important to appreciate the experiences you’ve had whilst creating things and in my case trying to give my clients a good memorable experience too.

Image 5: GOON TV

This was a promotional shot for Goon TV which is a project I have been involved in recently. It stars Lee Dainton from Dirty Sanchez, Raljex from the infamous youtube voice over series ‘Ross Kemp on gangs and Eastenders’and a bunch of skateboarders from the Newport area. We shot this outside my old studio and actually lit the branches on fire, it was a lot of fun and always brings back some great memories when I look at it. I think the power of photography is amazing, to be able to freeze moments and ideas for ever is incredible. We live in a day and age now where everyone can capture and share their day to day life easily, smart phones have made this possible and I think It’s great. One thing I would always recommend though is to get your photographs printed, the true value of them will be

20 years down the line and who knows what will happen with technology and hard drives. A shoebox full of photographs will last forever.