ABOUT ASHLEY

 

To the oft-heard question ‘Where are you from?’ my answer used to be a simple ‘Derbyshire.’ However, since the turn of the millennium, I have been preening like a proud peacock in declaring that I reside in the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site (DVMWHS). In fact, I claim to live in its beating heart here in Milford because whenever I gaze out of my study window, I take in this verdant valley, with a river running through it - the Derwent - the very river whose power was harnessed to drive the mills of the Industrial Revolution.  
If truth be told, coming to the Derwent Valley was a reluctant career move. I was raised in neighbouring Nottinghamshire, and Derbyshire only figured in my life when, as a callow youth, my mum and dad insisted on brightening our Sundays by driving to Dovedale and other places in the Peak to view ‘boring scenery’ (my words, not theirs). I wasn’t a photographer then.
In 1977, when offered a job at BBC Radio Derby, I thought of a saying I picked up on the City Ground terraces: ‘Derby? Isn’t that where Nottingham broke wind?’ Yes, the City Ground… I was even a Nottingham Forest fan, so I desperately need to point out that a near-decade as ground announcer at the Baseball Ground made me see sense, and I’m all better now.
I worked at Radio Derby until 2000 when my post as Arts & Entertainments Producer was axed, 18 months after winning Silver in the Sony Awards, the radio equivalent of a BAFTA nomination. That tells you everything about BBC management. I subsequently worked on Saga Radio (ok, I'm an old git now but not then). However, in 2002, after 20 years as an amateur photographer, the Well Hung Gallery (yes, really) in my home town Belper kindly exhibited some of my pictorial photo art. I sold 12 pictures in 12 weeks. After I picked my jaw up from the floor, I decided to lanch a website selling photo art to the home, hotel and workplace.  It was a struggle at first but, realising I needed to diversify, I embraced a wider spectrum of photography. 
2004 was a turning point.  A year before, I... er, commissioned myself to take photos in Tuscany.  My Tuscany images were instrumental in my securing a greetings card deal.  I was also taken on by Derbyshire Life magazine as a chief writer/photographer.  Derbyshire Life became my shop window, and further work came my way.  For instance, in 2008, I became the official photographer of the Derby Cathedral Quarter which led, in 2010, to photographing the Queen on a Royal visit to Derby, followed soon after by commissions to photograph Princess Anne, Prince Charles and Prince Edward.  If only William and Kate had asked me to shoot their wedding, I would have almost have completed the set.   
By 2008, I had taken on weddings, events, portraits and portfolios, published my first Belper and Duffield calendars and won a contract with both Trevillion and Arcangel image libraries who sell book covers in the global publishing market.  I still can't believe that my images have appeared on the covers of novels by Joanna Trollope and Jodi Picault.  I have also published my own book Derbyshire Ramblings - Walking in Circles down the Derwent Valley, where I have written about and photographed 19 circular walks devised by Wallk Recorder Mike Warner.  You can buy it here
I also took on commissions from Derbyshire County Council (photographing parks, walks, cycle paths etc) and Derbyshire Dales (local industry) T C Harrison Ford (all seven of their Midlands' sites) the Arkwright Society (based at Cromford Mills), Mercia Marina and Milford Care Homes and taken on work for various charities, solicitors, builders, butchers, hotels, pubs, restaurants, children's nurseries and a major industrial estate. 
 
Since 2018, I have been running an annual May workshop in Tuscany with landscape photographer Wayne Brittle.  Read all about Under Tuscan Skies here. In 2023 I will also embark on my first autumn workshop in Tuscany.
 
And yes, I still produce photo art for the home, hotel and workplace.  You can buy prints here on this website and see my work on the walls of local restaurant Elaichi in Belper. Much of my work on sale on my website is of images taken in the Derwent Valley and Tuscany. Just click on Galleries and have a look. 
 
In this year 2023, I decided to streamline my commercial work. I should have retired by now but rather than abandon photography - it is, after all, my passion, I felt it was time to concentrate on what I loved most, such as my Tuscany workshops. I have also become known as the photographer of the Derwent Valley, exemplified by the publication in September of this year of the first ever photo book of the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site. Read all about this here.
 
I have also seen an increasing demand for my talks. As well as lectures promoting my Tuscany workshops, I reflect on my career in a talk entitled From Pursuit to Passion to Profession, and am the only photographer in the PAGB (the Photographic Alliance of Great Britain) to present talks (in two parts) to camera clubs on the history of photography. I also give regular presentations about Derbyshire Life to WIs, Probus groups, U3As and so on, and now offer talks to on garden and flower photography. See my Talks page for more details.  
 

Outside of photography, I help run the website for my village community of Milford & Makeney and visitor attraction Heage Windmill (where I have just resigned as a Trustee after 13 years).  Also, for the last 17 years I have introduced the weekly Silver Screen film shows at my local town cinema, the Belper Ritz.  I am also a voiceover artist for the Voice Realm. Private voiceover commissions welcome...

As well as a love of radio and cinema, I am passionate about contemporary music (well, largely music that was contemporary in the years 1965 to 1975, the greatest decade for popular music), the Wales rugby team, Derby County, and playing racquetball. I also love a pint and a glass of wine. My favourite quote is: 'Wine is the answer.  Now, what was the question? 

And, finally, my favourite photography quotations?  I have three...

'Photography is an art of observation.  It's about finding something interesting in an ordinary place. I have found that it has little to do with the things you see, and everything to do with the way you see them' - Elliot Erwitt   

'A great photograph is a distillation, a reduction of the chaos of our wider experience to a visually satisfying essence where what is excluded is as important as what is included'  -  David Ward

'The negative (today, it's the RAW digital image) is the score; the print is the performance' - Ansel Adams