Biography
Not content with an O level in Art, Andy Greaves requested and was duly
bought an Olympus OM-10 for his eighteenth birthday back in 1980. His
first considered success, a Portuguese fishermen wearing a Union Jack
t-shirt taken whilst on holiday in the Algarve still hangs on his office
wall. Photography became "an itch that continually needed scratching"
and 29 years later it remains as strong as ever.
Brought up during the 'Golden Age of Children's Television' and allowed
to stay up to watch classic comedies; Dad's Army, Steptoe and Son, Til
Death us Do Part etc, visual literacy and humour has always been important
to Andy. Photography is Andy's way of making sense of this world and
tracking his journey through it. He's equally comfortable in the urban
or rural environment. Englishness is a central theme to much of his
work these days.
Recently graduating with an MA in Photography from Leicester De Montfort
Andy continues to develop his practice.
Statement
"The distance from home will determine the degree of answer to
the question from a stranger "where are you from?". I'm from
Chesterfield, Derbyshire, England. A somewhat ambivalent attitude to
this kind classification I am nevertheless drawn to consider the nature
of my Derbyshire identity and how it differs from other counties particularly
our larger, less modest neighbour Yorkshire and the flatter Lincolnshire
that we Derbyshire folk tend to travel through on our way to the sea.
Does the fact that we are land locked have any bearing on our identity?
Born in another time I may have suffered from 'Derbyshire Neck' or 'Goitre'
a disease caused by deficiency of iodine which would have been alleviated
by a diet containing fish. Derbyshire is a beautiful County but I miss
the sea."