Alan Burles
I was an advertising art director but I have now turned to photography and since my early twenties I have carried a camera everywhere I go.
Being in advertising had an extraordinary influence on me because I was fortunate enough to work at Saatchi & Saatchi in London
which created a vibrant and extraordinary environment in which so many people could flourish.
It also taught me the power of simplicity and the power of the idea – plus the importance of striving for a point of difference to the trends of the times. My philosophy is to live my life and let photographs come to me, in other words to live in openness.
My photographs were reviewed in a magazine in China recently and I got the Mandarin text translated.
The reviewer said: ‘Sometimes it needs you to just enjoy his work, sometimes it requires your eyes to listen to the jokes it’s telling you.’
I thought that was delightful and now call the way I photograph Listening With My Eyes.
