About Me and This Website

The reason I have set up this website is quite simple: to help people become better photographers. I aim to do this through photography tips and articles and of course, lots of great photographs. I want to plant seeds in the minds of all those photography lovers out there who want to create better pictures, ideas that will stay embedded in the mind, germinate and grow with time to build a whole body of knowledge. This site is not about lists it is about learning and understanding.

The other motive is that running this website makes me, as an independent photographer, grow creatively too. It makes me think about my own work and how others will perceive it, self critique if you like. It also makes me keep going out to make new work - in other words it stops me from getting trapped behind my computer!

What you won't find are tips and articles about selling your work or marketing your photography business, I will leave that task to other web site owners. What concerns me most is creativity - making great shots that truly reflect what you saw and, more importantly, how you felt, how to take photos you can look at in 10 years time and still be able to say, oh that's a good shot, I like that.

So who am I? My name is Anne Darling and I am a Scots-born photographer, brought up in London, and now living in France. I have worked in photography and the arts for over 20 years and have an MA in Photojournalism, Travel & Social Documentary Photography from the University of Bolton in England.

I have exhibited extensively from Paris and London to Beirut and China including the International Photojournalism Festival of Perpignan and the China Pingyao International Photography Festival. I have many years teaching experience through workshops, courses and one-to-one tuition in the UK. If you would like to read my CV click here.

I have two books available: China's Female Imams, full-colour with over 100 photographs taken from my travels through China in 2007; and Garden of Love, a series of macro flower photographs with poems by John Hudson.

Since 2007 I have been living and working in the south of France developing this internet site and at the same time renovating an old station-master's house which used to belong to the French railway company.

Running my photography website business through SBI (Site Build It) allows me the freedom to pursue a lifestyle I love.
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