Focus: Andrew Pounder

Who are you and where are you from?
Andrew Pounder, now Newcastle-based, but originally from Darlington.

What is it you do?
Fine art and documentary/street photography, with some occasional low-key event photography, although I do still keep my IT security consultancy open in the background, for small-scale technology projects that help towards paying the bills.

How long have you been doing it?
I’ve been taking photographs for many years, purely as a hobby, but I bought a reconditioned full-frame professional DSLR camera five years ago and took things more seriously from there.  In the last couple of years, I’ve made progress in taking my photography to a more professional level by investing in a dedicated fine art photography website, subscriptions to online gallery and flipbook content creation platforms, and an online shop to sell my images as drop-ship wall art.

What inspires you?
Visiting new places and seeing a viewpoint that might otherwise be overlooked, then capturing the shot. I enjoy browsing others’ images on Instagram and 500px websites too.

Tell us about your work
Frankly, it has been a struggle making the switch from a hobbyist mindset to developing more commercial instincts, and as a departure from my technology career background. However, I recently had my first photography book published, a monochrome A4 hardback art/street photography book about Newcastle Upon Tyne, called Two Tone Toon: https://art-photography.uk/photobook

And I created a companion (free) online exhibition gallery: https://art-photography.uk/gallery-1

I have continued along the book-publishing route and gone on to self-publish my second photography book, called Shades Of The Cotswolds, available online via Google Books. https://art-photography.uk/ebook

My latest photography project is a distillation of my photography from the last decade, curated into my third book, Fine Art Photography – Signature Collection, which is 250 pages of 318 of my images. This book is now complete (formatted as A4 landscape pdf) and ready for publishing. The book cover photograph is Jesmond Dene Waterfall, Newcastle Upon Tyne.

I have a companion (free) online exhibition gallery of examples of the book’s content, where there are links to my online store, for patrons to purchase images as open-edition Wall Art: https://art-photography.uk/gallery-2

What have you got coming up in the future?
I am focused on seeking a publishing partner or patron sponsorship to help realise a printed coffee table book version of my fine art photography project, as well as interest from art galleries, to raise my photography’s visibility and as another platform for selling my limited edition signed prints. https://art-photography.uk/limitededition

Depending on how much time is devoted to promoting current project, I’ll be turning my attention to creating two new photography books; one showing Dundee and Tayside scenes, and the other a monochrome street photography book about my home town of Darlington.

In general, I would like to chat with local enterprises and regional tourism/development agencies regarding opportunities to use my regional images to help promote Northeast England as a great place to visit and live. If there are regional collaborative projects where my keen photographic eye can be used, please feel free to contact me directly.

Where can people find out more about you?

My photography website, where I have my online Wall Art Store, links to my published books, and contact form for limited edition signed prints and commission enquiries: https://art-photography.uk

I actively post many Northeast England-related images to Instagram: https://instagram.com/artphotome

And less frequent posts to Facebook: https://facebook.com/artphotome

Email: [email protected]