Arranging objects within a rectangle is an old passion: it began when I was six. I had a small suitcase I used to pack with all my favourite things, then unpack and re-order as new favourites emerged.

The suitcase was upgraded to a camera at 13 when my father gave me his old Olympus. The camera came everywhere with me during my teens, but I also loved writing and at 17 began to be published in The Independent and Evening Standard.

At 18 I worked at the photographic agency Magnum in Paris, and for three
months was immersed in great composition and surrounded by my heroes.

After graduating in French and Philosophy from Edinburgh University in 2000, I entered the world of photography, focusing first on international humanitarian issues then increasingly on the lives of young people in the UK.

In 2009 I had a column in the Guardian Magazine, interviewing and photographing a different child each week about the way they see the world.

I have had images and words published in publications including The Sunday Times Magazine, The Guardian Magazine, The Observer Magazine, The Saturday Telegraph Magazine, Foto8, Marie Claire, The Financial Times Magazine, The Economist, The Independent and internationally. I photograph for aid agencies including Save the Children, UNICEF and Oxfam alongside commercial assignments for advertising and design agencies, often in reportage style and with a focus on people.

I first loved photography because it made me look harder and allowed me to order the world around me. But it is people that fascinate me most, and my photography is motivated by a faith in its capacity to move: to reduce the distance between the subject and viewer, between people or worlds apparently unrelated.