I see documentary photography as snapshot photography with a purpose, though oddly most event photography presents itself with a plethora of technical problems, where unwilling or moving subjects are merely the start. But I have never been good with snapshots, so most of what I release my shutter upon ends up being a little bit more.

With the Ballads Of The Book project I got to enjoy the challenge of having very few minutes, maybe as few as five, to take something that vaguely resembled a good portrait, in some cases of people of great notoriety. Ian Rankin was interviewed and shot in the pathology museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, in Edinburgh. Since I knew we would not be able to remove anything from the displays, I took some of my own Victorian surgical implements, and handed them to him as props, which prompted an amusing reaction on his behalf, as he told me that I have 'an unhealthy obsession with medical equipment'.