This is Chris Hands

Chris Hands has enjoyed a long love affair with photography. He started snapping on an old Olympus Pen half-frame compact aged just seven. Soon after, his father introduced him to the mysterious chemistries of the darkroom and beauty of the SLR.

In his early twenties, Chris graduated from West Herts College with a BTEC in photography and video, a new passion for the work of Diane Arbus, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and Robert Mapplethorpe, and an exhibition at the Graphics Plus gallery in St Albans. 

Chris then migrated south to Brighton, working by day as a studio portrait photographer and, by night, using his flatmate’s Mac to flirt with the new possibilities that Adobe Photoshop opened up. A move to rural Dorset with the new love of his life, Samantha, then led to marriage, two young kids and family becoming the focus of his lens. 

Chris now lives in North Oxford where he continues to pursue his first love. He has set up a small lighting studio in his Summertown garden room and become the unofficial photographer for Man Choir, with whom he sings bass. His wife is, mostly, very understanding.