Welcome
Like so many others, my early photography was inspired by my late father's bulging suitcase of holiday snaps - and a collection of broken folding cameras with names like 'Penguin'.
My first camera was a plastic one from Woolworths - not a million miles away from the lo-fi eastern imports that are so trendy today.
In the 1960's I worked in a Fulham backstreet photography-studio-come-sewing-machine-retailers and learned how not to do things.
Many years later I was fortunate to work for Private Eye Magazine and it was then that I bought my first SLR.
After a short period as a pro photographer in the late seventies I took few photographs until 1997, when a visit to Romania with a Welsh charity ( and a borrowed camera ) recharged my batteries. In 1998-2000 I studied multimedia at South Thames College.
I have finally embraced the digital age with Nikon and Samsung DSLR's but get nostalgic every time I scan an old negative. I still have 35mm and 120 film cameras. They should get out more.
I hope you enjoy the small selection from my ongoing Shoreditch Chronicles project - and also a glimpse of life at Private Eye Magazine, most of it shot in the 70s.
ALL IMAGES © ERIC HANDS AND MUST NOT BE REPRODUCED IN ANY MEDIA WITHOUT CONSENT.