My name is David Osborne and I have recently moved to Appledore from the cosy confines of the New Forest. A random decision several years ago to enrol at a local college to do an Adult Education course in photography was the catalyst I needed to propel myself into the world of the rich and famous and to get a divorce. The second ambition proving to be the only one I ever realised. Having always been interested in ‘arty’ things but totally unable to draw or paint, I had decided that photography was the way forward. I bought an old second-hand Canon A1 and started snapping away but soon realised that taking pictures of people was boring but if you looked around you there was a world full of shapes, patterns, absurdities, reflections, abstractions. I also realised that blundering around in darkrooms faced with an infinite permutation of exposures, grades of paper, filters etc. was not the way for me. I was more interested in the thing I had photographed rather than the process of creating an image of it. So I would let Boots do all the boring stuff. The majority of my photographic images are of abstract forms or things seen in a slightly different way and, as such, I feel that tampering with them in any way, electronically or digitally retouching etc., would be wrong. Abstraction can either be found in the ‘real’ world or can be created using Photoshop or something similar. I am not saying that one is better than the other but simply stating my preference for the former. Anyway, I had a few of my images framed or put onto canvas and had a couple of small exhibitions to launch my new career, but obviously the trickle of people who turned up did not quite share my enthusiasm! But the photos themselves have become a rich (and cheap) source of birthday and Christmas presents for friends and family. On moving to the area and hoping to relaunch my failing career, I took a stall on Barnstaple Pannier Market for five consecutive Mondays before Christmas and did not manage to sell anything even though they were marked at ludicrously rock-bottom prices.
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