More photos are being taken now than at any time in history, by a very long way, and with the coming of the digital age, where phones double up as cameras, everyone is a photographer.

The author came into photography many years ago, too many than he is happy to reveal, but his apprenticeship was in black and white and colour darkrooms, so it will come as no surprise that he is a little saddened - not with digital photography itself because he has embraced it wholeheartedly - but with the fact that the actual photograph, that is to say, the end result of taking a photo, has become a very transient and fragile medium, passed over in a matter of seconds on quite often very small screens.

He believes strongly that the final destination for a photograph must be the print, either in a magazine, a book, or mounted and framed and hung on the wall.

Like nearly all photographers and snappers out there, he has thousands of images on his computer hard drive, so he has decided that the time has come to put his money where his mouth is and self publish this series of portfolio photo books. There will be several books in the series, all based on different themes.

To enjoy photographs, you simply take a book off the shelf.
How outlandishly retro is that?

This, the first in a series of 'foto' books, concentrates on black and white images from recent journeys.