My images are often concerned with loss and memory; impossible returns that hopefully still conclude as a positive. I consider myself more as story-teller & impartial recorder than reporter.

If I had to establish a name or category for my latest work, Marking Time, it is that I am aiming to create a Fine Art Social Document. I have endeavoured to draw on photographic theory and process, and combine this with a natural, human-interest editorial approach.

The work is therefore really about memory and identity, rather than the military per se. Memory and Identity are closely linked by events; ordinary & extraordinary events that happen to a person - often no more expected or explained than by the simple process of chance. Within the military, this process of random occurrence appears enhanced – often with life changing consequences. One man serves for 10 years fighting the Cold War and retires unscathed; another loses a limb in Afghanistan a week on arrival in theatre. The memory of such events experienced first hand, and then latterly fed back into the public domain as private testimony, continue this process of reinforcement & reinvention of identity, both on a private & public level.

On a photographic level, this is fertile ground. The author, John Berger in Uses of Photography makes reference to the important approach that a photographer must take when considering memory and the image:

'The aim must be to construct a context for a photograph, to construct it with words, to construct it with other photographs, to construct it by its place in an ongoing text of photographs and images.

Memory is not unilinear at all. Memory works radially, that is to say with an enormous number of associations all leading to the same event. If we want to put a photograph back into the context of experience, social experience, social memory, we have to respect the laws of memory.'

I am greatly struck by these words. The respect for the laws of memory; coupled with the acknowledgement that memory is a continuous cycle radially feeding upon itself. It is not a line running left to right. Thereby project is made up of a portrait of the now and a memory (and photograph) of the then. However the memory and the subject in the portrait are still fluid; they are of course intrinsically linked, but neither element singularly, or as a combination, is in themselves a conclusion. I feel that this is a key differential and places the work as photographic, rather than simply personal memories retold.

My aim is specifically not to create an archive (the usual approach to past histories). It is a fine art social document or recording, but importantly the narrative is continuous; it is never ending. I believe that it is this linking of a soldier of the First World War, over the last 90 years through to the men and women serving now, this again makes the project distinctive (and hopefully compelling).

Michael has spent his working life in the visual arts and design industry. He has an MA in Photography from the University of Brighton and also owns and runs the design agency Wild Dog Design (www.wilddogdesign.co.uk).

He is married and lives with his family in Sussex.