I wish I'd known then what I know now, because while it's possible to earn a reasonable income from photography, it's by being a good business person, not a good photographer. I should have taken up driving a London taxi, less hassle.

I've worked as a photography technician in two colleges and two professional labs, both on wet processing and digital, plus I've been a tutor and NVQ assessor. I use an over 10 year-old old Apple G4/400 running OS X (10.3.9).

At present I'm unemployed due to illness and have been for over 8 years. Again with hindsight I would have understood the implications of working in hot humid conditions with pigeon droppings on the floor, particularly while being kept awake night after night by noisy neighbours (my Local Council were, at best, unconcerned about 'Domestic Noise').

After a ridiculous battle with the NHS, I was diagnosed with fungal meningitis (yes, I know only one or two people a year are diagnosed with it in the UK, but that doesn't mean it's impossible for me to be this year's person). Mistakes led to my being treated before confirmation tests were done. Subsequent tests have shown that I'm clear of the fungus, so that's good.

Unfortunately I didn't recover that well. So it was back to battling the NHS again to get further tests. Finally I got an unofficial diagnosis of sleep deprivation (no surprise), but no help at all in treating it. Thankfully there's plenty of info on the Web and very slowly and unsteadily I've broken the circle and improved little by little. There's still a long way to go though and my life still consists of getting along one day at a time. I have no idea if all the problems from the illness will disappear in time or whether they'll linger for the rest of my life. Only time will tell on that.

I'd like to thank all my fair-weather friends who scuttled off into the woodwork as soon as they thought they might be asked to help and particularly those who were nasty, two-faced or foolishly thought they could get away with a con-trick or two. Now I know what you're all really like and so don't expect a Christmas card.

I'd also like to thank those true friends who have stuck by me and helped as best they could.

Because of all this, I haven't done any photography for years and can't see when I'll be able to. Such is Life.

I have exhibited twice at the Barbican Library, London, with 'Last of a Kind' (1995) and 'Come on Club!' (1997), gained my Associateship of the Royal Photographic Society in 1998 in Documentary and my Fellowship in 1999 in Pictorial. I showed both in an exhibition, called 'A to F', at The Camera Club, London during July and August 1999. I also had a print accepted for the RPS 142nd International Print Exhibition in 1988.

Several people have emailed me asking about the stories behind some of my pictures or explanations of 'what they mean'. The documentaries do have a brief introduction, but I believe that if I gave stories or explanations for each picture then they would stop being pictures and become more like illustrations. Perhaps we're used to seeing photographs in newspapers, magazines and books that are always accompanied by text in some form or another, even if it's just a caption. What I would like you to do when viewing my pictures is to look at what feelings and thoughts they trigger, what memories or stories that come to mind. Otherwise you might as well be looking at a seed catalogue. Please feel free to email me and tell me your thoughts and feelings. Perhaps we'll both discover a little more about ourselves.

Barry Leighton FRPS - May 2010