All
images on this website were taken by Philip J. Bigg, a photographer
now based in west London who started taking photographs of Essex
scenes with his old man's box brownie in the early seventies. It
wasn't until regularly attending music concerts in the late seventies
documenting performances by a diversity of artistes such as David
Bowie, Kraftwerk, Elvis Costello, Joe Jackson, the Buzzcocks, the
Pretenders and Siouxsie & the Banshees that he began to show
any photographic promise. Philip has been an avid music lover since
the first album he purchased - Bowie's Aladdin Sane had perverted
the family's mono record player in their suburban living room earlier
in the decade.
On leaving school Philip worked as a clerk for a large organisation
in the big smoke for a few years whilst considering what career
path to take. Jacking in the job, packing what he could into his
morris minor he headed north in the mid-eighties to study photography,
creative writing and performance at Manchester Metropolitan University.
During the three years he escaped overseas to study under the tutelage
of renowned professors in the USA and Germany and also to inter-rail
around Europe. In his final year he toured northern venues with
indie band the Desert Wolves adding occasional backing vocals and
providing a visual backdrop with the slide collection he'd amassed
on his overseas travels.
Ailing from the wet north, his morris minor limped south containing
a scroll for a B.A. (Hons) in Creative Arts that Philip managed
to salvage even though Manchester’s music scene had tried
it's damnedest to distract him. Working the summer at Mirror Group
Newspapers as a Documentation Clerk he saved enough to jet off to
South-East Asia with his partner for a post University gap year
touring India, Nepal, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore.
Returning to live with his partner in a small village in rural Essex
he signed on to the Government's Enterprise Allowance Scheme and
set up a studio in Chelmsford offering a Cibachrome photographic
printing service to local businesses. At this time he began exhibiting
his travel images nationwide.
After a brief stint as a photographer at Essex Police at the beginning
of the nineties printing up horrific scenes of crime, Philip left
his white Essex socks, his partner and a clapped out morris minor
behind and moved across London to take up a cushy number taking
publicity photographs at Thames Valley University in Ealing. Throughout
the nineties he became interested in fashion photography specialising
in black & white infrared images and continued his desire for
travelling to exotic climes taking long sojourns to China, Indonesia,
Cuba, Miami and eastern Europe. He has consistently staged exhibitions
of his work and had images exhibited at the Royal Photographic Society,
Bath, the Royal Festival Hall and the Association of Photographers
Gallery in London. His work has won prestigious Kodak and Kentmere
Industry awards, has been published in Travel magazines, Annual
Reports, Educational prospectuses, Clothing catalogues, Model portfolios
and used to publicise films and theatrical and musical performances.
Since obtaining an M.A. in Cultural Studies at the tail end of the
nineties Philip left TVU to freelance and work on his writing. Having
written a couple of film scripts and novels he is still awaiting
that illusive calling from Hollywood.
This
website assembles a selection of images taken from Bigg World Photography's
extensive library. All images are for sale and available for publication.
If you don't see the exact image you require, please enquire. Philip
will also consider photographic commissions of any nature especially
if it involves getting away from the British winter.
