I am lucky enough to have Mike Shaw as one of my dearest friends.
We all know what a wonderful artist he is. He is also a wonderful Human Being. I'm not bothering you with an essay about his work, though many could be written. We cannot deny the originality of his work has created a unique style in photography, thus the assumption he is in fact changing photography.
He has influenced me in my journey through photography and he has been someone I often turn to for personal comfort quite often (no sex involved). He is always ready to share his knowledge and his wise words always come in the right direction. If he isn't on your watchlist, you don't know what you're missing.
Meet Mike Shaw, the coolest old lady in dA. dAmn, show him some love.


1 – Tell us a bit about your background.
Not a lot to tell, I was brought up in council care in the Uk after I lost my mother and my father (who divorced my mother some years earlier) did not want us, I had two sisters and a brother but the family was ripped apart. I learnt to look after my self but I don’t regret any part of my upbringing, it is what made me who I am. I am now married with a wife that I love very much that supports to madness that comes with the camera and I have two children with her ( I have another son from a failed marriage prior) I work for a living in the Chemical industry in the North west of the UK, it’s a pretty grim job. I think its why I spend so much time looking at the world through a viewfinder. I’m hoping to find something better. I have an artistic streak but struggled to find an outlet for it. I have lived most of my life on the edge, just about getting away with it but I have enjoyed the roller coaster ride it gave me.



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2 – Tough life usually implies stronger defences. Yet you have a warm character. Were you always like this? How were you as a teenager?
Not always, I put up many walls to defend myself, if no one could get in, no one could hurt me, it took my wife to bring those walls down but they do still come back now and then. I have a certain madness that drives me and its hard for others to understand that madness, I get frustrated that I cant covey what I need to and thus the walls come up and the world goes away. As a teenager I have to admit I was a little bastard, completely uncontrollable, I ran away a lot of time, sometimes for months on end as a 13 to 14 year old, I fought the establishment but eventually became part of it. I was lucky in that I could express myself better as kid than most, I was brought up in the punk era and I went for it hook line and sinker. I find it hard to chastise my kids knowing I too had done what they are now.



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3 – How do you deal with the trauma of your brother’s death?
To be honest, I didn’t, I was in foster care at the time and when the news was given to me I broke down but I was beaten for crying, I walked out the following day never to return. I was never allowed to grieve for him, I miss him now and wonder if life would be different if he was still around, I was only 14 at the time, he was only 16. I have carried around a lot of guilt that maybe I just didn’t do enough to save him. It was cruel world at the time, the walls came up, this wall has never come down.



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4 – How is Mike Shaw, the father, seen through his children’s eyes?
Stern, possibly too stern to be honest, I expect things to be done, I expect that they show respect to their mother and others in the family. I love my children but I also know that nothing in life is easy, I refuse to protect them from that aspect of growing up, I do though expect them to be children for as long as they can. They know that should they ever need me I will be the first to help, I am also very protective of others that may wish them harm, my paternal instincts have always been this way. I am a father first a friend second.



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5 – Will your wife Jude consider leaving you and marry me instead?
She says if your not grumpy and can cook then yes


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6 – How did motorcycles enter your life? What do you ride and what’s your dream bike?
I had a motorbike as a kid, I loved it, a Kawasaki 250cc K4, stupid fast for a kid of my age and I spent as much time working on it as I did riding it, I then got into cars and the bikes went on a back burner, I then went through a mid life crisis when I hit 40, I nagged the wife for a bike for two year before I wore her down and she relented, a week later I booked my test I have a love of speed, I currently have a Yamaha YZF 1000cc full power (158bhp) I have had the needle bouncing around the 160 to 170 mph and I loved it but I will kill myself so I am looking for a cruiser/chopper to slow me down. I want a big mother fucker one I would love a Rocket 2300cc of nuts


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7 – We have all handled cameras in our lives. Do you recall the moment when you thought “I need a better one”? Was that the click to your venture?
I remember the day and the image, I went out and bought a Fuji Film S5600 as I wanted to see if I could take images that would mean something to others, I went down to the Mersey between our local bridges and took an image of an abandoned bike in black and white. It did not set the world alight but I knew it was something I wanted to do, that was toward the end of 2006, a year later I get a better camera and I have started to get more kit too, its become a madness and a passion for me, it’s the outlet I always wanted. I took some images at night on a long exposure, the noise with the Fuji was terrible, that told me I need ed a new camera and I got the Canon 400D, now I need another, I want the 40D but my dream camera would be the 1D


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8 – So many people, especially teenagers, try to be what they are not, becoming a null that obliterates themselves. They absorb their idols’ personality in such a way that they forget they could have their own. That is very obvious with music and cinema due to the imitation of hair style, clothes and way of living. It is also noticeable in photography. Your past. The fighter, the man who suffered, the survivor, that all shows through your photography in a subversive but very honest way, through tones, subject and mood.
8.1 -Do you have conscience of what your work conveys?
I know what I want it to convey, I struggle to get it to do that at times and that’s when frustration and madness sets in, sometimes though it works and I feel elated when I get it right. I hope some of my works makes others think, if it has no message its hard to consider it art, with photography the difference between art and a snapshot is what it says to others.


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8.2 –How do you deal with unreferenced imitators?
I’m flattered that others would want to copy what I do, we all do it though, I recall looking at the works of john Deakin and thinking I want to do that. If it gets someone out and about with a camera I’m good with that. I get a lot of notes on dA asking me how I do what I do, I try not to stay with set ways of doing anything, I treaty every image differently so its hard to explain, some might only take one or two steps, others though may take 20 or 30 through 4 or 5 programs, this makes it hard to show others.


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9 – Do you realize you’re an artist who is changing photography?
This is not about modesty, it’s about style, mood and quality. I’ve been one of your most enthusiastic admirers. What amazes me in your work is that I can’t find a similar style anywhere, though the followers are rising on dA . Do you feel that responsibility already?
I’m my own worse critic and I just don’t see that, I don’t think I’m changing photography, I was lucky that I hit the scene just as HDR came about and I embraced it and tried to refine it as much as I could, I still have issues getting it recognised as serious photography by others but over time it will happen. HDR allowed me to do so much more, others use it simply for the wow factor and that’s when it starts to become the mundane, I hope I use it for the difference it can make to an already very crowded medium. I was lucky as I was one of the first to exploit this that’s all.



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10 – Will your wife Jude consider leaving you and marry me instead?
Yes, I have packed her bags and she will be over as soon as Ana arrives here





11 – Your photography style is unique, both landscape and urbanity. The way you edit your photography conceptualizes it. What’s your ambience when you’re in your digital darkroom?
I cut myself off, my wife says I’m simply not here, I hear nothing and see nothing but the image in front of me, I used to listen to music but found singing “Your sex is on fire” at the top of my voice a bit of a distraction. I know when I have taken the image what I want to do with it, I can spend hours on a single image, deleting and starting again until its right, this the madness I talk about. I do my best work when I’m alone in the house, I have my PC in the conservatory, I get a lot of natural light and I can sit and watch the birds in the garden when I need a break.


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12 – When you take a photo, do you know immediately what it will look like when it’s ready?
I know what I want it to look like, sometimes realising this is harder as I still lack the skill working with the camera itself but over time I’m getting better.


13 – Dream gear?
Canon 1D and every lens they make

14 – I’m sure many agree that you’ll be one of photography’s references. Have you been doing what’s needed to promote your work even farther? Is it a struggle?
It's been a real struggle, I have been trying to get some local exhibitions arranged and hopefully I should see something in the near future, I was lucky in that I have been published but I do need more exposure but I do find it hard. Thank you for the kind words too.


16 – Had you been born in another country, your photography…
I was born in another country, I was born in West Germany as my father was in the army I would love to have been Italian, all that architecture, what a place to own a camera.


15 – You were a supermod on one of the biggest sites of the History of the internet. Based on that experience, how do you look at dA? What would you change?
dA is huge, sometimes I feel its too big, getting work out there can be hard as it can get swamped, I’m lucky in that over time I have been known on dA but I feel for the newer members, I try and promote what I can and hope it makes a difference. I would have more staff on dA, as mad as it sounds it needs it, certainly more Gallery mods just to cope with the shear numbers of images being uploaded. I would also like to see dA split, another mad reason, there should be a social section and another simply for art, too much confusion as it stands now.

16 – What makes you laugh?
Slapstick, I was brought up on Laurel and Hardy and I loved them, still do, pure slapstick can have me in stitches.

17 – What makes you stronger?
My family and friends, the knock backs, I just dust myself and run back in.

18 – What upsets you?
War and the futility of it, killing on a political whim, something I have never understood, a man will kill another simply because he is ordered too, stupidity.






19 – Dream journey?
Japan, it fascinates me, the whole culture and history, they have a longer history than ourselves and the mix of the old and the new would be mind boggling to me. I would love to hit most of Asia.

20 – Your message in a bottle would be?
Leave me here, its quiet.


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21 – How many blocking slots out of 100 are available in your dA list?
100 still I have been blocked by a member as I had a go at him after a close member left us because of his religious bigoted views, the mad thing is even though he has blocked me he still favs my work



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22 – You’re a beauty pageant competitor (hardly). What’s your prewritten sentence?
Who the f**k got me drugged and into this bikini?

23 - You’re facing a mob of assholes. Shout:
Nothing, I would just turn around, drop my trousers and show them my ass
Others will always not like what I do, I like what I do, as I’m my own worse critic then I have only myself to please.






24 – You’re facing new comers in photography. Speak:
Don’t think outside of the box, get out of it altogether, do not limit yourself and end up in one genre, there is so much out there for you to do, try it all, some you will like, others you will not but at least try it. The camera is such a powerful weapon, use it wisely and prepare for the madness that will come, don’t be afraid of it, embrace it, at times it will be your closest ally and friend.


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25 – Thank you so much for your time, Mike. I truly hope you can live a long and beautiful life. Keep amazing us. Keep shining.
Thank you for the kind words my Friend 