Clare Holman

I started photography very late, certainly post 50 and one of the things that brought me to photography and this creativity was that my husband had died, and I found myself having a lot of time with myself.

So, I picked up the camera and it became a fantastic companion. It also linked onto the fact that I had been directing, or starting to direct, very late again in television and film and obviously the visual things that I learned through photography were feeding back into my directing on film and television.

Photography became really important to me. Once I found out that I could take photographs and liked what I saw I decided to do some courses and initially I went to somewhere called Cortijo Romero, which was a retreat in Spain in Andalusia where they ran courses.

That was a fantastic start to developing the photography further and I deliberately went on a mindfulness photography course. It was just wonderful because it wasn’t about competition and it wasn’t about who could be the best photographer. It was just about ‘how do you find your voice through the visual medium’? And then also through friends that I met there and developing with them and going on photographic trips together.

It’s brought to my life a just a great opportunities for travel, for seeing the world differently. I find now even if I go for a walk without my camera, I can see much more clearly that what surrounds me is sortable, beauty and joy into my life. It means that you can travel anywhere and not feel alone. And it’s endlessly fascinating, you always are learning. It’s it’s wonderful.

I mean, at this age, it’s always great to learn something new, to be a novice, I think, and certainly I feel still like I’m a novice, but I’m really enjoying the progress.

I think tips for others is just see as much photography as you can. Go to exhibitions. Go on courses, speak to other people. Join groups. I met a group on Meet Up. There are loads of photography groups on Meet Up and that’s quite good because you can just literally join a group of people who are as nerdy as you are and exchange information. Then just go you around wherever you are in the district you are in. I’m in London. It was great just to meet up with people and all go together to take photographs and have the same interest. It’s wonderful. I can highly recommend it.

Learning something new at this age is the best thing ever, and it’s a way of seeing the world which is new and different, especially at a time when things are not so joyous out in the world you can find beauty in the very smallest thing.