I started taking photographs of light seriously in the weeks leading up to the UK COVID lockdown of March 2020. These days I call these images OVIDS: iPhone photographs capturing the play of natural light on transparent materials covering a window; the shadowy, abstract shapes that form momentarily on an ordinary linen blind or a curtain, very often in my own home. To date I’ve made about 30,000. The images are called OVIDS because they were born out of the pandemic and are inspired by Ovid, the Roman poet of change and metamorphosis. My pictures of light turn into journeys of the imagination.

Catching and manipulating the fleeting forms and shadows of sun and moonlight through the day quickly became a lockdown obsession. I posted some on Instagram and WhatsApp, flights of freedom and creativity. I played with titles for them, thought about the stories and myths these forms suggested; thought about allusions they seemed to make to other kinds of art and artists, discovered lush new colours experimenting with phone apps and software, cut them up, montaged them, framed them. People saw the images and captions on social media and asked to buy prints. First friends and then strangers; here, and later in Europe and America.

Was it lockdown or making these images on my phone which made me look at familiar things in new ways: closely and from a distance; as a realist and as a cubist? As complete images or as part of some larger collage? Waking up and last thing at night, and often during coffee breaks as well? I honestly don’t know the answer, my process and its evolution came naturally. I only know that making these images gave me a new and intense focus on seeing the world around me.