JEREMY FLINT

“Have camera, will travel” definitely applies to Jeremy Flint. The award-winning travel photographer tells Keith Wilson about his recent trips to Scotland and Mexico, his love of flying and why he will soon be switching to Canon’s mirrorless system…

MANY photographers trace the beginning of their passion to the moment they received their first camera – usually a birthday present – followed by some priceless tuition from a parent or other family member who was bitten by the photography bug long before. But it’s not just about that first camera; for travel photographers such as Jeremy Flint, family holidays are a major factor in determining their future path: “I guess that passion for travel developed when my parents used to take my twin brother and I to the south of France on a motoring holiday every summer when we were teenagers.” Jeremy says he fell in love with those annual road trips and became fascinated with the different cultures and landscapes that a life of travel could offer. By the time he went to university, he had “a burning desire to see the world”, but on graduating he became more acquainted with the calculator than the camera as he began a 20-year career in accountancy.

Photography may well have remained little more than holiday-driven hobby if it hadn’t been for an unexpected diagnosis that forced Jeremy to re-evaluate his priorities. “I think my main appetite for photography was fuelled by a life-threatening illness about 17 years ago – non-Hodgkin lymphoma,” he says. “I basically picked up a camera in response to the gruelling treatment. It sounds very clichéd but I liked being outdoors, seeing amazingly beautiful landscapes, so that’s how my photography started: capturing landscapes, beautiful scenery.” Clichéd or not, Jeremy Flint likes what he sees ahead and he’s not looking back…