Julian Flynn

Flynn was born in Birmingham, England, in 1964. He was brought up in England and in the Languedoc region of France, where many of his family come from.

Of his many early encounters with the arts one of the most significant was with Goya's 'Caprichos' - which were to have a major influence on his self-portrait photography.

After university Flynn spent several years working as a primary teacher during which he maintained his involvement in music (playing classical & jazz guitar), and developed a passion for writing and reading poetry, especially the work of modern poets such as Geoffrey Hill, Robert Lowell & T.S. Eliot.

On returning from an extended period of travel Flynn visited an exhibition of the work of Mary Ellen Mark, and saw the book 'Immediate Family' by Sally Mann. As a result Flynn suddenly became convinced of the status of photography as an important art form and started to devote much of his attention to understanding and appreciating photographs, studying the work of photographers such as Josef Sudek, Atget & Bill Brandt.

After several months he bought himself a camera.

A year later he abandoned his career as a primary teacher to concentrate fully on photography.

At about this time he met the photograp...