Hi, I'm Pete Kelk, MD of PK Photography & Video Ltd. I'm just into the 'thirty something' bracket, and I have been married to my wife Tracey for 10 years. We have two boys, Alex and Christian.
Well, what can I tell you about myself? Well firstly, I studied A-levels at college. I spent most of my time in the common room, creating new and unusual excuses as to why I hadn't attended lectures. Around this time I was given a Pentax K1000 by my brother in law, along with a pile of (photography) magazines and an array of interesting filters. It was like being bitten by a bug, and being infected with photography, I just couldn't get enough.
So, I packed my bags, said good bye to sunny Kent and headed off for the big smoke, where I worked as an assistant to one of the countries largest commercial photographers. Now, it all sounds very glamorous, but in reality, it was making the tea, sweeping the studio floor and collecting film from Teamwork. However, in between I had the joy of spending a few hours, in the darkroom, with my enlarger, seeing what developed....
From there, I started doing more and more photography, mostly photojournalistic work, a smattering of studio work, a few cheque signings, award evenings etc. etc.
After a few years of living in London, I decided I needed to get out, and head back to a more sedate style of living, and moved to Essex, with my then girlfriend (now wife) Tracey. It was around 1996, and reportage photography was just taking off, and PK Photography was born. I would like to say that it was an instant success, but sadly, at the time it was almost impossible to get people to book a reportage wedding. (Can you believe it???)
Anyway, I joined a local studio in 1997 and spent 6 years doing the whole traditional wedding photography thing. You know, everyone in a line, smile. How boring!
Around 2002 it started to become apparent that Reportage photography really was the way to go, and after much heated debate, with my previous employer about the future of traditional photography, which ended with the ubiquitous "... if you think you can do better, you go and do it!!!" I found myself resurrecting PK Photography and this time making it a runaway success...
Pete Kelk.