When I was a schoolboy I used to come home from school and watch the kitsch 60’s Batman series on television starring Adam West. I loved Catwoman. Not the cadaverous Ertha Kit, but Julie Newmar, who was my favourite Catwoman and she would give me a pubescent thrill. That tight catsuit!

I started using latex clothes due to my contact with Skin Two magazine. Years ago I won the Vogue/Sotheby’s Cecil Beaton Award. It was a contest for young photographers. I won with my series of shoes entitled, The Fetish. Someone suggested I should see the magazine. At the time they had a warehouse selling clothes from different designers and also ran club nights. I shot some shoes for them and as a result, they would send me free copies of the magazine. They kept inviting me to their club nights but it was strict dress code and I had no fetish gear.

One day I thought of an idea for an image and needed to find a model with pierced nipples. I decided to buy something to be able to get in the club, and rode to the warehouse on my bicycle. While I was in there my bike got stolen, which was ironic because only a couple of days before a friend was telling me that bike thieves were only interested in mountain bikes these days. I had to clop home by bus and tube in my cycling shoes, which are not designed for walking, carrying a pair of rubber shorts in a carrier bag.

I went to the club night and wrote about it in an essay, How to Become debauched While remaining a Virgin. I was struck by the inventiveness I saw there because as far as I was concerned, there were ready-made scenarios I could use in my photography, just sauntering by.

It was then that I started using latex clad models in my work. I found it easier to get models if I had outfits for them to wear. Not wanting to be known as just a fetish photographer, I later graduated to doing nudes.