I’ve always been a collector of things, a weather-worn piece of driftwood, a withered autumn leaf or a found feather. It’s difficult to go out and not come back with something. And I’m always surprised at how different these things seem when looked at away from their normal environment.

The way our perception flexes and makes new meanings depending on circumstances is something I am increasingly exploring in my work.

Exceptional Subjects is a collaboration with the writer and broadcaster Melissa McCarthy in which I photographed a selection of objects from a collection I’d been adding to for some years in which all the items had some connection with perception, looking, vision or optics. I then invited Melissa to write a completely free response to the photographs.