Room 9

Janet Waters was born in 1968, Essex, UK.

Moved to Cardiff, Wales in 1977 where she spent a very happy childhood and adolescence. She considers herself an Honorary Welshwoman and really would love to move back there eventually. Although she was taught Welsh at school, she cannot speak the language fluently.

She always had a passion for photography and when she left school, studied an HND in Black and White Photography with Community Service Volunteers.

A couple of years later she was accepted onto a course in Foundation Art (distinction) at Newport, Wales – where her creativity was well and truly ignited. From there she progressed to the Ba in Documentary Photography (2:1) Newport, Wales – where she learnt a range of technical disciplines and a variety of approaches to creative photographic composition.

After completing my Ba, she spent a year learning to teach in Bristol and achieved a PGCE in secondary school teaching. Currently, she is in her tenth year of teaching and run a National Diploma Photography programme in Blackpool, UK. Her students are a constant source of fascination and inspiration. They keep her alert and young at heart.

Her influences are numerous. From Classical Art, Sculpture, Master Photographers and Painters to Quantum Physics, Freud, Jung and Mozart. Her family has also always played an important role in that they are encouraging and supportive of anything she does.

She has exhibited her work mainly in an educational setting and recently had some work published in a Digital Photography magazine.

She was once asked by one of my students “What inspires you to take Photographs?” and the simple answer to that is “Everything”

When considering photography, she frequently becomes overwhelmed by an urge to investigate unconsidered aesthetics. Once an idea presents itself, she pursues it relentlessly and obsessively until all creative options are exhausted. It doesn’t matter if anyone likes the imagery, although it makes her happy when they do.

Then she gets a new lens and start over again…