Chris Ledger came to Photography via a Fine Art degree in Painting in the 1970s [  ]. The possibility of seriously adopting the camera didn't occur to him though until the early 80s in the wake of b&w images he'd made whilst travelling in SE Asia [].

Even then, it was printmaking [] that mostly provided a creative outlet during a long period of earning a living as an archivist in London. That and a new-found passion for climbing []. Whilst the latter potentially provided a widening of the photographic horizon, in practice the obsession with climbing itself precluded carrying bulky equipment.

The real breakthrough that eventually changed all this though was a simple 4MP compact digital camera - and Photoshop. Things opened out. Firstly in personal images of family and friends [] and then back on the Hills []. Photography had a new impetus.

Even so, it was still a long time before Chris took his work seriously enough to consider trying to earn a living from it and it was only after a period of exploring the City with a first digital SLR [] that he finally took the plunge in early 2006. However, by the end of that year a debut one-man exhibition, at large City law firm, Evesheds, generated much encouragement. Sales were good (Eversheds now holds 30 of Chris' images).

More crucially though, the show prompted a private commission for a series of high level cityscapes. This proved to be a turning point as it marked the start of a new obsession: panoramic imaging. This required a whole new working process and as Chris pushed the technology his images became both much larger and more minutely detailed.

By then he was living in Sussex and much of his panoramic experiments were made on the rolling hills of the South Downs. The first showing of the initial results - both landscapes and cityscapes - was at the 2007 Arundel Festival. The images - which had been produced as archival quality, large format limited editions - were very well received. Better yet, sales matched the enthusiasm too.

As exposure of this new work increased, critical recognition followed. This culminated when, in Jan 2008, the UK's Professional Photographer magazine announced Chris as Landscape winner of their ►Professional Photographer of the Year Awards.

Meanwhile, a new concentration on London street-level panoramic work led to new corporate commissions - including one for a series of eight West End panoramas from major property firm Shaftesbury plc. The brief for this also started Chris on a preoccupation with night-time images.

This momentum has continued in 2009 with a flurry of London exhibitions - including a particularly large one-man show of 22 panoramas at London's Barbican Library. Also, the Battersea Affordable Arts Fair (with the Bill Phillip Gallery) achieved particularly strong private sales.

The latest recognition has been the inclusion of two images in Take-a-View's Landscape Photographer of the Year 2009 awards.

As 2010 dawns Chris continues to work on both panoramic and "single shot" images. London remains the principle location of much of his work.