Cold Ground
Artist: Snow Patrol
Song: Set the fire to the third bar
Album: Eyes Open
Model: Rich Ellis
Location: Myvatn Lake, Iceland

I sang this song live with my beautiful, then 14 year-old daughter, Holly, at my wedding. It was the first time she’d sung in front of an audience and performed incredibly. She was nervous but did it for her Dad and gave it her all. It was one of those moments you get as a parent where love and pride brim over on an already emotional and happy day. I hear this song now and I smile and feel warm.

My beautiful wife travels quite a bit with her job and it’s common for her to be away for part of the week. Although we have the strongest relationship I’ve ever enjoyed, I still wish she was home with me, next to me, to touch and talk to. I’m not lonely as such, it’s just that a part of me seems missing when she’s not here.

I’d already shot an image for this a few years ago but was never too happy with it. It was a bit gratuitous and didn’t convey the feeling I wanted to get over with it. This image does it so much better. It being a self-portrait makes it also more about my feelings. That sense of being so far away from the one you love and always needing to just carry on when all you sometimes want to do is collapse on the spot and just be with them, warm and snuggly.