Picture perfect home

BY painting all the walls of his home a creamy white, award-winning photographer Michael Swallow has the perfect backdrop on which to display some of his most stunning work.

Visitors to his renovated three-bed semi, in Didsbury village, can't help but wander from room to room, poring over the images that document Michael's amazing travels across the globe from the Flatiron Building in New York to the Taj Mahal in India.

For his commercial work, Michael specialises in photographing technical outdoor clothing in the most dramatic and challenging landscapes.

A lover of extreme sports, his commissions have taken him mountaineering in the Mont Blanc Massif, ice-climbing in Norway and sailing in Singapore, amassing a portfolio of impressive outdoor shots that earned him The Observer Photographer of the Year title.

At home Michael has turned his spare bedroom into a studio in which he produces exhibition quality fine art photographic prints of his pictures that range from beautiful landscapes to serene still life images. These are all available on his own website (listed below).

Renovate

Spending almost half the year travelling, it's hard to believe that Michael found the time to renovate his 1930s semi, particularly as it was such a wreck when he bought it eight years ago.

"I had been living in a flat in Heaton Moor and I was looking for a good investment," says Michael. "When I found this house, I was able to see past all the problems of which there were many.

"The house had belonged to an elderly lady and nothing had ever been done to it. There was no proper heating and it was really damp and smelly. The woodwork was painted pink and everything needed ripping out and replacing. It was a full-scale project but I took my time over it."

Unusually, Michael started working on the house from the outside in and his first project was to transform the overgrown garden from a mass of weeds into a tranquil space with Japanese influences.

"I think it was the novelty of having a garden that enticed me out into the fresh air," he says. "It started with the planting of the maples and a small Acer tree. I've always found water therapeutic and I seem to be drawn to water in my photographs so I set to work digging a pond. I used some edging stone that my neighbour gave me and it ended up looking like a small Roman baths.

"Now I keep koi carp but have to watch out for the local heron, who has brazenly made off with a couple of my fish."

Manageable

Getting rid of the grass altogether, Michael divided the garden up into areas for planting and created an outdoor room with a large patio area for entertaining. Instead of being a chore to maintain, it is now a manageable space filled with exotic plants.

When he started work on the interior of the house, Michael knew straight away that he wanted to make the entire ground floor open plan, apart from the hallway. With help from his uncle, a builder, Michael took down two walls, between the living room and dining room and between the dining room and kitchen. By doing this, he could block up two doorways in the entrance hall and use some of this space to make the kitchen bigger.

"I felt that making these structural changes has really made sense of the space," explains Michael. "Before there were too many doors and enclosed rooms and now there is a sense of flow and continuity throughout the house. It's so much more practical when I have friends around. The original kitchen was so tiny it was unworkable but by borrowing space from the hallway, it gives more wall space for the kitchen units. It works well being tucked off the main room as you can still cook and chat at the same time."

One of the biggest jobs that Michael undertook was the sanding and polishing of the floorboards throughout, which after eight years, show no signs of wear and tear.

"I'm a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to things like that and I gave them five coats of varnish which has stood them in good stead. They look as good today as when I first did them so it was worth all the effort."

Michael's choice of interior decoration echoes his love of monochrome - most of his pictures are in black and white. His furniture also reflects his penchant for far-flung places - the carved dining table and chairs are from India and the mosaic-topped table in the garden is from Morocco.

One thing's for sure Michael will never be short of artwork for the walls of his home. As well as his own photographs, he loves to collect paintings that capture his imagination such as the abstract canvases in the living room that he brought back from Iceland.

Patience

Wherever he visits, whether it's for work or pleasure, Michael always has a camera to hand and has recently been photographing the coastline of North Wales for his own portfolio. To get the best results, patience is the key and Michael often has to play a long waiting game which may involve sleeping in a tent on a mountainside at -20C.

Every picture, they say, tells a story and the photographs in Michael's home always provide a talking point. A particularly striking purple-hued landscape in his dining room was no exception.

"I'm always looking for that special image, something that is unique and atmospheric," he concludes. "For this, I spent a week on isolated Rannoch Moor in Scotland waiting to photograph a view of Black Mount, Perthshire, with a distinctive tree in the centre. It was 5am, I'd got everything set up and the early morning light was just perfect when another photographer turns up carrying a life-size model of that very tree. I couldn't believe my eyes. It turns out he was photographing it for an Iron Maiden album cover but thankfully I still got my picture."

Michael Swallow can be contacted on 07710 030 877 or at his website: www.five4.co.uk