Chris always had a fascination with nature, as in the purity of the landscape and wildlife. More recently, Chris has become interested in the manufactured landscape, ie. the urban  ‘cityscape.’ The idea of a man-made landscape is very intriguing to Chris. Chris is interested in the scope, and breadth of a collective idea, both good, and bad quality architecture and cheap buildings (both new and old). clean walkways, and graffiti. There is often huge variation in what we see around us, with Cities being an extreme example.
This quote from Stephen Fry has resonated hugely with me:
‘Oscar Wilde was once asked when he was a very young man when he was in America: “Mr Wilde, why do you think America is such a violent country?” [and he replied] “Well I know very well why it’s so violent: it’s because your wallpaper is so hideous!
It seemed like a camp remark from a young ‘Eastie’, but he actually was quite serious you know. If you look out of the window as a human being, at nature, all of nature is unconditionally and absolutely beautiful wherever it is. Whether it’s a jungle. Whether it’s a desert. Whether it’s the Arctic wastes. Or even your own back garden. The only ugly things you will ever see when you look out of the window are things made by man. And if from your earliest age of looking at the world you see yourself as a member of a species that can only uglify and despoil the world, it gives you what psychiatrists would call “a deep sense of guilt.” Guilt as anyone knows is the major cause of aggression. That’s why you get violent because you’re guilty. You feel worthless, and you feel worthless if you don’t believe you are part of a species that is actually capable of creating beautiful things. Which we are, in terms of architecture, and in terms of painting, and in terms of music, and all kinds of things, beauty is possible, and is good!’ Stephen Fry(2001)

Also, an empty urban setting is an interesting one. We associate cities with huge amounts of people, so when we view images or footage of these places with no humans present then it is an unsettling feeling. Several cinema scenes have provoked me in my more recent photographs, such as the daytime city scenes of Florida in ‘Day Of The Dead; a deserted London in ’28 Days Later;’ and a vacant New York Times Square in ‘Vanilla Sky.’ The movies that best express this urban disharmony seem to be of the horror genre. Directors such as George A. Romero especially, seem to be repeatedly instilling satirical social observations in their work.
Yann Arthus-Bertrand, Andreas Gursky, and Gregory Crewdson are huge modern-day influences on Chris. Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s recent images are predominantly aerial shots; Gursky’s images have an epic overhead view of the human environment; whereas Crewdson’s are very cinematic. All three photographers partly stage their photographs, in that the images that they produce involve a lot of thought and planning. Chris likes that meticulous approach to their work. There are differences though. These photographers all favour wide angles lenses (generally 16-24mm), but Gursky doesn’t manipulate his images post-production like Crewdson does with Adobe Photoshop. Crewdson will tweak colours, remove obstacles, change exposures, etc. In this sense one could argue that Yann Arthus-Bertrand and Andreas Gursky are more of a documentary style type photographer, whereas Crewdson is more of a cinematographer that is concerned with making and shaping his own reality.