PHOTOGRAPHER Alan Jacobs has an exhibition of evocative pictures upstairs in Art's Gallery in Okehampton's Red Lion Yard all this month.

Alan, an interior designer and decorator from Surrey, moved to Winkleigh in 1995 to start a new career as a photographer.

A self-taught photographer who develops his own material, Alan originally took pictures to record his own design work.

His photographs are mainly evocative landscape compositions. Some, where he focuses on individual aspects, are almost abstract in their simplicity — a single rippled reflection on golden water.

While drawn to colour Alan, 52, is equally attracted to more subtle tones — the pastel-tinted morning mists are almost monochrome.

'I like landscapes — I like each picture to be a work of art and stand on its own,' he said.

Alan finds inspiration whereever there is natural beauty — although he particularly likes to take his camera to Dartmoor.

'There are subjects everywhere whether it is a landscape or a close up,' he said.

'There aren't many photographers who sell large colour photographs of landscapes. Most concentrate on black and white. But I feel that colour gives it another perspective and makes the image much stronger.'