I’m Elaine Cook — a UK photographer creating atmospheric, story-led work across landscapes, seascapes, travel, people and documentary photography. I also love experimenting with creative techniques such as Intentional Camera Movement (ICM) and multiple exposure.

Photography has been part of my life for around 30 years. For most of that time I worked as a Management Accountant, but photography was the thing I truly loved — even when it had to stay a hobby.

My Turning Point

One of the most defining chapters of my life began with travel. I travelled to India just five days after a shock cancer diagnosis, and that journey became a turning point. It reinforced how powerful photography can be — not just as a way to record places, but as a way to connect, to notice, and to keep moving forward. That experience later inspired my semi-autobiographical novel,
A Geordie Up The Ganges, where photography weaves through the story.

From Hobby to Full Time

In recent years, two big changes have shifted photography from hobby to a full-time pursuit.

First, I decided photography didn’t have to be a solitary hobby, so I joined Lytham St Annes Photographic Society. It opened up a whole new world — new genres, studio work, monochrome, macro and portraiture, and creative experimentation — and it gave me a community that continues to inspire and challenge me.

Second, retirement gave me the time and headspace to truly focus and develop my work.

Liquid Light

With that time, I created Liquid Light — my own mixed-media technique that fuses my original photography with hand-painted water-colour elements. My first Liquid Light collection is a set of six botanical artworks, combining my flower images with luminous, hand-created orbs and flowing swirls of paint. It’s become a signature style — playful and painterly, centred on light, colour, and movement.

What I’m Working on Now

I’m also a proud member of the Royal Photographic Society, and I achieved my Associate Distinction (ARPS) in just eight months — a milestone I’m enormously proud of.

Right now I’m enjoying pushing my creative work further through ICM and multiple exposure, and I’m planning my next steps: a second Liquid Light series with a new subject, new project-led bodies of work, and working towards FRPS with the RPS.

If you’d like to connect about prints or enquire about licensing, I’d love to hear from you at [email protected]