After finishing my BA in English Literature and American Studies, I studied a masters in American Literature and Film at Birmingham University. One of the elective modules was Urban Representation in film and, having seen some of the French guys on Channel 4's 'Passengers' and Ripley's Believe It Or Not, I began researching parkour. Much hunting around on the internet led me to Urban Freeflow and I signed up to the message board to ask if I could meet up with them and take a few snaps as part of my research paper (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader). In April 2003 I went down to London to meet up with all the free runners attending PK3 and took a load of photographs, all shot on the automatic settings of my then Canon EOS 300N using a very cheap 35-80mm lens. On getting them developed, I also had them scanned and put a load of them online. I registered www.kiell.tk for free to point at some hosting I had and the feedback was overwhelming. My involvement in Urban Freeflow kept growing and has developed to what I do today. As the photographs became more and more popular, I bought better equipment and registered www.kiell.com - and interest from magazines began. The website is crucial as it provides an easy point of contact and is vital for showcasing my work. I spent a lot of time designing something that is simple and very easy to update. I realised that I should develop a greater understanding of what I was doing and signed up to an A Level photography evening classes at a local college. Because of other commitments, I never quite finished the course but, along with my own study and practice, I learnt a huge amount in a short space of time. For a long time, I never considered myself as a photographer, as such. I was just doing something that I enjoyed doing, especially working with black and white in the dark room. As magazines became interested, I realised that I would have greater commercial success if I started shooting in colour and this was not a simple transition. I train in parkour once or twice a week and whilst it's far from the main reason that I do it, I think it's important for understanding how to capture it as an image. I'm not sure which I prefer - parkour or photography - but if I'm out and about, I always try and keep them separate, otherwise I get too easily distracted by one or the other. I hope this has been of use to someone! Andy.