Diary of an Amateur Photographer

When Michael Whittingham joins his local camera club, he stumbles across a bizarre photograph from 1959, and into a crime investigation that takes him through the seedy world of fifties pin-up photography--a world that has surprising connections with his troubled childhood. Before long, he finds himself in the grip of a dangerous obsession. Casting himself as amateur photographer, Michael unwittingly steps into the shoes of the original perpetrator of the crime. And the journal he uses to record his photographic achievements turns into a casebook of evidence in an investigation with more questions than answers. Graham Rawle's mastery of collage engages the reader with a series of visual clues and ultimately provides an answer to the mystery in a sealed envelope inside the back cover of the book. Scraps of paper and photographs, arranged on each page to look like a real diary or scrapbook, take the reader on a journey through Michael's mind as he uncovers answers to a murder that took place more than thirty years ago. Uniquely packaged as the journal itself, Diary of an Amateur Photographer lays bare the dark side of suburbia and is a testament to Graham Rawle's extravagant and eccentric talent.