Mike Ray worked in TV for many years in the UK, from technical to creative. When Ch4 started up, he left the RCA, where he worked as a techie, trying to explain to MA students how video worked, to join a TV facilities/production company. The first documentary he edited, on the Eighties Ethiopian crisis, won 20 international awards and consequently, he was invited to move to East Africa. After a few years working on News and Documentaries throughout Africa and Asia and having been taught the proper way to use an AK by the Mujahideen and being bashed by a baby rhino on the BBC, he opted for a more peaceful existence, freelancing as an editor/composer in London. This included being let loose in high-end video facilities, creating abstract art and composing music with the video artist Peter Donebauer. Their work raised some interest and a TV interview but mostly disappeared into the chill-out rooms at raves. In 2007 he decided to leave London and video to live in a riverside shed and concentrate on photography and writing. He returned to video and music three years ago, enthusiastically embracing the advances made since digits joined the party. He vows never to talk about himself in the third person again, and never to burden his work with existential flim-flam (unless deserved).