This photograph was taken in a distillery in Speyside, Scotland on September 11th 2001 for a brochure about whisky production.

I was shooting on transparency film using lots of lights but I had a compact camera loaded with Kodak Tri X as well, and this, one of my favourite pictures, was taken with the compact. It was the briefest of glimpses really and I love the rolling movement, the light and the repeating circles. Curiously nothing in the image is in focus. The Print was made on Agfa record rapid paper and split toned to give it the reddish tone.

Shortly after this was shot my assistant got a call telling him about the attacks on the World Trade centre in New York, it was very early on and we had no idea what was really happening, it all seemed hard to believe.

However the distillery manager had the right response – “ Well lads there’s worse places to be at times of international crisis than a distillery, we’re holed up here with 100’s of thousands of litre’s of whisky, so come over here and have a wee dram” he then poured us very large measures of cask strength ( undiluted) whisky. The rest of the shoot went rather well.

Ralph Hodgson studied fine art photography at London Guildhall University in the early 1990s and now works for a variety of editorial and corporate clients. As a London-based photographer Ralph has travelled the world for clients such as The Times, The Guardian, Harpers and Conde Naste publications, while corporate clients include Oddbins, Thameslink, Sainsburys and the Bank of England. Photographer since 1991, EPUK member since 2000.