Meet the Team

Rick once spent an entire summer on his knees making money by drawing huge pastel versions of paintings by Vermeer and Caravaggio on the pavements of Marseilles and along the Riviera. On another occasion, still in France, Rick woke one morning, wet and bedraggled, trying to hitch a ride while drying out his clothes and tent on a roadside. Without saying a word, a kindly old farmer stopped and presented Rick with a mini-bottle of champagne!

Since 1997, he has been running Catcher Media. He is responsible for delivering workshops, scripting, directing and many of the technical aspects of film-making. Rick says that it’s really about relationships: with creatives, experts and people in the community with a story to tell. When a recent interviewee on Catcher’s HLTAL heritage project said that in a hundred years people would be looking back at this work: he could only think ‘Wow!’

Photo Clova Perrez Coral

A woman of many talents, Julia once milked goats in France and grew carrots the length of her forearm. She was an impressively able mechanic to her VW transporter, keeping it on the road long after it should have been destined for the VW graveyard.

As co-director of Catcher Media, Julia loves spending time with people from all walks of life, from hop farmers to football icons, from retired auctioneers to travelling Show people, to name just a few. Whether it is standing beside Ronnie Radford at Edgar Street reliving his epic goal, or getting up at 5am to witness the cutting of the oak bough for the Heart of Oak Flower Walk in Fownhope, Julia in her role as producer and sometime-interviewer is there, ensuring a smooth day’s filming and a good experience for all.

Photo Clova Perrez Coral

In her twenties, Marsha spent four years travelling and working around the world. One of her stopping-off points was Japan, where was employed as an English teacher to a child of the Yakuza. Desperate for a decent cup of tea, she eventually returned to the UK, making the mistake of travelling with Aeroflot. The air stewards wore a vivid blue eyeshadow that remained in place when the plane made an unscheduled stop in Tashkent, where passengers remained stranded for two days.

She is an Oral Historian, Researcher and blogger and loves her work. She considers capturing and recording the stories and heritage of Herefordshire as a privilege and immensely satisfying. No two days are the same. Long may it stay that way.

Photo Clova Perrez Coral

Our Heritage Intern was once rescued by firemen from Sydonia swimming pool in Leominster when her arm got stuck in a recess in the concrete (which functioned as a sort of hand rail). She was given a whole carrier bag full of chocolate from the vending machine for her ‘bravery’.

Gabrielle was born in Norfolk but raised in Herefordshire. Gabrielle spent the best part of her twenties in London doing various jobs, while she studied for an MA in Cultural and Critical Studies, writing articles and drawing pictures. She returned to the county she thinks of as home last year to get involved with this heritage project as well as Hereford College of Art. HCA is where Gabrielle originally studied illustration, fostering her love of storytelling and its many uses and forms.

Among many of the tasks the project demanded of her, Gabrielle assisted in oral history, wrote blog articles and wrestled with the huge task of co-ordinating the scans and uploading of the photos being scanned by our team of volunteers.

Innes has been the graphic designer with Catcher Media for many years. He designed their very first project about a baby monitor that gets a mind of it’s own.

Innes’ club-styled graphics initially appealed to Catcher back in the late nineties and he’s been bringing his fresh perspective to our projects since then. His graphic work for Herefodshire Life Through a Lens and our other heritage projects epitomises his approach; appealing to a wide demographic but without compromising on the creativity.

And there’s been a lot of graphics work too: endless posters, flyers, postcards, DVD covers and leaflets.

Emma trained in Marseille, France as a documentary photographer, with assignments that included filming riots on the streets there. She runs a busy photography studio in Monmouth working on commercial and commissioned projects. Her photography is underpinned by her documentary roots and strong need to ‘tell the story’. Emma has a BA in Documentary Photography has a PGCE and she is also Panasonic Ambassador. She is also a Getty contributor. Emma loved working with the Catcher Media team either running down the street like photographer Derek Evans would have done, to match his amazing pictures of the Fownhope Heart of Oak Flower walk, or dodging a football being kicked my Ronnie Radford.

Rebecca grew up in the circus and was, at different times, a performer, box office manager and press assistant for a number of touring circuses in the UK and Europe, including Circus Roncalli in Germany and British tours of the Chinese State Circus and the Moscow State Circus. She’s had many adventures on the circus and was once run over by a camel – it didn’t hurt, but it was quite a shock! She has worked with many clowns over the years, so she can handle most things.

Rebecca works for arts organisations in marketing, public engagement and project management. She has a passion for helping to bring the arts to rural counties in the West Midlands, particularly her adopted home county of Herefordshire. Rebecca loves photography and was very excited to be working on the Herefordshire Life Through a Lens project as she got to see amazing photos and films every day! Rebecca is also an artist, transforming spaces using photography and video projections. She graduated with a BA (Hons) Fine Art from Hereford College of Arts, as a mature student, in 2010.

Michael spent most of his childhood living in various countries around the world, including far-flung places like Khazakstan, Uganda, India, Nepal, and Nigeria. In Uganda, he worked for a while in an orphanage. He only moved to the UK for his senior school years. Moving to England later in life was a real culture shock to him.

Michael was his final year at Hereford College of Arts, studying for a degree in film-making, and he hoped to go on to have a career making documentaries. He joined us on the project to help boost his skill level in film making and to give us an extra pair of creative hands.

Jack joined the project fresh from completing his Photography degree in Hereford, and it was his commitment to establishing his own practise in the county that first impressed the interview panel.

As an essential part of the team during the hectic preparations for the exhibitions he learned archival techniques of framing Derek’s original prints; he proved indispensable in helping out with the prep and hanging of all five exhibitions (and in the process became the go-to person for putting up the vinyl lettering); edited our exhibitions trailer; uploaded and catalogued freshly scanned prints for the Herefordshire History website AND created our virtual exhibition tours!