Vicki may have started life quietly on the Isle of Wight but it hasn't stopped her seeing most of the world. And with the photo's to prove it, Steal-Life asks where's left to go and what drives her to keep doing it for the girls?

Steal-Life - How long have you been interested in photography?
Vicki Couchman - 18 years in total. I've been working as a photographer for 15 years. God that makes me sound old

SL - Who or what inspired you to start taking photographs?
VC - My dad bought me my first camera, a Pentax K1000. I won a local photographic competition with it and with the influence of a good teacher at school took O’ and A’ level photography. Although after school I still got sidetracked and started a foundation course in interior design.

SL - So how did the transition from just being interested in photography result in you becoming a professional photographer?
VC - I hated interior design in the end, not to mention being a skint student. I had to travel to Portsmouth from the Isle of Wight where I lived. It was a nightmare getting stranded on the pontoon on the ferry, freezing my you know what's off. Eventually I took a job with a local rag and worked my way up via a photojournalism course in Sheffield to shoot riots, sports events and local celebrities in Brighton

SL - Not studying hasn't hindered your career, do you think it would have worked out differently if you had stayed in university?
VC - The best experience you can get is on the job and I was literally thrown in at the deep end. On my second day of real work I was doing my first solo portrait and didn’t even know how to work the flash properly. You learn quickly and rarely make the same mistake twice. I have no experience of university so can't really comment. I learnt photography the
traditional way, manual exposure and getting my hands wet. Now I am moving with the digital age, I have the best of both worlds.

SL - How did your book 'A Trail of Visions' come about?
VC - After travelling for a year I had roughly 60 films and a diary full of my adventures. I met up with a travel buddy and over a few beers I let him read it and see the photos. We were both feeling pretty frustrated in not being able to relate our tales, nothing on the book market showed what I'd photographed and how it made me feel about the experience. Six months of devotion later and our self-published book hit the shelves.

SL - You've travelled extensively with your work; do you think your able travel more because of your job as a photographer or that you work as a photographer to enable you to travel?
VC - Both! I definitely get to travel with my job although I would wish to travel more if it was possible. My personal excursions from the UK are an opportunity to travel and take photographs, a perfect combination.

SL - Whats the favourite place you've seen?
VC - Definitely India and more specifically a small town called Hampi. It's magical, interesting and completely weird, the most sureal landscape I've ever seen. It's made up of giant boulders balanced on each other. It also has the remains of a fantastic Muslim city, a river they cross in giant circular boats and a temple which holds a solid Gold chillum. What more
could a girl want?

SL - Tell us about your involvement in 'Back to Bangalore', the documentary for Channel 4 about Jason the photographer from Coventry who took his 85 year old grandfather back to India after 53 years?
VC - It was part of a series called "the other side’ in which Channel 4 gave first time directors the opportunity to make a documentary. I heard about it from a friend and got in touch with the production company with my idea, they loved it and commissioned me.

They gave me a budget of £1000, a DV camera and thirty minutes tuition. I went to India with my mate and his grandad and everything went wrong that could go wrong. My main character lost his memory then my radio mike busted. I did everything myself from sound to camera work to the actual interviewing, I was just thrilled to be making a film. I returned to London and had a week to edit 12 hours down to 90 minutes. It's since been shown twice.

SL - Is there anywhere you haven't been that's top of your wish list?
VC - Too many to mention but top three are Tibet, Madagascar and Spring Break in Fort Lauderdale.

SL - Maybe you could do a slideshow of it for us?
VC - More than happy, how bigs your budget?

Not as big as our heart - www.vickicouchman.com