Iain McKell grew up in Weymouth in Dorset and went to boarding school at Clifton Collage in Bristol. In 1975 after a year foundation he studied graphic design at the Exeter College of Art and Design at the same time began working as a seaside photographer aged 19 in his summer holidays and became his first serious projected documenting his own life and the environment he grew up in including family, friends, girl friends, people who worked or lived in Weymouth and holiday makers.