Born in 1961, Martin Hinchcliffe's early childhood was spent in the Middle and Far East. His family moved back to the UK in 1970 and Martin attended school in the South East of England before studying at Maidstone College of Art in 1979. In 1983 he graduated from Sheffield's Fine Art Painting
In 1984 he received a grant from the Graham Foundation for the Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, which resulted in a comparative photo-essay entitled The Italian Hilltown and the American Main Street Small Tow