It was a joy to work with Headline Pictures a few months ago, to produce some headshots for their website.
THE BRIEF
The brief was fairly straightforward in principle - photograph the most senior staff/directors for the website. The images should appear fairly natural (rather than formal), and include a real background rather than a plain one. One problem: they were between offices, so they didn’t have anywhere to shoot. Thankfully, a couple of the team were staying overnight in a nice house, so we used this to do the shoot before they went off to work in the morning.
PHOTOGRAPHIC CHALLENGES
Every photo shoot presents unique, and not so unique challenges. Due to the nature of the space we were to use, it was going to be a case of scoping the house on arrival and coming up with ideas on the spot. This is why I brought along my trusty assistant Paul Graville, who is able to move around lighting, keep an eye on the details and make suggestions where necessary.
For this shoot, I wanted to keep a lot of the natural daylight in the photography, and elevate it with some flash without it feeling overly “lit”. I also wanted everybody to have slightly different backgrounds. This was achieved with one light and a bit of experimentation with the naturally lit house (which was beautiful but typically dark as a Victorian terrace painted in darker Victorian style colours). We shot straight into a laptop, so everybody could see their headshots during the session. This helps with posing ideas and making sure everybody is happy with their images.
Thanks again Headline Pictures!
Thanks so much to KOIBIRD for having me photograph their Christmas talk with members of Phaidon. There was also a chance to do some private shopping in their Christmas market styled shop and have Phaidon’s new Christmas Book signed. It was a real pleasure to be part of it. KOIBIRD are on Marylebone Lane in Westminster (near Mayfair), and a relatively tranquil and upmarket hop from Oxford Street.
KOIBIRD had invited Phaidon to talk about their own Christmas traditions and give pointers on how to make an extra special Christmas at home this year. This coincided with Phaidon’s The Christmas Book, recently released.
The shop was beautifully curated and presented as a kind of Christmas market, where guests were free to browse and enjoy food and drinks.
The brief was fairly straightforward - document the talks and people enjoying the evening. I was also asked to provide the event images in vertical (portrait) orientation for Instagram. When I get this request, I shoot horizontal (landscape) images with the intention of cropping vertically in post. This gives the client more options as it’s much easier to crop a vertical shot from a horizontal shot than the other way around. Most of the action in events occur on the horizontal plane so it just makes sense to shoot this way and crop later. Thanks to the high resolution of my cameras, this has no affect on image quality.
Images were to be edited and sent on the night, for KOIBIRD to use the following morning. Thankfully I have plenty of experience in fast turnaround environments in photography and I was able to provide the full 150 images on the same night (which included the same 150-ish images converted one by one to portrait mode for socials, totalling aprox. 300 images).
Thanks again to KOIBIRD, and I wish you all a fantastic Christmas!
Thanks so much to Opera Gallery in Mayfair London for getting in touch to have me photograph their grand opening.
I always love photographing art gallery events and this was a particular highlight for me. As a Dubuffet and Karel Appel fan it was a pleasure to photograph this event, which had a number of beautiful pieces now available from private collections.
Artist Ron Arad was also there, taking over much of the top floor with his fantastic resin pieces and a very popular ping pong table that Ron himself played with guests for a portion of the night.
Artworks downstairs by Andy Denzler were rightfully popular and beautifully curated for a more contemplative experience.
Thanks so much to Katherine McMahon for taking me on for this job, and being such a pleasure to work with.
A big thank you to The British Museum and National Gallery of Victoria for having me photograph the Egyptian artefacts during conservation and pack-up, before they travel to Australia for the Pharaoh exhibition, opening June 2024.
One part of the brief was to photograph Marie Vandenbeusch. Marie is a Project Curator in the Department of Egypt and Sudan at the British Museum, responsible for curating international touring exhibitions, such as the Pharaoh exhibition for at the NGV.
I also had the pleasure to photograph Stephanie Vasiliou, the British Museum’s senior conservator of stone, wall paintings and mosaics. Stephanie showed us some of the restoration techniques used for the Egyptian stone pieces.
As I have a background in ceramics, and love materials generally, this was a really exciting commission for me to photograph. Seeing these talented conservators and curators in action, in their place of work was fascinating. It felt like a real honour to be back in the conservation room, having visited a few years prior to photograph a students’ tour.
Thanks also to James Maiki who produced video on the shoot.
For more info check out this article from The Age
It was an honour to meet Sandi Toksvig briefly for a mini photoshoot at BBC Broadcasting House, in one of their older studios, for a Radio Appeal to boost recognition and funds for the charity Hand In Hand International.
The brief was to keep the images literally light, lighthearted and enough space for text to be added on the left side of the photo.
Sandi is as fantastic and effortlessly witty in real life as she appears on TV. We had less than five minutes to set up the lighting (in a very dark, yellow-lit old studio) and get about 12 different shots. With Sandi we managed it in 3!
Hand In Hand International (HiH) is a great charity doing important things, and the staff are really passionate.
“In Kenya, Tanzania, India and Afghanistan we teach women the skills they need to earn a living – running their own businesses on their own terms, so their families don’t have to live in poverty”. HiH
Thanks to Jen Glyn, Dorothea Arndt and Ann Dickinson at HiH for the correspondence and help on the day which made it all go so smoothly.
