Recent work - November 2024

Portraits for business and magazine clients:

Recent work - September 2024

I’m sometimes torn with “recent work”. I’m always aware that as much of it won’t make it into my main galleries, it feels at odds with the idea of “less is more”. Surely best practice is only to show one’s very best* images?

Ideally, yes, that’s right. But the main problem with being so selective is that I’m not going to be posting very much: it’s hard to get more than about ten** good shots in a year.

So I try to remember that while all images stand alone, individually, they also play a wider role in a gallery (or blog post) of related items. And, indeed, each individual gallery is itself a subset of a portfolio. If I consider a blog post as a gallery of sorts, and contains work that I think is good enough to show, then it absolutely belongs on my website. An image’s strength may not lie in its impact as a photograph (“best”, again), but perhaps as evidence of a certain kind of work or technique. Or it’s a reference to a certain publication or client, or another example of a cohesive style etc.

Which is all to say that “good” is relative, and not absolute; and has many facets other than “impact”.

And so, while “recent work” nonetheless seems a very loose category when compared to, say, a full series from a particular assignment, I don’t know how else I could otherwise publish some of my work.

*“Best” in terms of website content, of course, not necessarily “most artistic”. For instance, an average picture of a celebrity carries more ‘weight’ because it implies access, and it shows one is current. So it would go in a portfolio ahead of a similar, slightly better shot of an unknown person. (Actually, it’s even quite reasonable to pull long-forgotten shots from the archives - I think of the photographer I met who’d taken an actor headshot of Benedict Cumberbatch in about 1998. Anyway, I’ve discussed portfolio theory in depth elsewhere on occasion on my blog.)

**And even if you were shooting every day, with various and interesting subject matter, clients and briefs; and produce, say, a hundred really wonderful photos, you’ll find yourself in the same position for two reasons.

One, unless you want a bloated (and slightly repetitive) portfolio, you have to make way for this new work, which means you have to remove old images.

And two, unless you want a jack-of-all-trades portfolio, you have to prune all but the very best of the best of the new stuff, as well as everything that isn’t core to your offering. Which might be forty images. However you look at it, there’s just some work that won’t make it into a portfolio.

Mean Girls

Really fun commission for London Theatre Magazine, featuring the cast of Mean Girls, now showing at the Savoy Theatre:

Wakehurst

I was commissioned to photograph staff at Wakehurst, Kew’s wild botanical garden and home to the Millennium Seed Bank.

Graduation

I was commissioned to shoot University of London graduation images - event coverage and portraits at the Barbican:

Recent work - April 2024

Recent work - January 2024

Recent portrait commissions including work for AB magazine, iCrossing, Singapore Airlines and Innovate Communications.

Long live the local

The British Beer and Pub Association supports pubs and breweries across the UK. I was commissioned by 89up to photograph the draymen, landladies, bartenders and farmers who make up the industry - the people behind the pint - to support the Christmas “Long Live the Local” campaign.

The forever purge

Portfolio thoughts again.

I think I’m a bit obsessed with the topic, but it’s so very important. A portfolio is one’s CV, brand, shop window.

As you’ll know - if you’re at all interested the plight of small kittens* - I’ve posted at various times here, on IG, and on my blog, a range of thoughts on portfolio curation. What to include, and how to choose. The difficulties and the rules. How it’s an art and a science. About how to think about who you’re “speaking to”, and what you’re saying. On the tricky balance between showing variety and consistency, the battle between new work and old; putting forward a clear, personal style but displaying the ability to handle the other stuff.

I’ve written about how images become like one’s children (but one’s you’d sacrifice). Why the work we’re proud of today is - by necessity - the same about which we cringe tomorrow. And I’ve touched on the ever-so-slight deterioration, the consistent degradation and corruption caused by each viewing. Sort of, a bit like Frodo and the Ring, if I stretch the analogy (but with the Ring getting worse instead of Frodo, or something). So that it’s generally best not to look at one’s work, ever.

Portfolio and website maintenance is an ongoing, never-ending process, or should be. Ask any photographer about their website and they’ll always say, “Oh, I’ve not updated it in ages.” I’m often adding to mine here and there, bit by bit. And then I hack it back in swathes once in a while. And today is that day, as it’s gotten rather bloated. That and the fact I’m pretty much wrapped for the year**. It’s the Alex Rumford Photography Purge, where, just like in the film, for 24 hours I can delete as many photos as I want. (And then worry about my decisions.)

The guiding questions when keeping or killing*** each picture, as always, are:

Does it say anything? Is it interesting / does it move me? Is it similar to work I already have?

As well as the less-obvious consideration, to do with honesty and objectivity: was it really its own merit which got it into the portfolio originally? Or because of what it took to get it? Because a tough challenge or interesting job doesn’t mean a good picture. It merely creates unwarranted and favourable bias, an attachment which unravels in time.

And, of course: is it any good?

Anyway, have a look at my lovely portfolio over a nice cup of tea and a biscuit****.

*This has nothing to do with kittens. That was a cheap, clickbait-y trick. No animals were harmed in the making of my portfolio.

**This is the moment you realise, as I just did, that I’d forgotten to publish this blog post back in December. But don’t worry, in a few moments there will be biscuits.

***Yes, photographers do actually use the word “kill” when “cull” will do, because it sounds cool.

****I promised biscuits (plural) but that was to keep you reading. There’s just one left. Sorry.