Tinder

I was commissioned by Weber Shandwick for a Tinder campaign to help deaf people find love. We photographed twins Hermon and Heroda (Being_Her) teaching some British Sign Language (BSL) for Deaf Awareness Week (featured here in Cosmopolitan):

BSL is the fourth most-used language in the UK. It’s not only hand movements, but facial expressions and use of the body, too. It has its own grammar and sentence structure, and there are regional dialects.

There are 126 different versions around the world. Interestingly, the British and American versions are largely mutually unintelligible.

Decisions on nuance, emphasis and accuracy came up even for these simple phrases on the day. For each set the best version was argued for, and we had to reshoot a few sequences to get a version that everyone could agree on.

And more than this, as language is communicated as a flow in real time, we had to stop and choose the most salient part(s) of many of the gestures - often their start or end point, or both. This may sounds obvious, but when capturing movement - from a speaker at a conference to a sport action shot - photographers need to know and anticipate what to look for, and it’s central to telling the story. Not knowing BSL, however, I couldn’t guess what the right moments would be to photograph.

And, sure enough, I had creeping doubts later that the sequences were in the correct order..! It was a fun, unusual shoot which the twins made easy.

Physiotherapy

I was commissioned by Ascenti, a nationwide provider of physiotherapy services, to build up their stock library. Here’s a selection of the images:

Vertex

Office and laboratory imagery for Vertex, a global biotech company:

Roche

Some images from recent campaigns for healthcare company Roche. Most of these portraits meant working around filming, stepping in and setting up in the short time available between takes, and wherever possible getting close to the look and feel of the video:

Recent work - December 2021

Here’s a mixed selection of photos from the past few months. I’m forced to stretch the word ‘recent’ again, in this case because 2021 was only eleven weeks long:

This was one of the first shoots I used my new Canon R6, which is a no-excuses piece of equipment. However, it’s not perfect: it stalled twice on this shoot. Apparently a known issue (except to me at the time), it caused no small amount of unprofessional flappery at the time, forcing me to use my backup 5d Mk3. Like riding someone else’s bike, it suddenly felt alien, weird and jarring, and got in the way of everything.

This was for mpb, who buy and sell camera equipment (I use them).

I went to Gail’s bakery to photograph milk supplied by Brades Farm where the cows are fed Mootral, a natural food supplement which reduces methane emissions by 30%.

National Theatre’s Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time opened at the Troubadour Theatre, Wembley. To illustrate this, we shot the scene where Christopher arrives in London, bewildered and unsure. We’ve shot this in recent years at Paddington and at Piccadilly Circus. This time, Toby the rat is played by Biscoff (it may have been his co-star, Oreo, in the photo: I found it hard to tell them apart).

Recent work - September 2020

It’s been a little quiet lately on the photography front. So if allow me to use the term ‘recent work’ loosely, then here are a series of portraits:

Shot for the SOAS University of London undergraduate prospectus (above, right, below and below right).

Corporate portraiture for OakNorth Bank.

(above and right) Corporate portraiture for Satellite TV service Freesat.

Actor Tyrone Huntley, for Mousetrap Theatre Projects.

MP Sarah Olney, for Accounting and Business magazine.

ACCA President Jenny Gu, also for Accounting and Business Magazine

Mootral

Mootral is a natural food supplement which reduces cows’ methane emissions by about a third - the environmental implications are huge. It’s a garlic and citrus extract which has the added bonus of deterring pesky flies, meaning happier cows.

I was fortunate to spend some time on Brades farm at the end of 2019. They make high-quality ‘Original Barista Milk’, and use Mootral in the feed. I was there taking portraits of cows (well, stock photos) and of the farm workers.

Brades Farm Dairy is just outside Lancaster.

Joe Towers

and his brother, Ed Towers.

Thomas Hafner, Mootral CEO and co-founder.

Yummy Mootral

A cow using a back-scratcher.

A lovely cow

(above and below) lots and lots more lovely cows.

Composition-aware cows

A big, scary bull

Guinness World Records

The most fun shoot - bar none. Guinness World Records commissioned me to photograph Taekwondo black-belts Lisa and Chris Pitman. Among many other achievements, they’d broken records including the most pine boards broken in one minute with one hand (Lisa), the most roof tiles broken in one minute (Lisa), and the fastest time to break 1,000 roof tiles (Chris).

We weren’t photographing the record attempts, of course, but shooting what are known as ‘show pictures’ - lively, quirky, often silly illustrations. As they’re married, the logical angle was to have them smashing bricks in a chapel while in their wedding attire. Obviously.

Suresh Joachim holds more than 60 Guinness World Records (mainly endurance-based) to help underprivileged children across the world.

They include: the longest time balancing on one leg (76 hours and 40 minutes), the longest radio broadcast (120 hours), the longest dance marathon by an individual, the longest ten-pin bowling marathon, the record for basketball-dribbling distance in 24 hours, the longest drumming marathon (84 hours), and the longest continuous crawl of (56.62 km).

I photographed him to illustrate his record of watching films back-to-back (121 hours and 18 minutes). The rules are strict - let alone nodding off, you’re not even permitted to rest your head in your hand:

We knew roughly how to shoot it - from the viewpoint of a cinema screen. How best to bring the record to life? We tried a number of options, including him ‘reacting’ to horror films, comedies, and dramas. Popcorn seemed to work as a prop, and worked best when it was thrown around:

We also photographed him for his record of the longest time going up and down on an escalator (225.44 km). The shot itself took a number of attempts as we raced around, shooting during the quiet periods of commuters on the DLR. The record - I understand - took days:

Suresh also holds the record for the quickest time to reach 100 miles on a treadmill (13 hours, 42 minutes and 33 seconds):

And here he is with the ‘Peace Torch’. He ran the World Peace Marathon, running marathons in 72 countries across 6 continents:

B3 Living

Here’s a series of portraits and case studies of staff, supporters and residents from a commission by B3 Living:

Recent work - February 2019

Here’s a selection of recent work , mostly with a commercial / event angle:

We took Joey up on the roof at dusk to announce the return of War Horse return to the National Theatre.

Also for the NT, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time was moving to the Piccadilly Theatre. We took the scene where Christopher is lost and bewildered on arriving in London, and shot it at Piccadilly Circus lights. It was probably the least unusual thing going on there, despite Toby being a real rat on this occasion (we’d used a puppet previously).

Egypt’s tourism minister Rania Al-Mashat prepares for a live interview at Bloomberg.

One of a set of portraits for Freesat at their offices.

(above and below) I was sent to photograph BTS of the judges and finalists of for Toyota Mobility Foundation’s $4 million ‘Mobility Unlimited Challenge’ at the offices of (partner) Nesta, the Innovation Foundation. Innovators from around the world presented their technologies aimed to improve the lives of people with lower limb paralysis.

(above and below) Global industry leaders came together for the live launch of the Alliance to End Plastic Waste (AEPW) at the Leadenhall building.

(above and below) A circus skills workshop for students ahead of Cirque du Soleil’s Totem

Also for Mousetrap Theatre Projects, I photographed a Relaxed Performance of Motown - The Musical. These performances are designed for families with children with special needs.

I ran a (very) informal photography session, and took photos of visitors, at Facebook London’s annual ‘Take Your Parents to Work’ day. This is me - and I don’t like having my picture taken.

(above and below) Product shots for Fruitflow.

MP Ed Miliband speaks about Net Zero Britain at Portcullis House (a discussion on climate policy, not Brexit).

From the archives - five

Another selection of images from the past few years which never made the cut.

(Above and Below) Shot near Cardinal Place, these two images were from a publicity shoot as part of the “Create Victoria” campaign for Land Sec.

I also found this old one, also for Land Sec, from a shoot at One New Change, beside St Paul’s Cathedral, where they put on a (slightly gothic) fairytale event.

For Mousetrap Theatre Projects, this portrait was part of a feature on their Youth Forum.

This photograph was taken at Unum’s rather lovely headquarters in Surrey.

Actor Martin Freeman at an event.

Recent work - October 2018

I cover a range of commissions outside portraiture. I enjoy the variety and the learning; challenges, ideas, approaches and techniques from one shoot usually come up again. Here’s a selection of recent(ish) work:

University of London networking evening.

A PR stunt for Epson to illustrate the loneliness felt by many UK freelancers. Vicki Psarias (aka blogger Honest Mum) worked for a day from inside a perspex box, situated near Covent Garden.

Rehearsal images at the National Theatre for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

Patricia Hodge and David Suchet at a fundraising gala for Mousetrap Theatre Projects.

(above) Also for Mousetrap, their annual awards ceremony, The Mousetraps.

(below) All the following images are from various Mousetrap workshops, events and projects.

From the archives - four

Netflix & Woof

I’m a cat person, and I watch Netflix.

I might binge from time to time, but in my defence I normally have one or both of my cats asleep on my lap, and I consider it a cruelty to move from the sofa.

According to a survey by Netflix, most people prefer to watch box sets with their pets. There’s no chance of spoilers - or, worse - cheating. 

The study also claims: “More than a third of respondents (37%) have moved where they were sitting so their pet would be more comfortable, 22% have bribed them with treats to watch longer, and some (12%) have even gone so far as turning off a show because their pet didn’t appear to like it.”

Anyway, to accompany the study, I was commissioned to photograph behind the scenes for a light-hearted video shoot - Netflix & Woof - at Dogs Trust, Basildon, with some very well-trained dogs.

(During the afternoon, the tiniest puppy ever was brought in to reception. Despite being a committed ailurophile, I did consider making space in my camera bag to bring it home. It was the size of a lens, and not even one of the large ones.)

I'm not at liberty to publish all the images, but here's a flavour.

Picture credits: Alex Rumford/Dogs Trust:

Recent work - October 2017

Here's another selection of images taken over the past few months. There's something about taking commissioned work out of context and with less explanation than with a typical blog post, and putting them into these 'mixed bag' posts. Especially those shots may have come from larger series, but which would have been picked here as being the most interesting, the most representative of the set etc. Without some blog-type explanation, they could be anything, so you can see them on their own merits rather than as the usual (and rather boring-sounding), "examples of commissioned work". 

Vauxhall animation

Vauxhall put together a stop-frame animation about the typical frustrations drivers experience for their new Mokka. (Above) I photographed our model running through the gamut of expressions. Then (below) from every angle:

(Below) We then covered dozens of gestures and reactions as sequences, both left-handed and right-handed, with different expressions. 

(Below) BTS:

Recent work - June 2017

Here's a collection of (mostly) recent shots:

For this portrait, I used the Magmod gobo to create a window light. Really lovely bit of kit!

A quick portrait for the charity Sense, who were working with Wayne McGregor dance at their new studios at the Olympic park.

Product photography for Fruitflow, a natural supplement which improves blood flow.

Noma Dumezweni, who plays Hermione in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, wins best actress at the Mousetrap Awards.

Shot for The Times, there weren't many options for this portrait of an entrepreneur. They wanted him photographed outside next to some goalposts. Sadly, the goals were half-size and we only had a few minutes before the kids' teams took over the pitch. We did what we could, but it quickly turned into the photographer's (dreaded) "Man in a Field" situation, which I obliged but - well, let's just say there won't be a blog post about this shoot. As the saying goes, "I don't want excuses -I want pictures."

Roy G. Biv and all that. Apparently, Isaac Newton added the indigo (previously they used to think there were three colours, then five, then six in a rainbow). And nobody knew what a rainbow was until the 17th century. The Greeks thought rainbows were a path created by the goddess of the rainbow, Iris, linking us to the immortals. Anyway, there aren't three, five, six or seven colours, but millions, all blending into one another.

Huawei - The New Aesthetic

At the end of 2016, MA Design: Ceramics, Furniture, Jewellery and MA Industrial Design students at Central Saint Martin's College were tasked with a brief to create new accessories for the brand, based around the concept of "The New Aesthetic". The winner and runner-up designs were developed into models and showcased at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona to coincide with the launch of Huawei's P10 phone.

David Kim, Huawei Brand Director, introduces the brief and gives a background to the company. Not so well-known here, yet Huawei is the world's 3rd largest smartphone vendor, after Samsung and Apple.

Two design masterclasses followed later from Mark Delaney, Head of Huawei London Design Centre, and Abi Brody - formerly of Apple, PayPal and eBay - who is Chief Designer + VP at Huawei Consumer.

In February, students presented their ideas in front of the panel of judges from Huawei and CSM.

The winning design - Spectra - is a necklace which scans colours and textures, transforming them into sounds.

The user can "collect" sounds to create a kind of music as a way to document their experiences of a place.

The entries are debated until late in the afternoon, and the winning team announced.

The winners - Spectra.

Framing 101

I don't do weddings, pets, or selfies. But I had a quick, informal shoot recently: general pictures of an LG stand displaying some of their incredible products, including a £4.5K OLED television, the thickness of two (!?) credit cards, and a refrigerator which opens when you stand in front of it. Anyway, they also had a washing machine on display, and for the last shot of the visit I thought it might be fun* to get a photo from inside: of me in my own photo. Actually, I knew it would take several attempts and doubted I could get a customer to pose for long enough.

I lit the drum with our iphones, and supported the camera with a stack of various Gary Fong rubber flash modifiers. I'll bring a fisheye lens next time. 

* Fun in it's loosest definition. 

Rose Bruford

I was commissioned to shoot around a few of the backstages courses taught at Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance in Sidcup for their prospectus. Here are a few images from the set: