2023, a year in review
Each year I do a retrospective of my work in printed form, a book of my favourite photos that I have taken that year. This is just for me, a keepsake but also an important medium to measure myself with year on year.
TWENTY THREE
I believe photos should be printed, released from the trappings of their digital siblings. I much prefer the physical aspect of a photo, feeling the texture of the paper and seeing how the image changes in the light. Honestly, I’d rather pick some gorgeous stock and print out a bunch of images and just stitch them together myself. But book binding is an art form I have yet to learn. One day perhaps!
Photography is a funny medium, you can be easily fooled into thinking you know it all but in reality there is always more to learn. I am a firm believer in every day being a school day, especially so in the creative world. So this mechanism of reviewing a years work against another is, in my opinion, a healthy way to keep match fit.
The past year has been a bit of a bumper year, TWENTY THREE is nearly 100 pages, 30 more than last year! But that is also reflective of a rather unusual year for me. I have been busy with my camera both in my studio, but also travelling. A nice mix of people and places, my favourite part of photography. Below are some of the photos and a short video that shows the finished book. Along with an accompanying story that outlines how each shoot came about.
My first shoot of 23 was with Artemis Fauna at my studio. We had a brilliant shoot together, some fun fashion and editorial shots with her very creative styling. I didn’t know it then but this would be an important inflection point as we would later meet up in Sicily together.
The next visitor to my studio was Yoho who was a tiny whirlwind of movement and creativity. We had a very eclectic mood board with various lighting set ups and looks that Yoho easily switched between. We had a great time and importantly produced some great images together. From there I went to a daylight studio in Andover and worked with Laura Bowes. I love shooting in daylight studios, doing away with the control of typical studio lighting and switching between flat and hard light as the clouds dictate the moment. Laura is fabulous to shoot with, she is so confident and natural with it. She doesn’t pose as such, she is just herself. Another great shoot and one that warranted many pages in this years book.
It was Elle Baldwinson who visited my studio next. We’d been chatting for a bit but she lives up north and it seemed unlikely we’d shoot together, until now! She happened to be near by and we worked together one afternoon in March. This girl is so full of energy it beggars belief, I have some great BTS video of her bouncing around in front of the camera as she contorted herself to my slight direction. The resulting images were brilliant and another fun set of pages to go into the book.
Later in April Natasha Groves returned to the studio, this was our second shoot together and just as much fun as before. She was full of beans, always very excited to get shooting and whilst she is (was) new to modelling she was eager to learn and I could see she had picked up a lot since we last shot together. I love shooting with happy people and Tash is someone who is happy out of the box which always makes for fun images.
This is where things take a change in pace! By now it was the beginning of May, I was about to turn fifty (Eeek!), the country was about to crown the King but more importantly I was going to start a five week sabbatical from work! A real privilege and one I planned to focus on travelling with my camera. I had booked a couple of trips that allowed me to travel back home in between so as not to miss the kids birthdays.
First up I was off to Montpellier in the South of France, or rather Coumeilho which is an hour and half away. I was to be staying with Renée and Wendy in their home. Renée is a photographer of much acclaim, but she also hosts other photographers. The idea being you spend a week photographing a model and eating Wendy’s amazing French cuisine, who doesn’t want that!. This was all a bit new to me, but I am always up for an adventure. Magena Yama would the model for the week and we quickly got on. We would shoot in the day at a nice relaxed pace and then review the images in the evenings. I really enjoyed the company of the three ladies, they had worked together for over eight years and were firm friends and it was nice to be part of it. I especially enjoyed chatting all things photography with Renée, she has seen it all and we had fun swapping stories.
I had planned to stay on in Montpellier before heading home and by chance Anaïs had just moved back to Montpellier from London. I enjoyed being a tourist in this new city and used the time to explore and scout for locations prior to our planned shoot together the next day. We were lucky with the weather and Anaïs walked confidently across the cobbled stones in her high heels as we retraced my steps from the day before. We created some brilliant and very French shots together, the beautiful city was a suiting backdrop for some street fashion and Anaïs shone in her native habitat.
Home time! Well, almost. I flew back to London and had prearranged to meet up with Sara Scarlet who was in town for a few days. Sara had contacted me to see if we could shoot together and I had a morning free before my train home. It was a bright and sunny day and we met up by St Paul’s. I had a route planned from the cathedral that took us over the Millennium Bridge to the Tate Modern (we actually took photos in there, I know!) and from there to St Mary’s Axe (The Gherkin) and finally to Farringdon Station, I LOVE the new tunnels on the Elizabeth Line. Sara was lots of fun and was clearly a pro as she didn’t blink as she posed in front of the city, thick with tourists and school trips. We had a great time using the London locations for some street fashion and ended up in a pub in Paddington to chat about our shared industry.
Back home we celebrated the boys birthday for a few days and my studio was turned into a party room for his friends. The following week I headed to Italy for the next trip of my sabbatical. I was to meet Artemis Fauna once more, this time in Ragusa in Sicily as it turns out she organises photo events abroad. She rents a large villa in a cool location and invites a select collection of models and photographers for a weeks holiday come photo experience. Great company, awesome locations and lovely food, all you have to do show up with a camera. I was sold! To top it off, one of Artemis’s close friends Carla Monaco (cover of last years book) was to be our chef! How lucky were we!
The week was spent shooting on beaches, in the old town or kicking about in our gorgeous villa along with Artemis, Clara Rene and Kate Snig, each one a creative force in their own right. Sooo many amazing photos and best of all some wonderful memories. I love to travel, meet new people and take photos and this was a very generous helping of all of that.
The side story to this trip is that I was looking for my next location to visit on my sabbatical and it was my wife, Cleia who suggested Malta as it was a short ferry ride away from Sicily. Artemis had put me in touch with Kate prior to our trip as she was also keen on visiting Malta so we worked up a plan to travel around the islands together and continue to take photos. We started off in Valletta on the main land and had a riot taking some street fashion in the ancient buildings and fortifications. But it was our trip to Gozo that would be the real prize. The salt pans and the shots we took there were an important part of my sabbatical and thinking back I can honestly say they were a highlight of the year. A separate book or similar to follow. By now Kate and I were good friends, we had discovered we shared the same birthday and had a very similar take on art. It was clear there would be more photos to take together. I just didn’t expect that to happen as soon as it did…
I flew back to the UK for my daughters birthday and some much needed family catch up time. For my next trip I had booked a cheap trip to NYC (BA were having a sale) and was to stay with my cousin and aunt and uncle there. In addition, I had arranged to shoot with Marisa Roper whilst there. We had planned to use the city for some street fashion but the Canadian wildfires covered the city in a thick orange fog that caused a change in plans. Not wanting to give in, I booked a studio in Chinatown and we had an awesome time shooting together. She was so much fun (we laughed so much on this shoot), but also it was nice shooting with an actress again. I vowed to try and shoot with Marisa again should I make it back to NYC in the future. Marisa is on the cover of this years book.
Back in the UK it was early June and the end of my sabbatical ergo, back to weekend shoots. My next one was with Xenia who I had wanted to shoot with for ages. She made it to my studio and I had a carefully planned mood board that we both worked through together. She is both model and makeup artist but also incredibly creative and I knew we would have a great shoot together. We covered a range of looks from fashion, beauty and some great hard light black and white. I absolutely loved shooting with Xenia and came away with so many treasured shots from our short time together. Little did I know that this would be the last shoot in my studio that year.
July was busy with work and my weekends were busy with editing from my past shoots. It wasn’t until mid August that I was contacted by Shivani who’s agent had pointed her my way for a portfolio update. We arranged to meet after work in Paddington station and used the industrial backdrop as our location. It was a brief hour and a half but we managed several outfit changes and the hard afternoon sunlight was amazing, at times it was like being in a studio. Shivani is young but also surprisingly mature and experienced. I love meeting new people and getting the best out of them and this was no exception, we had a great time together and produced some lovely and honest shots.
Later that month I met up with Holly, Ivoryflame who I had not seen in a year and a half. Holly is important to me, we had stayed in touch since I last worked with her and she was instrumental in me going to Utah but also meeting her two close friends, Carla and Artemis. I was in the circle of modelling royalty! Holly had booked a lovely rustic studio in North London and we had a fabulous time shooting together in the afternoon. We bounced off each other’s energy and used the awesome location to our advantage. Holly is quiet and gentle as a person, but like a laser as model, always on fire!
By now it was October and work took me to Nashville with a layover in NYC on the way back. So rather than fly straight home, I arranged to stay in NYC over the weekend. Happily Marisa wasn’t busy so we organised a shoot together on the Saturday in a gorgeous daylight studio below the Empire State Building. Marisa had brought an amazing collection of clothes and knowing how we each work it was easy to pick up where we left off in June. Another awesome shoot and many more memorable laughs. I love honest and real images and these just come flowing when we shoot together.
That should have been it for NYC but it just so happened that Kate (from Sicily and Malta) happened to be in town! So we had supper and worked out a short shoot together the following day. We met up in my cousin’s apartment below the Empire State Building (a happy theme) and used the roof for some fun NYC city shots. We then went down into the subway and took some of my favourite shots of Kate. Yes, Gozo wins, but these were carefully planned and came out better than expected.
Back in London and it was November. I was contacted by the agent who looked after Shivani. A new model was in town and also needed a portfolio update. Rhodé and I met up in a studio in Hackney. It was late in the day and dark in the daylight studio but filled with studio light and laugher. We hit it off early on created some brilliant images together. Rhodé has an off the shelf, high fashion look about her, something that was magnified when I suggested we slick her hair back and use some of her make up skills to darken her eyes. We used the local pub to review our shots and there she told me she was 18, I honest wouldn’t have guessed. Her Dutch heigh and inherent confidence masked the fact that she was a year younger than my daughter. I was quickly proud of her and her achievements and happy to help her on her modelling journey.
The year was coming to a close but unbeknownst to me I had a couple more shoots to go before it ended. Candice Lam and I had been chatting for a bit, she introduced herself by saying “I see you know my hooty friend Marisa” and wanted to see if we could shoot together in NYC. A few months later she had planned to be in London and we agreed to shoot together soon after she landed. Candice is a whirlwind of energy and so creative with it. Like Marisa she is more actress than model. Candice took over the tunes and we worked through most of the outfits she brought in the short time we had together. I loved shooting with her, it was the first time in a while I was dealing with someone with more energy than me and she seemed to be on a mission. After a wealth of awesome images, I packaged Candice and her boyfriend off to Dishoom, a popular restaurant in Covent Garden. What a fun and productive shoot!
My final shoot of the year was with another person I hadn’t seen in a while, Anna Zapala. Anna and I had shot together in early 2022 but this would be the first time we shot together 1:1. Anna is Polish and comes from Kraków. I’m a big fan of Polish people having worked closely with them over the past twenty years, Anna is unassuming and yet remarkable. She is self made and industrious, with many side businesses on the go. It was a cold November day, her slight figure was not designed for this weather but as the studio warmed up she became her happy and energetic self. We had so much fun shooting together and somehow didn’t run out of energy despite it being a full day. I came away with an army of photos to edit. Another great shoot of 2023!
It was time to edit some images and see which ones were print worthy. I had taken a lot of photos that year but as Henri Cartier-Bresson once said, “Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst”. A statement I agree with (or can at least stomach). It’s certainly a lot better than the old adage, “you are only as good as your worst photo” which genuinely terrifies me!
It was a very good and productive year, one that makes me excited for the year ahead.
NB: The video has gone rather soft and white after uploading it, something to do with the compression this website uses.
