Makers

QEST - Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust

All these makers belong to QEST. I photographed 106 of them for the book A Celebration of British Craftsmanship. A commission like this is so rare that it can be one of the highlights of a career. I was so grateful for the QEST staff’s trust in me. On day one, when I met the first four scholars, I realised that I was going to spend the next five months in the company of extraordinary, clever people and therefore my photography had to do them justice. The book had to be a body of work and not a random collection of pictures. Phil Clever, the designer, and I agreed that the book would be portrait format and that nearly all the people photographed would be looking directly at the camera - at me. I wanted there to be a relationship between us, reflecting the fact that we made the portrait together. Many of the chosen images came from the last 15 frames, when that all important bond between photographer and subject has been formed.

I have continued to photograph QEST scholars. It is such a pleasure to take portraits of them and of their work.