People at work
I love photographing people at work, watching the process and then identifying the action that sums up what they are doing in one single image. I spent the majority of my life as a photographer photographing work and workers. I firmly believe that if you want to be a fully fledged photographer you have to take other people’s pictures for money before you are able to take your own. It is essential that you have worked to a brief with a designer or art director as you learn a lot and your creative boundaries are stretched. For a large part of my career I worked for businesses, photographing all over the world for company reports. Quite often this was not in exotic locations: for example an LNG construction plant on the mouth of the Congo river; sealed medical labs or New Orleans sewer works at dawn but I loved these assignments as I would arrive somewhere and immediately have to find ‘the picture’ and set about organising it. This was not the taking of the picture but the making of the picture.
Waitresses in Ed Bebevics Restaurant in Chicago
Courvoisier Brandy promotion in a nightclub in Taipai, Taiwan.
Drinks waiters in the Oberoi Hotel, Mumbai India
Beefeater Gin Promotion in a nightclub in Madrid, Spain
Buckingham University Law School library
Bakers in Lisbon, Portugal
Symbol Biscuits Factory, Blackpool
Tetley Tea Blender
The Master Sherry Blender, in a Bodega, Jerez
Aston Martin Cars - Panel Beater
Red Pigment Manufacture, Basel
Front Mirror Manufactur, Los Angeles
Polio Vaccination production, Verona
Circuit Board Development, Texes Instruments, Houston
Molasses Tanks for Somerset
Paint Lab, Basel
Sugar Cane Harvester, Swaziland
Harvesting Agave for tequila, Mexico
Truck tyres being made in Dunlop's factory in Lagos, Nigeria. This picture was taken on Kodachrome 200 film, it was not around for long but it had wonderful gritty grain, perfect for this type of industrial picture.
Thistle Hotels staff, London
A-Man Hing Cheong Tailor's Shop, Hong Kong
Nottingham miners at the coal face for Castrol Specialty Oils,
Greene Man Pub, Portland Street, London
Fashion Photography
David Bailey maintains that to be a good portrait photographer you must have worked for a fashion client. I totally agree! I photographed a number of knitwear and work wear catalogues, sometimes up to 15/20 garments a day on location so it had to be a real team effort. The models knew how to make a garment look its best, whatever it was. Working with professional models taught me so much including how to put people at ease, how to stand and the modelling effect of light.
