This time, I thought rather than hearing from me, I’d share a blog that my friend Tessa Simpson from brilliant design agency, O Street, has written about my collaboration with them on Kenema and a recent exhibition that we hosted in London. I’ve enjoyed working with O Street on many a client project and this is a personal project that is particularly close to my heart, so it was great that they wanted to get involved.
Back in March, PR and Press extraordinaire Neil Davidson and I spent a couple of days up in the glorious highlands on a shoot for Green Highland Renewables. We were there to shoot four new developments that the company have been working on, including one that I’d photographed a couple of years ago.
Although it feels like yesterday, I realised recently that it has been ten years since I did photography for the Edinburgh International Film Festival‘s ‘new’ branding.
Lucy is the Interim Chief Executive of the National Theatre of Scotland and I had the pleasure of photographing her a couple of weeks ago. Here’s a couple of my favourite images from the shoot.
A nice bit of news to share with you this chilly Friday afternoon – I am delighted to announce that three of my images have been selected for Creative Review’s Photography Annual 2016. Every year, a judging panel of industry experts selects photographs which present ‘the best in visual communications from the past year’, to celebrate new work in the field of photography. The winners feature in renowned creative magazine, Creative Review. The standard is always world-class, so as you can imagine, I was humbled and delighted when I heard the news last month that I was to be part of the selection. In fact, it was a very difficult secret to keep.
In the flurry of “International day of the….” events currently appearing, there seems to be a day for everything. But today being the United Nations’ International Day of the Girl Child seems something really worth celebrating and making note of. Those that follow this blog will know that I support, in any way I possibly can, Swawou – a small school in Kenema, Sierra Leone. Today I take my hat off to them.
Student at Swawou School, Sierra Leone.
Learning to smile.
Today is World Smile Day. As a portrait photographer, I spend a lot of my time studying people’s faces and their smiles. Sometimes I want people to smile in my photos and sometimes I don’t. It all depends on what I am trying to capture. But in this age of selfies, and cameras on mobile phones, I’ve noticed the decline of the smile and the rise of the pout.
Well, not quite, but it is an honour not many people get – to say that their work will be featured on literally millions of pounds – and I’m delighted that I will be able to claim that honour.
At the start of 2016, Royal Bank of Scotland were commissioning new banknotes. After asking the public to help choose who should feature, Mary Somerville was selected for the ten pound note. She and Nan Shepherd (who will feature on the new five pound note) will be the first women to have their portraits on Scottish banknotes.
The finished product – Royal Bank of Scotland’s new ten pound note
One of my good friends and fellow Summerhall residents is the brilliant pianist, Will Pickvance. I’ve known Will for a few years now and have collaborated on a few projects. Most recently, Will needed some photos for his new Fringe Festival show, Pianomorphosis.
One of the final posters for Will’s show, Pianomorphosis
One of the brilliant things about being a photographer is that often I am one of the very first people to see a product, an exhibition or a show, before the public. This was the case at the beginning of July, when the National Museum of Scotland asked me to shoot their ten new galleries of Art, Design, Fashion, Science and Technology. I’m a big fan of the museum and I’ve followed their incredible transformation in recent years, so I was delighted to have the honour of being the very first person to capture the latest stage of their development.
Learning about communications in the Science and Technology galleries
