Ian McShane: Commanding the Darkness (Rory Lewis Portrait Photographer 2025) — Ian McShane: Commanding the Darkness (Rory Lewis Portrait Photographer 2014)

Ian McShane is an English actor, director, producer, and voice artist whose career spans decades of iconic screen work. From Lovejoy to Deadwood, Pirates of the Caribbean, and more recently John Wick, McShane is a true screen legend. Whether portraying a lawless saloon owner, the urbane and dangerous Winston of the John Wick universe, or the most seductively menacing of British mobsters, he has repeatedly captivated audiences by inhabiting rogues, scoundrels, and villains with irresistible charisma.

“The devil has the best tunes,” McShane once remarked with a gleam in his eye—and few actors embody that sentiment more convincingly. He was named “TV’s Sexiest Villain” by People magazine and included among GQ’s “Men of the Year,” which described his portrayal of Deadwood’s Al Swearengen as both “infectious” and “irresistible.”

Hailing from Blackburn, McShane was an essential inclusion in my Northerners portrait exhibition. I contacted his agency and was fortunate to learn that he was in London promoting his new film, Cuban Fury.

When Ian arrived at Bleeding Heart Yard Photography Studios, he brought with him the energy and drive of a man half his age—it was easy to forget he was 71 at the time. Before the session, we spoke at length, and he shared a story from his early career: skipping his final term at RADA to make The Wild and the Willing.

“They told me, ‘If you do this film, you might not get your certificate.’ What—do I need a bit of paper on the wall telling me I’m an actor?” he laughed. The certificate did eventually arrive, signed by John Gielgud. McShane later reminded Gielgud of this when he appeared on an episode of Lovejoy.

“I said, ‘Thanks for signing my RADA certificate, John.’
‘Oh, dear boy, not at all…’
He kept calling me Loveboy.
‘Loveboy, I say…’
‘John, it’s Lovejoy.’
‘Lovejoy, Loveboy—who cares?’”

Photographing Ian was an extraordinary experience. As a devoted Deadwood fan, I jokingly asked him during the shoot to “give me the Al Swearengen look.” Without missing a beat, he replied in that unmistakable voice, “You’ll have to pay me for that.”

The session itself was intentionally stripped back—simple expressions, black backdrops, and no distractions. The resulting portraits reveal the texture, authority, and unmistakable presence of Ian McShane: a lifetime of performance distilled into a single frame, and a man who, from Deadwood to John Wick, continues to command the screen with effortless gravitas.

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Northerners

Early in my career, like many photographers, I balanced a broad commercial workload — shooting everything from industrial products to aspiring actors — while yearning to focus on portraiture that was deeply human, expressive, and timeless. By my early thirties, I felt the urgency to define my artistic voice and create work that reflected who I truly was as a photographer. I knew that to attract the attention of editors, curators, and agents, I needed to produce a body of work entirely on my own terms — one that would both challenge and inspire.

Hailing from Blackburn, McShane was an essential inclusion in my Northerners portrait exhibition. I contacted his agency and was fortunate to learn that he was in London promoting his new film, Cuban Fury.

“I said, ‘Thanks for signing my RADA certificate, John.’‘Oh, dear boy, not at all…’He kept calling me Loveboy.‘Loveboy, I say…’‘John, it’s Lovejoy.’‘Lovejoy, Loveboy—who cares?’”

Photographing Ian was an extraordinary experience. As a devoted Deadwood fan, I jokingly asked him during the shoot to “give me the Al Swearengen look.” Without missing a beat, he replied in that unmistakable voice, “You’ll have to pay me for that.”

“I said, ‘Thanks for signing my RADA certificate, John.’
‘Oh, dear boy, not at all…’
He kept calling me Loveboy.
‘Loveboy, I say…’
‘John, it’s Lovejoy.’
‘Lovejoy, Loveboy—who cares?’”