Ten days at Bleeding Heart Yard — a short season of sittings, commissions and teaching.
London, 16–26 November: Headshots, Portraits, Military and Royal Commissions, and One-to-One Tuition
From Monday 16 to Thursday 26 November I’ll be back at the Farringdon studio. London visits have a way of filling quickly, so I wanted to set out plainly what the diary has room for this time: headshots and portraits for individuals, executive and C-suite sittings, military portraiture, formal and royal commissions, and a small number of one-to-one tuition sessions for photographers who want to learn how this kind of light is made.
It’s a broad list, but it rests on a single way of working. Whether the sitter is a general, a chief executive or a young actor, the approach is the same one I’ve followed for twenty-three years: directional light, deep shadow, an unhurried sitting, and a careful reading of the person in front of the camera. It is a tradition that runs from Holbein at the Tudor court through Van Dyck and Rembrandt, and it has never been tied to one kind of sitter.
Headshots and portraits a portrait that looks like them on their best and most composed day — for a profile, a book jacket, a speaking engagement, or simply because it’s time. Sessions are relaxed and unhurried, with the lighting shaped to the individual face rather than applied as a formula.
CEO and C-suite headshots
The executive portrait has a long history. The merchants of Amsterdam and the courtiers of Whitehall commissioned portraits for the same reasons a board does today: to set down authority, judgement and character in a single, lasting image. A portrait for an annual report, an official biography or the boardroom wall has to hold its standing for years, not just for the next announcement.
I photograph chairs, chief executives, partners and senior leadership teams, either at the studio — a short walk from the City, Holborn and Clerkenwell — or on location at offices across London.
Military portraiture
Military portraiture sits close to the centre of my practice. I’ve been commissioned to photograph the Royal Regiments of the British Army, and more than 150 of those works have been acquired by the National Army Museum. The genre carries its own weight of history — from the Napoleonic campaigns to the present day, the officer’s portrait has recorded not only a face but a service, a regiment and a moment.
I’m happy to hear from regiments, messes and associations planning commissions, and from serving and former personnel seeking an individual portrait. Through Heroes in Focus, the nonprofit I founded, I also continue to make portraits of those who have served.
Royal and formal commissions
