For much of my life, British comedy has been a formative influence—not simply as entertainment, but as a lens through which human behaviour, discomfort, and contradiction are examined. Few creative forces shaped that understanding more profoundly than The League of Gentlemen. Its world of grotesque beauty, psychological unease, and pitch-black humour revealed that comedy could be as atmospheric and unsettling as it was funny—an approach that continues to inform my portrait practice today.
Behind the Lens with Actor Paul Kaye: A Journey Through Time in ChronoVisions (Rory Lewis London Portrait Photographer 2024)
The quartet behind the series— Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton, Reece Shearsmith, and Jeremy Dyson—redefined the boundaries of British television comedy. Their work demonstrated that humour could coexist with horror, empathy with cruelty, and theatricality with restraint. As a teenager, encountering their work opened a doorway to a form of storytelling that was stylised, psychologically rich, and unapologetically strange—qualities that still guide my approach to portraiture.
Portraiture, like comedy, depends on timing, precision, and the controlled revelation of truth. The comedians I am drawn to are those who operate in the space between laughter and unease, where humour becomes a mechanism for exposing deeper human realities. It is this tension—between performance and vulnerability—that I seek to explore through light, expression, and stillness.
Capturing the Essence of Steve Pemberton: A Portrait Session with Rory Lewis (London Portrait Photographer)
In 2024, I photographed Steve Pemberton, one half of the creative engine behind Inside No. 9 and Psychoville. Steve brings an immediacy to the camera that is both playful and intellectually alert. There is a sense that he is always observing, always constructing narrative beneath the surface. His portrait remains one of my most personal works, precisely because it resists overt performance in favour of quiet intelligence.
That journey continued in London with Reece Shearsmith. A master craftsman of character and emotional rhythm, Reece moves effortlessly between comedy and horror—sometimes within a single expression. Photographing him felt akin to working with a classical actor: subtle shifts in posture and gaze carried disproportionate emotional weight. The resulting portraits lean into theatrical shadow and restraint, echoing the dark formalism that has come to define much of his work.
Reece Shearsmith Portrait Sitting, Rory Lewis Photographer London 2025
Completing half of the League of Gentlemen quartet now feels like a meaningful milestone. The ambition to one day photograph Mark Gatiss and Jeremy Dyson remains—not as a checklist, but as a continuation of a dialogue between influence and practice. Together, their work shaped not only a generation of viewers, but also my own understanding of how atmosphere, character, and narrative can coexist within a single frame.
My engagement with comedy portraiture extends beyond The League of Gentlemen. Photographing Paul Kaye for my ChronoVisions series allowed me to explore humour through historical abstraction. Known for Dennis Pennis and later for dramatic roles such as Thoros of Myr in Game of Thrones, Paul moves effortlessly between absurdity and gravity. In costume and character, he embodied the core premise of ChronoVisions: time collapsing, personas overlapping, comedy giving way to something more mythic and reflective.
From the Lens of Rory Lewis: Capturing the Multifaceted Talent of Greg Davies (Portrait Photographer Rory Lewis (London 2024)