Fiona Bruce

It’s not long  since I stopped categorising my newsletters.  One of the reasons I stopped was that some shoots just didn’t fit into my most common subject matter, and therefor got left behind.  For example, I sat on a folder with politicians and topical/political journalists without ever sharing these.  Fiona Bruce was one of those shoots - shot a few months before the Covid pandemic came and changed the world forever.

Fiona came in at the agreed time, full of energy, and settled down in the basement studio under a trendy Haggerston cafe in East London.  I asked if we could get her anything and she had already clocked the pastry in the cafe on the ground floor, wanting it accompanied by a weak tea.  I left her to enjoy a little grooming before the shoot. When she stepped in I started talking to her about her early life, getting a little money from modelling for picture stories in the teenage magazine ‘Jackie’.  I was actually genuinely intrigued as I used to see those picture stories around when I was a kid, and it’s such a thing of the past.  Fiona confided in me that she used to love doing them as she could always get people she fancied in to play the male role.

Shot for Observer New Review

Ravneet Gill - Diwali

First time I worked with Rav was for a mothers-day shoot.  I was commissioned to photograph her, her mum and her grandma in one shot.  When they turned up I did not only meet very nice, fun and friendly Rav, but her mum and grandma were great characters too.  Such a great trio!  I have to admit that there was a slight language barrier between Rav’s grandma and me - but somehow the humour and a sense of understanding each other was definitely there. 

So - it was with great pleasure that I received a commission to photograph the trio again.  This time to coincide with Rav’s new book release - as well as the celebration of light day, Diwali.  Rav had also brought some friends over to help enhance the feeling of festivity. 

In order to give an impression of us celebrating Diwali - I wanted to create a dark and atmospheric room with candles and food decoration.  I was sent props to use and the shoot was to take place in Rav’s place. I was given 2 hours to setup and shoot, but Rav was happy to extend the time a little when I got there.  2 hours was tight, but especially as I got there to see a 3 meter diameter glass dome above the room we were shooting in, and it was a bright sunny day.  One thing is to expose the daylight away with flash, but I also needed to bring some atmosphere out with the candles.  I took what blankets I had, ripped off the paper backdrop and got ready to cover as much of the glass dome as I could.  However - the glass dome was 6 meters above me so the only way to get to it was to climb through a tiny window, in the top end of Rav’s bedroom window, to get to the roof.  I am already not a very flexible with my almost 2 meter height, seeing me climb through that window was a sight to behold.  (I never knew I could get my knee behind my ears - a move I had to perfect to get out.). I covered what I could of the window and got on with setting up the grand Diwali celebration table with the props I had.  We managed to create a setting that had some of the intended atmosphere.  Rav’s friends and family were not only lovely to work with, but managed to look and act relaxed and festive.

Rav comes across as a nice and friendly person when on TV. Having met Rav on several occasions now, I can truly vouch for her being the friendly, fun, and a sparkly, kind person.  Having met her friends and especially her family, also gives a depth to understanding who Rav is, and she is exactly as you would hope from seeing her on TV.  

I hope to work with Rav again, and if her mum and grandma is there too then that’s a-ok with me.  Maybe next time we’ll get them all posing as Charlie’s Angels.  I can especially see Rav’s grandma Biji getting into that…

Shot for Waitrose Food Magazine

Nish Kumar

The British have always been good at political comedy and political satire.  I remember being in the UK as a teenager and my granddad always watched Have I Got News For You - (a program that hasn’t changed in over 30 years and is still very good).  There have been many other programs finding the humour in the news and politics especially, and one of the current ones is the Mash Report with Nish Kumar.  Nish is known for Mash Report, but also his stand up comedy and other comedy performances often dealing with politics and news.  

So for this shoot with Nish I started thinking about what I could do to include a bit of humour and visually show that Nish deals with current events, news and politics in his humour.  I started thinking down the lines of using newspapers as props.  We all know the classic newspaper hats - but how about newspaper flowers, newspaper wigs, newspaper chairs and a newspaper cape?!  I spent an evening looking into how to make it all.  Emptied cupboards for tape and glue, found a good arts and crafts shop to get other bits and pieces, and lastly emptied my magazine stand for old newspapers.  

I had planned to have a boys drinks and catchup session with my friends from Norway over zoom.  Instead, I sat there, half chatting on zoom, whilst swearing over the newspaper roses for not doing what I wanted them to do.  I got there in the end, but instead of taking 30 minutes which I had at first thought would be the case, it took 5 hours. (Anyway - now I am an expert in case anyone is looking for someone to create newspaper props.)

Armed with my newspaper props I turned up at the south London studio to prepare the final things.  Nish turned up and we were ready to kick off.  Nice guy!  Just as you see him on TV.  We talked about his A-list friends whom I have worked with (James Acaster and Joel Dommet especially), the cricket club incident - (a live show at the cricket club where he was pelted with bread rolls - and they missed,) and his up and coming comedy show.  All to the backdrop of some slow dance country music.  

Shot for Observer Magazine

Liz Bonnin

Liz Bonnin is one of the best known faces of the natural world.  For those of you who are not familiar with Liz’s work, she at the forefront in the battle against plastic and reports on issues effecting the natural world. She’s a natural history presenter, biochemist, wild animal biologist, has presented Top of the Pops, and started her career by being a backing vocalist for the band The Pale. Yep - on paper that is the same as saying “living the dream”.  Not only has she done all the jobs I would have loved to do (apart from my current job of being a photographer, which is pretty epic,) but she is genuinely lovely to work with.  

As if she hadn’t done enough epic things already - on the shoot Liz was excited about working on the Planet Earth Live in Concert - a live show at the O2 arena. And what a show that will be when the Corona virus is finally under wraps and we are all allowed out on big events again.  At the moment that looks to be spring 2022.  

Shot for Saga Magazine