Masters of photography
Whilst looking at Instagram Stories one day, I saw a number of clips of my friends out cycling, rock climbing, showing off their Strava time, and holding that big fish that they just caught, when it hit me – I don’t do any of this. My hobby, my only hobby, is photography. It’s what I think about constantly. It’s what excites and motivates me.
A decade ago I was working as an acting agent in Central London when I realised I really didn’t want to live off other people’s creativity; I wanted to be creative myself. So I bought my first camera, spent my time trying out all different kinds of photography, and came to the conclusion that what I enjoyed the most was taking pictures of people. Just real, spontaneous, emotive, interesting photographs that capture the human condition.
It was an amazing feeling. For the first time in my life I was truly excited and passionate about my work, as my camera allowed me to express myself in ways I never could before. It’s fair to say that (apart from my other half and Arsenal) photography is all I ever think about. I spend my evenings consuming it, I plan my free time around quirky events I can photograph, my holidays centred on countries I can visit and capture, and I feel fortunate to have had some of my street photography images exhibited at street photography festivals around the world.
Because I love photography. I get a tremendous buzz from creating distinctly unique imagery, and I’m always looking to push myself to create work that is artistic, timeless, and honest. Thankfully couples who book me to be their wedding photographer share this ideology, and tell me how excited they are to see what I see on their wedding day. Afterwards, I receive messages like the one below, and I can’t tell you how much that means to me.
Thomas Stanworth has spent many years in Afghanistan photographing the landscape and people, revealing a space that is at once shattering and beautiful. This is an unveiling of a place and people largely invisible to the western world.
Thurston Hopkins was born in 1913 in Sleaford in Sussex and died in October 2014. As a younger man he was Godfrey Thurston Hopkins but dropped the Godfrey while at school. He studied at Brighton College of Art and when he left, he found work as a graphic artist and later, after being made redundant he joined a news picture agency, PhotoPress. He didn’t work for long in the cut throat business of news journalism and left to set up his own photography business in Brighton. When the second world war came along, he joined and served with the RAF photography unit. After the war Thurston Hopkins travelled around Europe, hitch hiking and taking photos with his newly acquired Leica camera, a souvenir of the war. Retuning to the UK he got a job with Camera Press a picture agency started in 1947 by Tom Blau and still a force in the picture agency business today. Thurston Hopkins started work for Picture Post in 1950 and left in 1957. One of the first series of photos he undertook was ‘’Cats of London’’, an observation of the many homeless cats that populated London after the blitz. A set of pictures taken in Liverpool in 1956 is considered by many to be his finest work. He photographed those living in the slums but the content showing the poverty, deprivation and misery was so disturbing that the publication of the pictures was prevented by Edward Hulton, the owner of Picture Post and the pictures were never published. It was while he worked at Picture Post that he met and married Grace Robertson, in the 1950’s she was a rare thing, a female professional photographer. So rare that Grace determined to get work adopted a male pseudonym, Dick Muir, in the early part of her career to enable her to pursue the work she wanted. When the Picture Post came to an end Hopkins set up a studio in Chiswick and became one of London’s most successful commercial photographers, He later returned to Brighton and taught photography at the Guildford College of Art.
The reason for photographing poor streets is that I love them. Empty, the streets have their own kind of beauty, a kind of decaying splendor and always great atmosphere – whether romantic on a hazy winter day, or listless when the summer is hot; sometimes it is forbidding; or it may be warm and friendly on a sunny spring weekend when the street is swarming with children playing, or adults walking through or standing gossiping. I remember my excitement when I turned the corner into Southam Street, a street I have since returned to again and again. Home
John is a “Natural History, Wildlife and Fine Art” photographer. In 2003 John won first prize in an international wildlife photographic competition and the prize took John on an all expenses paid round trip to the Falkland Islands via Chile. John went on to use this achievement as his launch pad as a professional wildlifer.
Since this time John has travelled far and wide visiting many superb locations.
Vanessa Winship is a British photographer who works on long term projects of portrait, landscape, reportage and documentary photography. These personal projects have predominantly been in Eastern Europe but also the USA. Winship’s books include Schwarzes Meer (2007), Sweet Nothings (2008) and She Dances on Jackson (2013).
Her first retrospective exhibition was at Fundación Mapfre gallery in Madrid in 2014. Her first major UK solo exhibition is at Barbican Art Gallery, London, in 2018. Her work has also been exhibited twice in the National Portrait Gallery in London and prominently at Rencontres d’Arles in France.
Winship has won two World Press Photo Awards, ‘Photographer of the Year’ at the Sony World Photography Awards, the HCB Award (the first woman to do so) and in 2018 an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society. She is a member of Agence Vu photography agency
English photographer whose Pictorialist photographs and writings made him one of the most influential photographers of the second half of the 19th century.
At age 21 Robinson was an amateur painter precocious enough to have one of his paintings hung at the Royal Academy in London. Photography, however, was his real passion. In 1857 he opened a photographic studio in Leamington, England. In addition to commercial portraiture, he began to make photographs that imitated the themes and compositions of the anecdotal genre paintings popular at the time. He created photographs such as Juliet with the Poison Bottle (1857), his earliest-known work, by combining separate negatives into a composite picture, utilizing a process known as combination printing. Although he sometimes used natural settings, he more often imitated the out-of-doors inside his studio. Costumed actors or society ladies modeled for his many bucolic scenes, since he found actual country people too awkward and dull to fit his ideal of the picturesque.
In 1858 Robinson exhibited Fading Away, a picture skillfully printed from five different negatives. This work depicted the peaceful death of a young girl surrounded by her grieving family. Although the photograph was the product of Robinson’s imagination, many viewers felt that such a scene was too painful to be tastefully rendered by such a literal medium as photography. The controversy, however, made him the most famous photographer in England and the leader of the Pictorialist movement, which advocated achieving painterly effects in photography.
There is something wonderful about a great photograph of life on the street. I think it’s because we humans are naturally nosy. We like to stare, absorb the details and imagine the facts, but on the street, we don’t have permission to stare. All we get is a glimpse. The great thing about a street photograph is that we have permission to stare.
In 2017 I started to experiment with motion-blurred street photography – the sort where the camera is fixed in place and the subjects are moving. I was using motion-blur to eliminate the very detail that we like to stare at in a street photograph, but I reasoned that the resulting images would have a look and feel closer to the glimpse we might get of strangers on the street. My theory was that, with less detail, there would be more room for the viewers imagination to wander – more imagination space. The great thing about theories is that they drive us to experiment and when we experiment, we learn.
The first thing I learnt was that to simulate a glimpse I needed just the right amount of motion-blur to eliminate just the right amount of detail. I was taking close-up images of pedestrians with a wide-angle lens. I found that a shutter speed of 1/6 second created photographs with a strong glimpse-like impression of the subject. The resulting images led to another discovery. When we walk some parts of us move more rapidly than other parts. One leg, for example, will be stationary while the other is in full swing. Motion-blur, which is produced by the camera’s technology, renders human movement in graceful arcs and soft brush strokes. It produces an image that is more poem-like than the detailed essay of a straight street photograph. Motion-blur renders the poetry of motion.
A poem does not have to be factual. Sometimes there is more truth in fiction than in out-of-context facts. Some of the photographs in One-Sixth of a Second are single shots. Others are combinations of two or more images from a sequence of exposures. Their compositions offer the imagination space of a poem, at least that is my intent.
All of the photographs in the series One-Sixth of a Second were taken in Chicago. That’s where I live.
Website: http://www.stevegeer.com
Lee Jeffries lives in Manchester in the United Kingdom. Close to the professional football circle, this artist starts to photograph sporting events. A chance meeting with a young homeless girl in the streets of London changes his artistic approach forever. Lee Jeffries recalls that, initially, he had stolen a photo from this young homeless girl huddled in a sleeping bag. The photographer knew that the young girl had noticed him but his first reaction was to leave. He says that something made him stay and go and discuss with the homeless girl. His perception about the homeless completely changes. They become the subject of his art. The models in his photographs are homeless people that he has met in Europe and in the United States: «Situations arose, and I made an effort to learn to get to know each of the subjects before asking their permission to do their portrait.» From then onwards, his photographs portray his convictions and his compassion to the world
I have been an enthusiastic naturalist ever since I can remember, but my interest in photography did not really develop until my early twenties. Then, after studying the art and science of photography for three years in London under Prof Margaret Harker, I merged my two passions to embark on a career of nature photography.
In 1970 having spent some years exploring conventional nature photography, I set out to do something totally new – to photograph insects on the wing. Flight, after all is what has made insects the most successful group of animals on earth, yet photographs of them actually flying did not exist!
Until then, there was no technique capable of stopping an insect with absolute clarity in free flight. At this time digital photography was decades away, film speeds (for quality results) were limited to ISO 25 – 32, flash units were restricted to about 1/1000 second – far too slow for stopping insects, or birds for that matter. Perhaps the most frustrating photographic hurdle was the excruciating long waiting times to assess results on film – up to a week!
It was the solution of these problems that became my overriding obsession. Two years of experimentation resulted in perfecting techniques and specialised equipment for achieving my ambition, allowing me to capture animal movements that were far too rapid to be seen by the human eye, and ones never observed in such detail before. Since that breakthrough I have worked not only with insects but with other wildlife including birds, bats, frogs and even striking snakes.
Charlie Waite is now firmly established as one of the world’s leading Landscape photographers.
He was born in 1949 and worked in British Theatre and Television for the first ten years of his professional life. Throughout this period he became fascinated by theatrical lighting and design. Gradually the landscape and the way it can be revealed to us through light and shade stole him away from the acting profession.
His style is unique in that his photographs convey a spiritual quality of serenity and calm. He has established a worldwide reputation for his particular approach to his work. His photographs are held in private and corporate collections throughout the world.
Over the last twenty-five years, he has lectured throughout the UK, Europe and the US. He has held numerous one-man exhibitions all over the world, including London, Tokyo, Sydney, Brisbane, Melborne, Bielsko-Biała, New York and California. Waite has given and continues to give tuition to amateur, professional and aspiring photographers of all ages from the UK, Australia, Europe and the US which he hugely enjoys.
In 2016 Waite received an invitation by the Royal Academy of Arts to exhibit in their Summer Exhibition.
In 2014, Waite was awarded a Direct Fellowship by The Royal Photographic Society. The Millennium year saw Charlie Waite being awarded the prestigious honorary fellowship to the British Institute of Professional Photographers and in early 2007 he was presented with Amateur Photography’s Power of Photography award, which is given to a photographer whose work is deemed to effectively demonstrate the powerful and memorable images of which photography is capable.
He is frequently to be seen on British television discussing the finer aspects of Landscape Photography. In September 2005, Waite completed filming for a six part Television series on Landscape Photography. He has worked with numerous distinguished authors including Adam Nicolson, Jan Morris, John Julius Norwich and A.N.Wilson.
He is the owner and founder of Light and Land, Europe’s leading photographic workshop and tour company. Light & Land has been running photographic tours, courses and workshops worldwide for over 25 years that are dedicated to inspiring photographers and improving their photography. This is achieved with the help of a select team of specialist photographic leaders, all at the very top in their field. http://www.lightandland.co.uk.
In 2007 Charlie launched UK Landscape Photographer of the Year (Take A View) an annual international photography competition (now in it’s twelth year) to find the UK’s ‘Landscape Photographer of the Year’, which ties in perfectly with his desire to share his passion and appreciation of the beauty of our surroundings through photography.
David Yarrow was born in Glasgow, Scotland in 1966. He is renowned for documenting the natural world and has firmly established himself as one of the best-selling fine art photographers in the world, with his limited edition prints (usually just 12 in an edition) regularly selling out.
Philanthropy and conservation are central to David Yarrow’s mission to document the animal and human world in a fresh and creative way. In 2016, Rizzoli New York published his latest book ‘Wild Encounters’ with a foreword written by HRH The Duke of Cambridge. The book was awarded ‘Art Book of 2017’ and all Yarrow’s royalties from the book continue to be donated to the charity Tusk, the leading British NGO that focuses on animal conservation in Africa.
In 2017, charitable donations from the sale of David Yarrow’s art exceeded $1.2 million, with four of David’s pieces raising $186,000 in just a few minutes at the Tusk Gala dinner in New York City in April 2017. In 2018, he attained his goal of raising a further $1.5m for conservation and charitable projects.
David Yarrow’s position in the industry has been rewarded with a wide range of advisory and ambassadorial roles. In conservation, he is an ambassador for WildArk, on the advisory board of Tusk and Ambassador to the Kevin Richardson Foundation (@lionwhisperersa).
In 2017, Land Rover appointed David Yarrow as a global ambassador and creative partner. He is the European ambassador for Nikon, and has recently been integral to the company’s most anticipated Camera release of the last decade.
Glasgow born, London-based photographer Dougie Wallace is a shutterbug whose artistic vision extends outside of the realm of traditional fashion photography.
Dougie Wallace’s website describes him as a “documentary photographer,” and the snaps included in this collection of his street photography only serves to strengthen the claim. His street style shots eschew the conventions associated with the burgeoning field of candid street photography. Instead of taking pictures of well-coiffed and elegantly dressed streetwalkers, Dougie Wallace shoots subjects that are notable for their ridiculousness.
Some highlights of Dougie Wallace’s street flicks include a shot of a well-oiled, slightly overweight, middle-aged man clad only in a blue speedo and 1970s aviator frames. The image, like most of Dougie Wallace’s, is hard to turn away from and leaves the viewer with conflicting feelings of humor, intrigue, and confusion.
Alex Saberi is a National Geographic photographer from London. He began photography as a hobby by mainly taking photos of Richmond Park and has had a photo book of the park published in 2012. You can buy one of the last 20 signed copies left by using the contact form found on the right sidebar on this page.
The park was the perfect place to practice his photography skills which he went onto use on his photo trips around the world. Most recently he has been spending his time photographing the beaches, jungles and wildlife of Ubatuba in Brazil. Alex has self published this book and it is available on Blurb.com. But most recently this book has been professionally published in Brazil and copies are available to buy directly from me in the UK, Europe and US, or from Brazil. Please email me using the contact form on this page. Alternatively if you are in Ubatuba, this book can be purchased in Nobel bookstore in central Ubatuba.
He has appeared in many digital camera magazines and publications. As well as this Alex has won several photography competitions, from winning the Environmental Protection Agency’s wildlife competition, to winning on several worldwide online competition websites. He came second in Landscape photographer of the year with his photo “One man and his Dog”, and appeared several times in both the British wildlife photographer of the year books and landscape photographer of the year books.
He has also appeared much of the national press including Daily Mail, Metro, Evening Standard, The Times, The Sun, The Telegraph with his year in Richmond Park collection. He also appeared in the November edition of the national geographic and is a National Geographic exclusive artist. The vast majority of these photos are available for commercial use through my agent Nat Geo Creative.
I am a self taught landscape photographer and learned my craft from photography books and constant practise of the subject.Having started out with fuji velvia slide film and shooting all colour I progressed to digital in 2006 and began to shoot some monochrome as it was possible to get decent shots when all colour has drained fom the sky. Although I like the work of David Noton a travel and landscape photographer and Ian Cameron “transient light photography” a Scottish landscape photographer I try to develope my own syle based natural subtle light.
Most of my work is based in County Tipperary or on the Waterford coast an hours drive from home.Many locations are recorded in my note book and I return when the conditions are favourable.
Alex Saberi is a National Geographic photographer from London. He began photography as a hobby by mainly taking photos of Richmond Park and has had a photo book of the park published in 2012. .
The park was the perfect place to practice his photography skills which he went onto use on his photo trips around the world. Most recently he has been spending his time photographing the beaches, jungles and wildlife of Ubatuba in Brazil.
He has appeared in many digital camera magazines and publications. As well as this Alex has won several photography competitions, from winning the Environmental Protection Agency’s wildlife competition, to winning on several worldwide online competition websites. He came second in Landscape photographer of the year with his photo “One man and his Dog”, and appeared several times in both the British wildlife photographer of the year books and landscape photographer of the year books.
The vast majority of these photos are available for commercial use through my agent Nat Geo Creative. If not please contact me directly here
I’m an enthusiast DSLR photographer, and my home county is Hampshire, in the UK.
For me, photography is about the creative interpretation of a scene rather than a record. Photography is an art form and as such there are no rules, except to try and create an image that engages the viewer.
As you can tell from the examples here, my interests are primarily with coastal subjects, which especially lend themselves to black and white conversion, and the long exposure techniques I favour. Greatly inspired by the Japanese aesthetic, many here are minimalist in composition with long exposures creating an ethereal harmony between sky and sea.
A photograph is a subjective impression. It is what the photographer sees. No matter how hard we try to get into the skin, into the feeling of the subject or situation, however much we empathize, it is still what we see that comes out in the images, it is our reaction to the subject and in the end, the whole corpus of our work becomes a portrait of ourselves
Paul Russell is a British street photographer, based in Weymouth, Dorset. He is a member of the In-Public international street photography collective.
Russell’s work has been published in one self-published book of his own, in a few survey publications on street photography, and is in the collection of the Museum of London. He has had solo exhibitions in venues around the UK, and in group exhibitions in various locations worldwide.
Phil Coomes, writing for BBC News in 2011, spoke of him as “street photographer Paul Russell whose eye for a humorous moment is as keen as any you will find.”
