Portrait // Jasper Conran for the FT

Jasper Conran photographed at home for the Financial Times. Thoroughly pleasurable shoot - if even insisted we stay for lunch - what a Gent!

Assignment // Epic Israel race for Mens Health

I was recently asked to travel to Israel to cover an annual race known as the Epic Israel for Mens Health magazine. The race took place over three days through mountainous terrain, with road and trail sections, in the extreme heat of the Middle Eastern sun.  Lot of respect for the men and women, some of whom had traveled from around the world to take part.

I love getting assignments like this - these stories have everything you could want as a reportage photographer; drive, determination, a bit of danger and a whole lot of drama.

The piece as it ran in the magazine below 

Portrait // Fashion designer Molly Goddard

Winner of the 'Emerging Talent' at the 2016 British Fashion Awards. Photographed in her London studio for the Financial Times

Portrait // Andy Hayler for American Way

A portrait of British businessman turned food critic, Andy Hayler, shot for American Way magazine.

Assignment // Shortlist Magazine

I was recently asked to shoot a feature for Shortlist magazine on a journeyman boxer, this involved teaming up once again with the writer Matt Blake and traveling down to Brighton to catch a fight between the outsider, Sonny Whiting and the local favourite Max Wicks. I'm sure Matt will have a copy of the story on his website which is worth a read - here are some of the shots from the piece. 

Assignment // The Hadza for Vanity Fair

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Earlier this year I was sent to Tanzania by Vanity Fair; the assignment was to photograph a disappearing tribe called the Hadza, one of last remaining hunter gather tribes in that part of Africa. They can be traced back over 10,000 years to the 'cradle of mankind', the Great Rift Valley, not far from where they currently reside. 

The tribe themselves own few if any material possessions and they tend to avoid building any form of permanent dwellings. They hunt only what they can eat, and forage food rather than cultivate crops. The men hunt with bow and poison tipped arrows, which they from from the sap of the desert rose. The women tend to forage for tuba roots. Both are constantly on the look out for honey which they eat or sell to buy Marijuana, another one of their pastimes. Everything within the tribe is shared, a kill by a member of the tribe is shared with any others in the area that require food. The structure of the tribe and society, along with their way of life and diet, have made them of great interest to anthropologists around the world. There is a lot to be learned from them.

As a tribe however, they tend to avoid conflict, both within the confines of the tribe and against other outside tribes. This has meant that when their land is encroached upon by local pastoral tribes, the Hadza have gathered their things and moved on - meaning they are left with a shrinking parcel of land. The dominance of the watering holes by surrounding tribes (needed for their cattle) means that wildlife is becoming scarce in the area where the Hadza live and therefore they have less wildlife to hunt. Their way of life is threatened, currently there are only around 1000 of the Hadza left in Tanzania.

You can see the full edit on the website here

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How the article ran below 

A little behind the scenes shot 

Commission: Jilly Cooper - Sunday Times Magazine

I was recently commissioned to photograph the author Jilly Cooper for the cover of the Sunday Times magazine. Photographing the cover of a magazine is always an honour and a rather terrifying responsibility at the same time. Add in to the mix that you'll be working with in a  confined space with an elderly but renowned author, and a large stallion - and it certainly ups the pressure. Thankfully we had the expert help of Gary Witheford with his extraordinary horse whispering skills, and the team of Westcourt Stables. I'm not going to say it was easy - but I was pretty happy with the final cover. Big thanks go to the team at Sunday Times for getting me on board too.

Recent Assignment // Wrestling in Moldova

This assignment was For Men's Health UK and I shot it at the end of last year in Chisinau, Moldova. We flew a bit by the seat of our pants on this one - after we were asked to do a live interview on Moldovan TV in...Spanish (I sat this one out!) and then nearly getting trapped in a Moldovan drinking game....all before we'd even got anything in the can. Not generally how me or Will, the writer, would normally like to work, but we didn't have much choice on this one. It came down to the wire because we still didn't haven't have the access the story required up until about 3 hours before we had to leave for the airport. Somehow we managed to get it all wrapped just in time!