Autobiography Book Cover Photography

Autobiography Book Cover Photography

One of my goals is to do more photography for book covers. I've already done a couple, however seeing as I love portrait photography it's one area of my business which i'd love to expand. 

I really enjoy looking at the autobiography book covers in the book shops and seeing the great portraits which entice you to read the book. Thats what i'd love to be taking more of.

So if you're reading this and you can help, it's a big fat plea from me......Please help me do more.

Anyway, this lovely lady is Baroness Gould of the House of Lords. She's a Labour Party peer and has stood for some amazing causes over the years, mainly to do with discrimination. I spent a very memorable morning with Joyce, in her home chatting about this and that and learning so much from her.

I'm really looking forward to seeing the book when it comes out in January I think. This was my favourite image from the shoot, but I have no idea which one they will use.

Dick Knight - Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club Chairman

 

So I took this portrait of the fascinating Dick Knight a while ago.

For those of you who don't know, amongst other things, Dick was responsible for saving Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club. His detemination and drive to get the Amex Stadium built should really be admired. I first met Dick over 10 years ago, when the stadium was just some plans on paper and an idea, and i'm very please do see it a thriving reality.

So for  this shot, i've lit him with the blue and white colours of The Albion and I got Dick to stare at an old picture of his parents and think about how they would feel in regards to all he has accomplished. I love that look in his eyes.

Cabaret Practitioner Coco Deville

I remember being struck by how beautiful and stunning Coco Deville's face was when I first met her in the Hotel Du Vin bar in Brighton.

I normally like to shoot people full length and vary rarely do a close up head shot unless they have a really interesting face. Well there was no debate in the matter, this portrait called for a close up. So I looked around the hotel bar and spotted a plain black curtain that I thought would make a great back drop. When i'm doing these editorial portraits I like to work quickly and with minimal fuss with my lighting. So i'll only use one light, or occasionally two flashes off camera. This portrait called for a very simple set up and I knew that I wanted to make it quite a dark image with a bit of shadow. So, for the technical people reading this, I zoomed my flash head in, so that it created more of a concentrated hot spot of light, rather than a broader more spread out light. And bounced it of the low ceiling a few feet above Coco's head.

There is something that I find just so mesmerising about Coco's eyes in this shot. I'm not sure what it is....but she surely has 'it'.

Brighton Film festival Director Tim Brown

Tim Brown runs Cinicity, Brighton's film festival which runs as a partnership with Brighton University and The Duke of Yorks cinema,

What I like about this portrait is the fact that it is so simple.

I shot it at the Duke of Yorks new cinema at the Komedia in the north lanes in Brighton...I say new, its new to me, but has probably been open for ages. Anyway, back to the portrait. My initial idea was to do a full length shot of Tim in front of the red curtain and black and white checked flooring there as that reminded me of Twin Peaks. However as usual it always takes a short time to 'work a portrait'. I never think that your initial idea is the best. It's a great starting point, but it always takes a little while of shooting someone to work out what is their best angle, how much of them to have in the portrait, where to position them in the frame, what to include or not in the background etc. In this case, less was more and all it needed was the sign pointing to the screens and slightly more than a head and shoulders shot of Tim. I love the face that Tim is facing away from the arrow as it just adds that bit of intrigue for me.

A portrait of Simon Fanshawe in 40 minutes

I've been doing a lot of magazine work recently and really enjoying it. I don't know if you'd call it environmental portraiture, or editorial portraits or just plain old traditional portrait photography. Well i've been shooting people in the way that I want to shoot them and have been really enjoying the challenge and being a bit more creative with my photography.

This particular set of images was taken when I was asked to shoot Simon Fanshawe the broadcaster, presenter, comedian, speaker, consultant and general all round good chap, at his Sussex home on Brighton seafront. I didn't have very long with Simon, just long enough for a cup of tea, but working fast we managed to produce a handful of portraits together in a couple of different locations, which expressed his personality.

The images were published in Viva Brighton Magazine.