Possibly the most down-to-earth photographer we’ve interviewed, George’s photos result from his authenticity and hard graft, two qualities that contributed greatly to him winning Fashion Photographer of the Year at the British Fashion Photography Awards.
George knew from a very young age that he wanted to study art in some form. It was always painting or drawing, and he had no idea about photography until he saw it offered as a subject at his local sixth form in Cambridge. For George it was a lightbulb moment that he can still remember clearly to this day (he was pretty terrible at painting!).
Within a couple of months George had made a rudimentary darkroom in his dad’s attic. What followed was a feverish expansion of his photographic ambitions.
“Believe it or not, this lake on Elba island in Tuscany really is deep red, that’s not photoshop as most people assume. Wading through it with a flash on a pole drew some laughter from locals!
“Without getting too heavy, this image, Penitence/Defiance is about climate change as a multi-generational problem. The poses are taken from famous statues, symbols of a deeply human desire for permanence, and the project name Ozymandias was taken from the poem by Percy Shelley about the impermanence of civilisation. Simply put, if we think we’re indestructible, simply look to the civilisations of the past.”
“The obligatory ‘lockdown project’ and an inevitable departure from the norm. These were a series of fire studies inspired by East Asian Sumi ink paintings, a style of painting that has fascinated me with its ability to create something stunning with often no more than a few strokes of the brush. This was also the point at which I fully embraced being a photographic artist and, for better or worse, realised I’ll most probably produce an even more broad spectrum of work rather than focusing down on one style or genre. A direct result of these is may new relationship with the wonderful MMX gallery in New Cross.”
“This was my first professional shoot and I was very nervous. My way of compensating for this was to hire ALL of the gear. The trend in editorial fashion photography for a long time has been quite stripped back and irreverent, but this is the opposite of everything I love in photography and art and quite frankly would have been so much easier to achieve. Instead I found myself meticulously constructing each scene and hoping I looked like I knew what I was doing.
“Whether by design or default, I have taken this approach to so many of my shoots, albeit with increasing confidence, and have come to realise that regardless of passing trends and fashions, there will always be a longevity to high quality imagery. I’m not saying necessarily that my work is or was always that, but it says something that I’m happy to show you work from right back when I started.”
“This is a great example of the direction my fashion photography’s heading in. There have been several ‘aha!’ moments in my career when I realised that which was staring me in the face, most importantly when I stopped worrying about what other people think, or how other people shot, and just went with what I love, carefully considered compositions, with colours and tones all creating balance. This actually won the British Photography Awards Fashion Photographer of the year, and has reaffirmed that I should learn to trust my own taste.
“What is also important to me is that everyone who put their time and effort into a shoot are happy, be it, hair, make up, manicurist, brand, magazine, whoever. At the end of the day, fashion photography is just taking pretty pictures, but although we’re not be curing cancer, peoples time and careers are important so I always try to respect that. My personal standard for each shoot is ‘would I hang it on a wall?’ I certainly don’t achieve that every time, but it’s a good standard to have in the back of your head when planning an idea.”
“This is a modern interpretation of one of my favourite paintings The Skating Minister by Henry Raeburn. It’s actually my Uncle Graham on the skateboard, who lives in Cromer in Norfolk, which, by a stroke of luck, has a skate park. The park’s floor is painted the same colour as the frozen lake in the original painting, and further than that it rained adding to the icy look. Sometimes things just come together.
“I shot the project A Renaissance in 2019, however it’s something I return to now and again when I come across a painting that lends itself to a new interpretation.”
“Sometimes you just need to walk around a forest with a smoke machine, a pink hazmat suit, a wireless trigger, and not worry too much about why you’re doing it. I wanted to show you this from my new series because it’s a great example of how an idea can form during the act of shooting.
“Over the course of three weeks in April and May of 2021, I had no work on and the rare luxury of some spare time. I had some vague ideas about images I wanted to shoot and about subject matter, but the ridiculousness of what I found myself doing was at complete odds with the original, quite serious idea behind the series. Of course we all know photography’s an extraordinarily powerful tool, but I really feel that it doesn’t always have to be heavy and serious, to address heavy and serious issues. In the same way that comedy is a great coping mechanism, I’m increasingly trying to add a touch of humour into my work.
“This series Tree Huggers from the Future is lighthearted in its approach to a subject that worries me, loss of biodiversity, in which I document a group of eco tourists from the future. I’m currently writing a short story to accompany this, with varying levels of success and self-belief, but if a body of work feels like it need a story, or a piece of music, why not go for it?”
