I shot a great deal for the London Observer Magazine from the late 70s and one of their regular features was "Room of My Own" which was an environmental portait of a personality or celebrity in their favourite room. It was a tremendous technical challenge to try and find the best angle on the chosen room, often being forced to shoot from a balcony through a window or through a doorway, and having to take a huge amount of lighting to deal with any situation, but I loved shooting them and produced nearly 50 portraits for the series. Norman St John-Stevas was a leading Conservative politician serving both Margaret Thatcher and Edward Heath as Minister for the Arts
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The Observer's "Room of My Own" had spawned various copy-cat features and this portrait of the great designer Mary Quant in her Jaguar car was for the Sunday Telegraph's "Vroom of My Own" series....
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Anita Roddick was the founder of The Body Shop as well as being a leading environmentalist and campaigner
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Khadambi Asalache was a Kenyan poet and author who settled in London. He was later a civil servant at HM Treasury and he left his lavishly decorated South London terraced house, 575 Wandsworth Road to the National Trust who use this portrait for the promotional brochure. Khadambe made complex fretwork decorations which cover the entire property
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I had known Mickie Most for many years and had photographed many of his artists for his famous RAK Label, so I was delighted to shoot this portrait of him in his new home in North London - the largest private home to be built in London since the second World War at the time!
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Marguerite Shakespeare is an author & publisher more often referred to as L.M. Shakespeare
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Nick Barnard was one of the founders in 2005 of Rude Health, one of the leading British brands of healthy foods, but at the time we did the shoot his focus was on making bread, hence the delicious loaf on the table which we all ate for lunch after the shoot!
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This portrait of the great sculptor Mary Spencer-Watson has always been a favourite of mine, partly because of the extraordinary family history in the house, as well as the lengths we had to go to to light the rooms which required 14 lights if I remember correctly, but also for the delicious fruit cake she served for tea!
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Anthony Sher is one of the most important actors of his generation. This session was one of the occasions when the space was so tight that finding the best angle was tricky, so I shot into the big mirror using a long trigger release to fire my Hasselblad which is seen in the shot!
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Another great actor Brian Cox, who has recently become a household name with the wonderful TV series "Succession", but back in 1991 Brian was living in a tiny apartment over a railway line in North West London
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Photographed at their home Lypiatt Park the great sculptor Lynn Chadwick with his son the artist Daniel Chadwick - I think this was the only ROMO that I shot featuring two people
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Rick Mather was an important American born architect who worked in London and created this extraordinary apartment at the top of a period house in Belsize Park in London. This is one of several of my ROMO portraits that is in the National Portrait Gallery in London.
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Alan Aldridge was one of the most important and influential illustrators and artists of his generation and created many images that became ubiquitous with 60s & 70s POP culture
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In 2004 I was invited to go to the beautiful Caribbean island of St. Lucia to shoot a series of over 50 portraits to celebrate the 25th anniversarry of the island's independence. We had to shoot during the month of June and contend with almost daily rain and unreliable sun, so I had decided to take my Room of My Own experience and try and treat each portrait with a similar approach. This portrait of Heran who was a fisherman and traditional banjo player became the flagship image for the series.
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Government House in the island's capital Castries was built in 1895 and Dame Pearlette was so welcoming that to see her greeting us at the top of the stairs felt appropriate! The chair is significant because it features the island's crest, together with its motto "The Land, The People, The Light" which was our inspiration throughout the assignment.
This family had farmed and fished this land for many generations and Sylvina was born here. Our intention was to try and capture a cross-section of the population as well as showing their environment and a sense of the colour, texture and light of the island.
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We wanted to cover all generations and Lucciano, Roger, Denzel, Dario, Nariel, Shemain, Kimberley, Kariah and Shameese brought great energy and laughter to their portrait!
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Calixtus was the official "Snake Man" licenced to collect snake oil which was widely used to treat many complaints. He was also a gifted Calypso singer and entertained us through the passing showers which plagued our shoot!
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