Case studies

4 reasons to enter competitions (and when to hold off)

As top advertising creatives around the world arrive home from the sunny Med, clasping their Cannes Lions award metal, it’s time again to talk about the best competitions to enter if you’re a photographer. A question I am asked more than I can count. And honestly the ‘best’ ones, if best is about elevating your career as

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Hope has Wings

To many photographers, being at the top of their game doesn’t just mean making beautiful work for clients, but also being seen and acknowledged by the art world or organisations like Magnum. Maybe that’s you, too. For British photographer Nancy MacDonald, this was something she dreamed of but didn’t believe was possible until she made

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If you’re floundering or doubting

If you’ve been following me for a while, or working with me, you’ll know that I am obsessed with personal work as a vital part of a photographers practice. Not only because it’s a way to flex your creative muscles, push yourself harder and remind yourself why you did this in the first place. But

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Meet my dad

This is my dad, and yesterday was his 86th birthday. In the late 70’s he wrote a quality control system for the developing computer industry. The system was adopted by British Standards (BS 5750), and today, manufacturers of most camera companies use the same quality control standardisation (now updated to ISO 9000). Dad is systems

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Are you doing any of these three things?

Are you doing any of these three things? Creating work that you think your audience will like (and not what you would make for yourself). Holding your new work close to your heart (for fear of others copying it) or simply leaving it on a hard drive. Avoiding contacting people you know could possibly hire

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7 crucial reasons to talk about your personal work

If you work for discerning visual people in the advertising world you’ll know that personal work is the marketing back bone of your practice. (If you didn’t know that, now you do. It’s a non-negotiable habit of highly successful photographers). But something that may be missing from your personal work is a well articulated introduction.

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The Bangkok Curveball

Patpong, Bangkok. The red light district. It’s dark except for the cacophony of flashing signs and pools of light as doors open into sweaty bars. Sue Stubbs and I are weaving our way through a throng of mostly men, and into the bowels of a seemingly never ending warren of alleys. We try not to

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