Another year comes to a close and thankfully the Pandemic has abated and normal service has resumed,? I have managed to cover the two events for Stratford Literary Festival and continue my Festival Faces project, it is a great privilege to be able to set up a pop up studio and photograph the Stars of the event, I also manage to capture portraits of those behind the scenes too.

The images are destined to be archived as part of my work at the Birmingham Archive in the Library, it is also my ambition that Stratford upon Avon has access to the collection, this is work in progress.

I am often asked who are my favorite subjects, but I certainly don't wish to single people out, each person is unique and often the resulting image is much stronger because of the luck of the sitting, if I have a subject without a time restriction I. maybe would not have the urgency and focus, nor would they, a portrait is a collaboration between the subject & the photographer.

I hope the subjects like the image I have captured, but the images I am most satisfied by are not necessary the ones I show on the website - they are often more truthful, somber & less flattering.

I am aware that it is a subjective medium and the final image is chosen for many reasons, but there are other versions and sometimes they shall be published but certainly end up as part of the archive, here are a few images from November 2022. With an example that I like of a very talented Michael Ball.

The Project can be seen here -stratfordfestivalfaces.com

Here is Michael Ball, with two versions, my favorite is the more serious, then there is Ronnie Archer-Morgan, Hugh Bonneville & Dr Hannah Critchlow