Stratford Literary Festival
Stratford Literary Festival Faces
- Photographer at the Stratford Literary Festival 2015 -2022 -portraits in a pop up studio is of authors & celebrities and those behind the event . The collection of portraits shall eventually be archived for Stratford upon Avon as an historic record and research resource. THIS IS A SMALL SELECTION - The Collection is on a dedicated site in - www.stratfordfestivalfaces.com
Stratford Literary Festival - Faces
It has been a great privilege to be the photographer who since 2015 has photographed most of the Authors, celebrities, presenters, volunteers and production staff at the Stratford Literary Festival, based in Stratford upon Avon, Artshouse now known as the Playhouse.
Backstage I set up a pop - up studio and each year I have had a slightly different set-up so that the collection would be identifiable by the year, the Autumn short is not always consistent due to location changes
As it was a literary festival I wanted to create a theme that reflected the page of a book, black for the type & white for the pages, the monochrome theme has continued but as time and seasons progressed, this theme became a little looser, but these formal or at least, considered portraits have created a body of work that I am very proud of. I thank all those involved and especially Jo James who has enabled so many authors to just have enough time with me to create a portrait and naturally I must thank Annie Ashworth who is the Festival Director who manages to push this great festival foreward to have become such a success.
Portraits of Authors and celebrities is very challenging, not because of the subjects, but usually because there is limited time in the schedule for the photography, it is part of the PR and marketing of books, that authors are on the road, making appearances on all media and attending such Festivals like the Stratford Literary festival, however they may have travel a long way, have to prepare for a talk ,interview or presentation so an extra 10 minutes for a portrait is often hard to find.
So it maybe a very short portrait session, but most of the subjects are very cooperative and gracious with their time. Thank one & all.
How many portraits are there?
Well over 400.
These images are a small selection of hundreds taken since 2015, I have many photography portrait samples that are not on display due to web-site restrictions, hopefully a dedicated site shall have them all in the near future?
The images are to be Archived in Stratford upon Avon, final details are to be agreed, but the whole collection from 2015 to 2021 shall be available as a research and historic collection, hopefully the Autumn 2020 festival shall be included but sadly because of the international Corona Virus Emergency that is to be confirmed.
As an extended photography portrait project it has so far resulted in a one man exhibition , two images have been selected for the AoP Awards (Association of Photographers), both images have been included in the Awards exhibition in London, first at The Old Truman Brewery exhibition centre in Shoreditch where a portrait of Sir Tim Rice was included and in 2018 the portrait of Sir Michael Parkinson was featured in the new location of Canary Wharf in London Docklands.
More Festival Faces are available by request please contact lorentz@gullachsen.com for access to more archive folios