How I came to be a headshot photographer in London
Hello and welcome to my first blog post.Â
I will be sharing with you the inspirations that have got me here as a headshot photographer in London. I will delve into the dos and dont’s of everything headshot photography. I will post case studies of actors I have phtoographed and sharing the feedback of their headshots I have taken. I will offer advice on hair, makeup and what tops to wear during a session. Articles will be written on the benefits of studio vs location headshot sessions and I will share behind the scenes insights and photos from my shoots and lots more besides.
For this first blog post, I will reveal exactly how I cam to be doing this amazing job!
Artistic beginnings
Unlike a lot of headshot photographers, I don’t come from an acting background. I went down the artistic route and spent 3 years at the Norwich School of Art & Design (now called Norwich University of the Arts). I did a fine arts course and specialised in photography from year 2. None of the images I took had any people in at all, unlike now! I had romantic notions of travelling the world with my Leica camera on my shoulder a la Henri Cartier-Bresson
'What's a headshot?'
When I graduated from art school in 2001, I had no idea how I would earn a living. As luck would have it, my best friend at art school put me in touch with his friend, Carl Prekopp, an actor who had just graduated from Central and had won the coveted and prestigious Carleton Hobbs Bursary Award. We met in a cafe in Soho and he asked me If I could take his headshots. ‘What’s a headshot?,’ was my reply but from what Carl explained said, and, as I had nothing else better to do, decided, confidently, that I would take his headshots, still not fully undertsanding how on earth one goes about taking them!
I was hooked from the off!
Carl and I met a week or two later at Primrose Hill, me, armed with my Leica and a couple of rolls of film (no digtal in those days!) and Carl with plenty of ideas and with no top changes other than a t-shirt with a jacket. He ran me through the looks he wanted and we duly proceeded. At one point Carl had his jacket lapels up leaning back on the grass and another with a cigarette between his fingers doing his best impression of Noel Coward! I happily shot away. One of the contact sheets from that shoot below.
I was now a professional headshot photographer!
When we’d finished shooting we retreated to the nearest pub where Carl explained that there are photographers whose job is to specialise in taking headshots of actors. I was hanging on to his every word, speechless that photographers got paid for taking a few headshots. Carl’s advice was to advertise myself as a headshot photographer in the classifieds’ section of The Stage newspaper.
Without even seeing the results of Carl’s shoot, I decided there and then that I would pursue it, and with the £50 Carl had given me, I became a ‘professional’ headshot photographer in London. Little did I know the blood, sweat and tears that would be involved. I’m glad I stuck it out and 20 years later I couldn’t imagine doing a better job. Thank you Carl. You’re forever in my debt!
