Turner's House In Twickenham - 200 Best Advertising Photographers Worldwide

I’m delighted that work from my Turner’s House In Twickenham commission has made it in to the Lürzers Archive ‘200 Best Advertising Photographers Worldwide’ 20/21 awards annual.

You can find more work from the project, with larger versions here.

Here’s the story behind the work, along with some history on the house itself..

I was contacted by one of the trustees of the Turner’s House Trust, who had read in an article that I was a great admirer of J.M.W. Turner’s landscape painting. He asked me if I was aware of the restoration project of Turner’s House in Twickenham, and would I like to contribute in some way. I immediately thought I could help in my capacity as a photographer, and so a plan was hatched, and in March of that year, just days before the restoration work was due to commence, the Trust kindly granted me the great honour of two days access to the house.

I wanted to approach the work in a simple and honest way, and so decided to work purely with natural light, with the single aim of capturing the atmosphere of the house. Turner’s work, for me, is all about drama and the play of light and colour, and I’ve aimed to capture the spirit of that in these photographs. All the work was shot using available light, on the ALPA 12 MAX with the excellent ALPA HR Alpagon 32mm SB17 lens.

“Sandycombe Lodge was built by 1813 to the designs of England’s great landscape painter, J.M.W. Turner, working here as his own architect to create a quiet retreat for himself, away from the pressures of the London art world. It also provided a home for his father, old William, in retirement from his trade as a barber and wigmaker in Covent Garden, and with old William’s declining health and changes in his own life, Turner sold the house in 1826

Turner’s House Trust has restored Sandycombe Lodge and made it available for all as a living reminder of J.M.W. Turner’s life in Twickenham and its influence on his art; 2013 marked the bicentenary of this building, a three-dimensional work by an artist renowned in his time and celebrated internationally today.

The house has had unsympathetic additions and is in a run-down condition. Turner’s House Trust intends to restore it to its original appearance and make it a monument to Turner in Twickenham. The house is open to the public and visitors can explore the small but beautiful building, with fascinating stories to tell”

For more information on the history and restoration of Sandycombe Lodge, and the Turner’s House Trust, go here. You can also find information, including drawings, on Butler & Hegarty’s web site, the project’s architects, here.

New Work For GE Oslo

New work for GE is now live.

The GE Oslo shoot was a perfect example of a team effort. We were working under reasonably tight time and location constraints, shooting real people in their busy working environments, and so we had to remain as flexible as possible. Working with an experienced and flexible art director meant we could quickly explore visual ideas as they presented themselves, and working with a seasoned production crew meant we could work unhindered, knowing everything was at hand.. and all I had to do was think about making the pictures. It was a memorable shoot, and for all the right reasons.

Some kind words from Seven Stones’ creative director, Justin Earl.. “Working in Oslo with Julian and his team on this four-day shoot was an absolute pleasure. He knew exactly what we wanted to achieve with each shot, shooting in some very challenging industrial spaces. The brief for this shoot was about capturing the characters and stories of real employees and we did exactly that, thanks to the way Julian made everyone feel very much at home in front of his camera.”

Client : GE.    Agency : Seven Stones.    AD : Justin earl.

Below is a small selection of the work we made, with more examples available here.

Turner's House In Twickenham

Back in the autumn of 2015 I was contacted by one of the trustees of the Turner’s House Trust, who had read in an article that I was a great admirer of J.M.W. Turner’s landscape painting. He asked me if I was aware of the restoration project of Turner’s House in Twickenham, and would I like to contribute in some way. I immediately thought I could help in my capacity as a photographer, and so a plan was hatched, and in March of this year, just days before the restoration work was due to commence, the Trust kindly granted me the great honour of two days access to the house.

I wanted to approach the work in a simple and honest way, and so decided to work purely with natural light, with the single aim of capturing the atmosphere of the house. Turner’s work, for me, is all about drama and the play of light and colour, and I’ve aimed to capture the spirit of that in these photographs. All the work was shot using available light, on the ALPA 12 MAX / PhaseOne IQ180 combo, with ALPA HR Alpagon 32mm SB17 lens.

“Sandycombe Lodge was built by 1813 to the designs of England’s great landscape painter, J.M.W. Turner, working here as his own architect to create a quiet retreat for himself, away from the pressures of the London art world. It also provided a home for his father, old William, in retirement from his trade as a barber and wigmaker in Covent Garden, and with old William’s declining health and changes in his own life, Turner sold the house in 1826

Turner’s House Trust intends to restore Sandycombe Lodge and make it available for all as a living reminder of J.M.W. Turner’s life in Twickenham and its influence on his art; 2013 marked the bicentenary of this building, a three-dimensional work by an artist renowned in his time and celebrated internationally today.

The house has had unsympathetic additions and is in a run-down condition. Turner’s House Trust intends to restore it to its original appearance and make it a monument to Turner in Twickenham. Once restored, the house will open to the public and allow visitors to explore a small but beautiful building, with fascinating stories to tell”

For more information on the history and restoration of Sandycombe Lodge, and the Turner’s House Trust, go here. You can also find information, including drawings, on Butler & Hegarty’s web site, the project’s architects, here.

Below is a small selection of the work that I made over the two days that I spent in the house, followed by some behind the scenes images. More work can be found here. 

Images shown courtesy of Turner’s House Trust.

Below are some behind the scenes images showing the ALPA 12 MAX with HR Alpagon 32mm f4 SB17 lens combo that was used for all of the photographs. The MBP tethering set up shows Inovativ’s excellent Digiplate Pro set up.

New Interiors Ad Campaign For Marston & Langinger Paint

Ad campaign shot recently for Marston & Langinger, promoting their range of beautiful paint.

We built a series of minimally propped room sets with expansive wall space, creating the perfect stage for these gourgeous paint finishes to sing from.

The ads are currently appearing in World of Interiors, Elle Decoration, Country Living and House and Garden.

Client : Marston & Langinger.    AD : Alison Jenkins.    Stylist : Alison Jenkins.

A selection of finished ads..

3 month Production for Virgin Media Business

Last year we were comissioned to shoot a library of images for Virgin Media Business. Now the product is launched we can finally talk about it.

The production spanned 3 months in total (60 working days) - from sign-off to final delivery of images.

Casting - we cast approximately 400 models over 3 days, in order to find a total of 68 people (47 adult models, 5 child models, 6 teens, 2 policemen, 5 firemen & 3 extras)

Locations - we scouted and permitted 14 locations over 23 days.. A hospital reception, an x-ray room, a school, 5 x offices with server rooms, a modern house, a civic centre, a recycling plant, an empty industrial space to park our fire engine, a roundabout on an A-road to park the police car, car parks and loading bays to park engineers vans etc.

Styling - the stylist, Natasha Freeman, had to work solidly for 25 days gathering all of the relevant wardrobe & prop items for this shoot. To name but a few...90 different outfits & accessories, server cabinets, computers, telephones, head-sets, plants, garden furniture, desks, tables and much more...

Travel - We hired mini buses, winnebagos, a cherry picker, dust carts, JCB’s, a police car, a fire engine.. oh, and a Land Rover.. you name it, we had it! 

Catering - over 200 mouths were fed over the period of the shoot, that’s a lot of food!

Agency : Design UK.    Art Director : Pieter Van Loon.    Stylist : Natasha Freeman @ LPA/Style.   Hair & make-up : Hannah Marshall @ LPA /Style.    Shoot production : Holly Brooks @ LPA/Production. 

Below is selection of imagery from the shoot, with larger versions here.