2021 Highlights

January

Nora Productions

What a great way to start my photographic year, and it was one of those shoots that came out of the blue. A friend and performance producer Rebecca Dilg Productions sent me an early morning message on a snowy Sunday asking if I could head straight to Applecart Theatre to take some promo shots for an upcoming production. What a perfect opportunity to use this rare snowy day to create the bleak atmosphere for this story of a Polish dancer inciting a riot in ‘Have You Heard?”. Charlotte East was a joy to work with and responded so well to the opportunity for an outside, wintry shoot, as well striking some beautifully moody poses inside.

February

Susan Jane Dunford

With the winter pandemic lockdown still in place this was a great opportunity to travel to a remote location with my bubble companion and incredibly talented maker Susan Jane Dunford. Both being a fan of unusual architectural landmarks, we decided to head to Romney Marsh to use the Sound Mirrors and nature reserve as a backdrop. Suzy brought some of her unique creations along to model and the environment provided a suitably eerie context.

March

Step Up Film Course

We are very blessed in South London to have access to some fantastic local resources in terms of creativity. I was lucky enough to take part in two enterprises organised by the wonderful Photofusion and The Factory Production House early in 2021. In a period when we were all going a little stir crazy from the winter lockdown, the STEP UP Arts and Learning programme proved to be the perfect project and such an engaging learning experience. I would highly recommend it. There are three choices of courses including Art and Design, Film and Photography. I chose the film course, offering a full day of training per week over 10 weeks, I learnt so much not just about the technical side of creating movies, but also the history and creative arcs. I also had the opportunity to work with some extremely inspiring local artists. We had a very skilled tutor and were taken through each aspect of our training with great sensitivity. The courses continue to run so do investigate them if you are looking to further develop any of these areas.

April

Emma and the Fragments

April brought the exciting news that one of the bands I have had the pleasure of photographing several times now, Emma and the Fragments, were being signed by Regent Street Records. I have really enjoyed shooting their gigs over the years and was more than happy to join in the fun at The Engine Rooms during the formalities. Its been quite an exciting year for them with the release of their single Part of the Wildlife from their ep ‘Smile ‘til it Hurts’ and fronting and curating their own festival Fragfest 2021. Really looking forward to hearing a lot more from them in 2022.

May

Hastings and St Leonards on Sea

Every cloud has a silver lining, or every negative situation offers something positive to be gained from it. For me the pandemic made it more difficult to take photos of people, but it did encourage me to learn more about landscape and nature photography. A frequent visitor to Hastings already, I decided to explore this beautiful landscape more with my lens.

June

Chika’s Foods

This was my third assignment with Chika Russell, CEO of Chika’s Foods, and as always she was an absolute joy to work with. Chika invited me along to record her meeting with the Minister for Business, Paul Scully. As you can see from the images Paul was very enthusiastic about Chika’s products, as was everyone else involved in the event. We finished the day by heading back to Chika’s afterwards for an informal lifestyle photoshoot.

July

Manuela Willbold

The great thing about being a digital nomad is the world is your workplace. Each day you can choose the environment to inspire your process. Content creator and blogger Manuela Willbold makes the most of every opportunity to allow her inspiration to be energised by her chosen setting. Last summer I went along to Canvey Island to take a few shots of her in action with this stunning backdrop. Manuela has a very impressive cv, including several book publications, online media and PR strategist at Clickdo and a highly skilled and sought after copy writer, as well as creating online courses to support those looking to work in the same field. She is also constantly engaged with generating positive connections across creative industries. As well as our day at the beach I also joined Manuela at the Business Show in ExCel in the autumn. Check out Manuela’s piece on some of the exhibitor’s this year at London Business News.

August

Isobel Thatcher

I first met the incredibly talented Isobel Thatcher when she was playing at The Old Joinery in the Winter of 2020/2021. I was more than happy to join her for a photo shoot the following Summer to create images for her upcoming single. We chose one of my favourite backdrops for the day, The Ouse Valley Viaduct in Sussex. This was such a fun day and we were blessed with just the right weather. Following our day together Isobel has continued to perform live throughout the year, as well as releasing her single Forget and recently being nominated for a GCMC Award. I am looking forward to hearing more from her in 2022.

September

Eye on Streatham

Having first discovered the photographic arm of Streatham Festival, Eye on Streatham, in the summer of 2020, I was delighted to become involved in helping to run some of their events this year. It was wonderful to work with such gifted photographers and to learn so many new skills at the same time. The festival included workshops in astrophotography, portraiture, street photography, Adobe Lightroom, light painting and colourisation. One of the events that proved to be very popular was our hands on home projects held at the beautiful MAAN STUDIOS. I had such fun sharing water drop photography tips.

October

Fragfest 2021

I was so excited about this event. Fragfest 2021 was my first music festival in quite some time, and what better way to step back into this glorious world than with the first event curated by Petra Eujane Photography favourite’s Emma and The Fragments. Back at The Engine Rooms again, following the record signing shoot earlier in the year, Emma and co had invited some fantastically talented artists along to perform in this gorgeous space. Sadly I couldn’t be there for all of the acts – but here are some links for you to explore some of their beautiful sounds:

Emma and the Fragments

Dread Fury

TVVINS

Kay Elizabeth

Enjoy!

November

Sofar Sounds

It’s been a few years since I have had the pleasure of being a part of the Sofar Sounds family, so I was overjoyed to be invited along to a couple of their shows in November. As always the setting for this night was in a very unique space. I headed up to Wood Green to find The Record Shop inside the high street mall. This is such a great enterprise set up by one of the evening’s fabulous artists, WondRWomN, offering support to local young artists with their music development. Along with WonRWomN we were also treated to phenomenal performances from previous contestant and semi finalist on The Voice Ruth Brown, and the exceptionally talented guitarist and singer Kevin Davy White. I was blown away by each performance and felt very privileged to be recording images of this memorable night!

December

Streatham Lights On

What a perfect way to kick off the festivities this year! With Santa’s Grotto, a Christmas Market, reindeer parading, the Mayor of Lambeth and Father Christmas overseeing the turning on of the lights, and entertainment from local school choirs and the Brixton Chamber Orchestra, this really was such a lovely community event.

Happy New Year everyone and wishing you all a safe and successful 2022!