Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2016

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So every year I enter the one photography competition that really means anything to me, the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize. 

Every year I get the same message back saying 'Thank you for entering the competition this year. The judges have now made their final selection and I am sorry to inform you that on this occasion your work has not been selected for exhibition.'

But this year there was a slight difference, they also added this sentence: 'However, I did want to let you know that your photograph(s) did make it through to the second round of judging which included around 346 images. This year we had a total of 4,303 prints submitted into the competition from 1,842 photographers so the competition was very strong.'

So although I didn't make it to the final exhibition (dam you, it'll happen one day!) I did make it into the top 8% (someone on Facebook did the maths for me) so at least it's a step in the right direction. 

So i'll just keep on trying and keep on submitting my images to them and i'll see what happens. 

I'd love to know which image(s) made it though, but sadly they don't let you know, so here are the four portraits that I submitted this year. 

Portrait of a Brighton Photography Legend

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Tony Tree - Brighton Argus Photographer

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It's always a pleasure to taking a photographers portrait and usually a bit daunting. However on this occasion it was an absolute joy.

I had to take a portrait of legendary Brighton photographer Tony Tree (which you can see in this months Viva Brighton magazine), who has worked with the likes of David Bailey and Helmut Newton. He also spent 20 years as a photographer for The Brighton Argus during the 70s, 80s and 90s when press photography was a very different beast to what it is today.

Tony was a joy to photography and to chat to about all things photographic and hear some stories of the past. He was so accommodating and I wanted to capture some of that kindness in the portrait. I also took inspiration for this portrait from one of my favourite photographers the wonderful Jane Bown. Who worked for the Observer for many many years and worked with minimal equipment and always shot on an old black and white film camera. This portrait wasn't shot on film, but I was thinking of her during the shoot.

So thanks so much Tony and Jane.

George Osbourne PR special visit photography

Sussex PR Photography of George Osbourne

George Osbourne Visits Sussex Business

They say a week is a long time in politics and this week seems longer than most.

This time last week I was photographing the Chancellor George Osbourne on a visit to a Sussex engineering firm who I sometime shoot for as part of the EU Referendum Remain campaign. And a week later, we are living in a very different world. If I would have described to him last week all that would happen in the next seven days, I doubt he would have believed me. 

A week surely is a long time in politics.

SILO Brighton chef portrait

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Brighton Chef Magazine Portrait

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A little while ago I was asked to take a portrait of the head chef Doug, at the zero waste restaurant SILO in Brighton for specialist coffee magazine Longberry. Which is a very cool publication and describes itself as 'An occasional journal of coffee.'

Doug the head chef is quite a character and is doing some really interesting things with food. So if you get a chance, you should really head down there. He was also a man in demand. When I arrived he was just finishing one interview and there was already a film crew standing by to interview him for something else. So I only had five mins with him, but managed to get a couple of portraits that I'm really happy with.

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And this is what the finished article looked like in the magazine.

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