https://subjecttostatus.myportfolio.com/

Subject To Status Photography, Banbury (2026)

31/12/2024

I believe in New Year's Resolutions. I know it's easy to be cynical but sometimes, you need a prompt to pause and ask yourself "where am I, and where do I want to be?"

Checking in is important, and New Year is as good a time as any.

I've done some really cool work in 2024. I'm very happy and proud of the imagery and the art I've created, and I'm lucky to have met, worked with, and reconnected with as many cool, creative and passionate friends as I have done.

However, compared to previous years - even the Pandemic years - I've done less work than ever before. True, I've had a lot of Big Life Stuff going on this year, but I think that's only a part of it. I needed a break, a reset. I've had enough time away from the camera now to be introspective, and I've realised some things.

Being a photographer in 2025 can't mean just taking cool photos. Let's be honest, AI can do that better than me, faster and with a lot less coffee to fuel it. As a geek and a computer nerd, AI blows me away.

So photographers working as as Content Creators just doesn't work any more. But I hated the term 'Content' anyway. It trivialises the effort and the work and the passion that goes into creating art, imagery, video, music, outfits etc for this platform. 'Content' that's just there to fill the endless void of the Internet.

I knew a year ago I can't race the Algorithm. I can't produce enough Content to fill that black hole. But now I know that *nothing* human can keep up with it. And honestly, I'm becoming fine with that.

I've spent more time logged off this year than I have since Instagram was invented, and I've enjoyed it. That feeling of human reconnection is wonderful, and it's only become clear to me since I started to fail to keep up with the Machines.

I keep calling it 'meaningful' but I could quite easily call it 'human' photography. It's slower, more thoughtful, intentional. It promotes connection, depth, understanding, passion and soul. It's a 'less is more' approach that The Algorithm will never understand.

If AI-enabled internet is many, shallow things, then I'm aiming for fewer, deeper ones.

In short, it's all about connecting with real, human people.

Like you.

27/05/2024

There’s a type of portrait I’ve been rather taken with for a few years now, and I’ve not had a huge amount of opportunity to shoot.

You’ve seen the type. A famous actor, black and white, relaxed, candid. It’s not a formal LinkedIn business headshot, it’s filled with character and personality. It may be exaggerated (see: Willem Dafoe) or understated (George Clooney, Brad Pitt, etc) but it does more than just show you what a person looks like. It gives you a little snapshot of the conversation you were having with them at the time, the mood they were in, their personality. It’s the embodiment of ‘a picture speaks a thousand words’.

This is a difficult thing to ask someone to do. I’m no longer asking you to put on a ‘model face’ or become a character or act a scene. I’m trying to get you to open up, relax, have a conversation with me and allow me to put that moment on film.

This is my friend Steve. He wanted new professional headshots done, which I gave him, but at the end of the session we sat around chatting and messing about with the cameras until we got this.

I genuinely love shots like this. Someone described it as ‘candid’, which I think is appropriate. Not candid in the modern sense though, the sense of a photo being voyeuristically taken without the subject’s knowledge, but candid in the original sense - open, honest, authentic. No ‘model face’ or character work, just a genuine account of the conversation between us on that evening.

16/05/2024

Warning: this is about to get really geeky.

Let’s talk about Green.

The sun throws out incredibly powerful electromagnetic radiation at all sorts of wavelengths. Our atmosphere does a really good job of filtering that radiation down to wavelengths between 380-1200 nanometres.

Unsurprisingly, we’ve evolved to sense those wavelengths really well. We see radiation between 380-750nm as light, at different colours (depending on wavelength), and we feel radiation between 750-1200nm as heat. There’s a band right in the middle of that visible radiation range that we’re particularly sensitive to, at about 530-600 nm. That’s Green.

So, if humans see a range of colours which we can measure with science to be exactly the same brightness, we will still see the green light as brightest because we’re most sensitive to it.

Aside from being a kinda cool magic trick, so what? Well, it’s important to the science of photography.

A few years ago, Google released a Pixel phone that was ‘the most accurate sensor ever produced’. If you’ve got a DSLR and shoot RAW images, you’ll see the same thing. To most humans, the images they take look rubbish.

It was a bit embarrassing for Google. So camera manufacturers now artificially pump the amount of green (and sometimes blue) light in an image to make it look ‘better’ to a human eye. The greens on your phone are brighter and more prominent than science shows them to be in reality, because that’s more like how humans perceive them.

Again, so what?

Well, it’s become a bit of a meme in our house but I like to take as much of the green out of my images as I can. Since modern digital images are made to be so green by the manufacturers, I like mine to look a bit softer, a bit more analogue and a bit less iPhone. It’s just an aesthetic I prefer, as a reaction to the current digital aesthetic most likely.

So our usual refrain when editing is ‘crush those greens’ and I love the result.

10/05/2024

Ever noticed how a sunny day can turn everything around? Today’s the first truly bright and sunny week we’ve had in ages, and it’s like spring has finally shown up to say goodbye to winter. It’s amazing how that can lift your spirits. I feel optimistic, hopeful, and energized, ready to get out there and create again. This shift in my mood is happening even as social media seems to be crumbling around us. The usual reasons we flocked to social media—exposure, growth, business opportunities—are fading away. Watching metrics drop can feel pretty depressing, even nihilistic.

But maybe this gorgeous weather is helping me see things differently. Instead of feeling down, I’m starting to find it freeing. It’s becoming more about doing things for my own enjoyment rather than for an audience. Not that I don’t appreciate the small number of people reading this—you’re awesome! But the real reason I’m picking up my camera is shifting. I’m less driven by the need to boost my follower count or hit certain metrics. Now, I just want to create art, do positive and creative things that make me feel good. Sure, these things might not pay the bills, but they’re fulfilling in a way that chasing numbers never was.

I get that this is a privileged position, but I’m optimistic because it’s taking me back to why I started photography in the first place: for fun, self-expression, meeting people, and connecting with my local community. The vast internet community feels like it’s shrinking, but that’s okay because I’m reconnecting with smaller, real-life groups of friends, creating something meaningful and artistic together. If I were still chasing Instagram growth, I don’t think I’d be having as much fun. I’d be too worried about what content performs well instead of what I actually enjoy.

I recently watched a video by Peter McKinnon where he said photography as a business might be dead for him, but as a form of expression, it’s very much alive. That really resonated with me, especially on a bright, sunny day like today. Do you think we’re all starting to crave more genuine connections and creativity over digital metrics, or am I disappearing into introspective artsy nonsense again?

07/04/2024

CASTING CALL - SUN 14 APR 2024

Hi folks! I’m casting for a model/models on Sunday next week. Please see the images for details!

I’m looking to move into a more high-quality video-production creative headspace. I’ve been shooting stills for a long time but I’ve taken a few videos recently and enjoyed the process, so I would like to create a couple of cinematic, storytelling-style videos.

They’ll be mainly formatted for TikTok / Reels, but I may do another in widescreen for a YouTube-style video.

The exact, specific content of the video is still TBC as it’ll be agreed in partnership with you. I’m imagining a filmic, street-fashion / travelogue style set as a starting point, though. Examples and inspo are available if required.

I am happy to cover your expenses, including travel and lunch.

I’m looking for someone who can help me. I've put some guidance up in the post above, but let me know if anything isn't clear.

I’m based in northern Oxfordshire but happy to drive up to 90 minutes to you. In practice, that means if you’re based anywhere from the Midlands to North/West/central London, we should be good!

As I mentioned, exact content (and therefore exact outfits etc) can be discussed over this week.

If all this sounds exciting to you, please do get in touch via a DM!

28/03/2024

Unpopular opinion: it’s a lot easier to hate something than love something.

I call this an unpopular opinion not because it’ll cause an argument, but more in that very few people say it out loud.

It’s long been the ‘cool’ way to hate stuff. You get to sit in the corner and make sarcastic remarks, get to be the funny, clever person, or even stand up and openly talk something down, and it’s easy to see why. You get to feel confident, be smug, be better than the person who did, or even just likes, the bad thing.

Men watching professional athletes do this, but anyone who’s ‘burned’ something they don’t like has done the same. It makes you feel good to take something else down.

I found myself feeling defensive recently about a piece of media I enjoyed but was getting a slating in a group chat. I had to step back and ask myself, why do I feel this? I didn’t make it.

But then I slowly realised that, to stand up and say ‘I like this thing’, is opening yourself up to criticism almost as much. Your taste feels questioned and that’s a very intimate, personal, delicate thing. It hurts to see people dump on the thing you like, even if you didn’t make it yourself.

Problem is, if everyone’s being cool and hating everything, you get this whole atmosphere of negativity around everything related. It slowly makes anything and everything feel not worth bothering with. And I don’t know about you, but I’m a bit fed up of that.

Maybe I’m a curious sort, but I’d prefer to find out why someone likes something I don’t, rather than tell them it’s bad. Maybe that’ll let me enjoy something new, rather than trying to convince them they shouldn’t enjoy it either.

And I know, it’s the internet, you should expect this sort of thing. But why? You’re talking to real people and they have reasons to like and dislike stuff. Why just lazily hate it instead of trying to grow?

Is there anything you like that you’ve never talked about for fear of being told it’s actually rubbish? Please share it with me, I’d love to learn.

27/03/2024

I spend far too much time thinking about the philosophy of photography, and portraiture in particular.

The ‘who’ and the ‘why’ of a photo is always far more interesting to me than the ‘what’ or ‘where’. To me, the best portraits are the ones that tell a deep story, that reveal as much about the sitter as the photographer, and that show a window into who both of those people are at their core.

For me, the best photos aren’t of someone’s fashion or even of a fantasy (and that’s brave for a fantasy/cosplay photographer to say). For me, they’re fundamentally about humans, and humanity. They’re the images which call to me; the ones which you can’t see without feeling a sense of connection with that person. I love those.

I can’t find the source of the quote, but I once heard someone say ‘a great photograph is a deep conversation, just one in which a camera got in the way’.

In the past, I’ve tried to force this interaction into a camera. Rushing a conversation, asking for depth and meaning from a sitter within just a few minutes, trying to accelerate the process and not quite getting the result.

But I’m learning that, as with a lot of similar things that I’ve noticed recently, the real magic happens when you take the time, slow that conversation down and allow your sitter, who is your conversational partner after all, to relax with you and let that vulnerability and openness flow.

And it does have to flow both ways, too. It’s no use asking your subject for openness when you’re just some anonymous guy holding a metal and glass box. Connection is a two way street.

This is a shot of taken after just a few minutes at , at an event organised by . We only had a few minutes, but even in that short time she and I managed to have a wonderful, deep, important conversation and I got a shot that I really love.

25/03/2024

Have you ever found yourself picking up a new skill well into adulthood and thinking, “Isn’t this something I should have mastered as a kid?” That’s exactly where I found myself at 32, embarking on the journey to learn how to draw. It felt odd, considering most people associate learning to draw with childhood. But here I was, determined to conquer a skill that had always eluded me, much like learning a new language.

Diving into tutorials and sketching tirelessly, I had an epiphany. The pros, those effortlessly creating masterpieces, would casually mention spending “just a quick six hours” on what they termed a simple sketch. This realization was a game-changer for me. It shattered my naive assumption that expertise meant rapid results. Instead, it highlighted a stark difference between novices and veterans: patience and persistence. The seasoned artist embraces the hours of effort as a necessary part of the process, while beginners like myself might get discouraged when instant gratification eludes us.

This insight wasn’t confined to drawing. There’s a similar mindset in photography. Seasoned photographers would spend hours setting up before even taking a shot, underscoring the importance of preparation and patience in achieving excellence. This reinforced my understanding that mastery in any field is less about innate talent and more about the willingness to invest time and effort.

As I reflect on these lessons, I’m learning to slow down, to relish the process, and to recognize that taking my time with a sketch or setting up a shot is not a delay but a crucial step towards a better result. The true difference between a novice and a pro is the understanding that greatness takes time.

So, to anyone else out there learning something new, no matter your age or the skill: Have you found patience to be key in your journey? How have your perceptions of time and effort changed as you’ve delved deeper into your new hobby or skill? Let’s embrace the slow and steady path to mastery together.

20/03/2024

We all want to feel part of a community… how do we do that?

‘No man is an island’, so they say, but it seems to be getting harder and harder to reach out and genuinely connect with people.

I think this is why trends take off as much as they do, now more than ever. We leap into whatever is trending - “I can do the TikTok dance too! I’m one of you!” - but the problem is, that world disappears as soon as it arises. There was never chance for a true connection there.

This dipping in and out of cultures, niches, trends and communities at the speed we’re presented them, tends to mean we’re not able to form lasting, meaningful, deep relationships or knowledge of those cultures. We certainly don’t create very many interpersonal relationships in that short space of time.

We need spaces to inhabit for some time in order for those relationships to develop. I heard a term this morning, ‘cultural resting spaces’, which described this idea. A website, or a blog, or a magazine, or an insta, a style, or a physical space we can keep going back to when the trend-chasing world starts to feel a bit overwhelming and fast.

At the very least, it means we don’t have to keep throwing away and rebuying our wardrobes as tastes change at lightning speed.

But more hopefully, it allows us to calm down, to rest, to breathe and take comfort in a space we’re familiar with. It allows friendships and relationships to grow in that space. And it gives us a much needed sense of identity.

Do you have a ‘cultural resting place’? Where do you keep going back to, that isn’t just supplied to you by a trend chasing algorithm? I’d love to know where you go for your comfortable, slow media. For your relationships, and your identity.

For me, it’s old-school, long-form magazine-style articles (remember those?) and newsletters on Substack.

14/03/2024

Ever seen something so captivating it stopped you in your tracks?

That’s exactly what happened to me when I laid eyes on Mark Seliger’s Oscar portraits. With nothing but a grey brutalist backdrop, he made some of the most compelling portraits I’ve seen in ages.

Each photograph captures the essence and uniqueness of its subject, whoever that is, allowing their personality to shine through in an expressive, dynamic way.

These aren’t normal, structured photoshoots; these are just brief encounters on the way into the VF Oscars party, yet somehow, Seliger captures something deeply personal in each shot.

Critics often argue that photographers like Seliger only shine because their subjects are famous actors. But Seliger’s work with ‘ordinary’ folks holds just as much emotion and personality. Plus, he had to start somewhere!

How does he do it? How does he break the ice so quickly and make people feel comfortable to be fully themselves in front of a lens?

His work isn’t about fame, or acting. It’s about an ability to connect, to listen, and to make his subjects feel seen. It’s not about the person being a celeb; it’s about the revealing and the projection of that person’s self. The dialogue, the mutual understanding, and the shared vision are what make these photographs come alive. Seliger has mastered this art of connection, something I find deeply inspiring and aspire to emulate.

Photography, for me, is about people. The connection between the one behind the camera and the one in front of it is what breathes life into a photograph. And as someone who constantly seeks to deepen these connections in my work, I often wonder, how can we all learn to open up and connect more genuinely, not just in photography, but in every interaction we have?

What do you think is the key to making genuine connections, whether it’s in photography or life in general?

09/03/2024

Today, I did something pretty cool, albeit really nerdy—I actually finished a notebook, front to back, for the first time ever. It's a small win, but it feels pretty big to me. I've always been the type to scribble down everything on paper rather than tap it into my phone or an app. There's just something about the putting pencil to paper that sticks with me more, even though it's a pain to find stuff later.

Thing is, I have this habit of buying new notebooks, diving into them, and then... well, abandoning them when the next shiny one catches my eye. But not today. Today, I flipped the last page of my current notebook, and it felt good.

Looking back through it, it's like a little time capsule—work notes, random thoughts, doodles, quotes I loved, and bits of ideas. It's messy, but it's mine. It’s not as neat and searchable as a digital note would be, but writing stuff down this way just works better for me.

I prefer small notebooks, the kind you can easily carry around. The big ones just get lost or forgotten. But the small ones are super convenient, always on hand and helping me jot down thoughts on the fly.

It made me think. Writing by hand isn't just about recording stuff—it's about connecting with my thoughts on a deeper level. And the doodles? They're not a waste of time; they're part of the process, helping me think and explore ideas in a way that feels right.

I'm weirdly proud I stuck with it and didn't jump to a new notebook. It's taught me to appreciate the simple act of writing a bit more, and how sticking with something, even as small as filling a notebook, can be very satisfying.

Do you have physical notebooks? Have you ever finished one? What did it feel like, and what did you learn about yourself along the way? What do you use instead, if not?

29/02/2024

Today is a leap day, a bonus day we've been handed to make the most out of. How are you going to do that?

I've always hated the phrase 'make the most of'. It's a great way to ruin a holiday, by spending the entire time stressing about where we're going next, what we should be doing now, how we can 'maximise' the culture we are only visiting temporarily, how long we have at this once-in-a-lifetime spot before we have to dash off to the next without being late for it. I've ruined enough experiences by trying to rush on to the next.

So how am I spending my bonus day? Well, I've got quite a long to-do list I was planning on making a start on after work tonight but I read this quote today and it's sort of changed my mind;

"It's the silence between the notes that makes the music.

If you want to create, or be anything lateral, bigger, better, or truly different, you need room to ask "what if?" without having a conference call in 15 minutes' time.

The 'aha!' moments rarely come from the incremental inbox-clearing mentality of 'oh f**k, I forgot to... Please remind me to... Shouldn't I?... I must remember to...'.

That is the land of the lost, and we all become lost."

- Tim Ferris

We've been handed a whole another day to live in. That should be something to be celebrated. Indulged. Life is precious and all too short, and we spend enough of it working already.

I've decided to start my evening by writing this. I enjoy writing these things. It's a weird sort of cross between stream-of-consciousness journal, blog, pouring-of-the-soul and just one of those CBT things where you write stuff down just so it's not rattling around your head any more. But I have fun doing it, I've started conversations off the back of it, and my sense of community and enjoyment of this app is starting to come back, so why the hell not. Damn best-times-to-post and whatever. This one's for me.

What's next, I'm not sure. I feel like there should be pizza, though.

Subject To Status Photography

31/12/2024

27/05/2024

16/05/2024

10/05/2024

07/04/2024

28/03/2024

27/03/2024

25/03/2024

20/03/2024

14/03/2024

09/03/2024

29/02/2024

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