Why do I choose to be a Photographer?
Because of the people that I photograph, and the people that I work with.
I find this last part particularly enjoyable, because it is a wonder to create something meaningful with other people. Working together and towards the same goal, with a group of talented and creative people is such a joy!
But I also love meeting and chatting with the huge variety of people that I photograph – finding out what makes them tick, bringing into being a connection, and them allowing me to capture an intimate part of their lives – it’s a unique and privileged perspective.
I also love the access that photography gives - from shooting in prisons, or parliaments; with prime ministers, princes or paupers; being inside boardrooms of banks and multinationals; or within slums and gated communities; ranging from operating theatres and nuclear power plants to schools and charities, in every continent world wide, it never ceases to amaze me how we’re all different, and yet all the same.
The final image captures only a split second, regardless of the number of hours and days that it took to get there – so why not enjoy the journey?
And once the shoot starts, I’m told that my sets and locations are always fun, energising and fertile places – places in which it’s comfortable for everyone to be open and to create.
Because after all, a successful photograph is just a feeling that has been bottled, and then been given permission to germinate inside the viewer. How can you consistently produce great images without them coming from true feelings?
A lady that I once photographed because of her terminal breast cancer, wrote to the agency after our shoot “I must say I had a fantastic time, it was lovely, this is something I will remember for the rest of my life – however long I’ve got.”
I guess that we are all living on borrowed time. And all too often, we only realise that the free bar is about to close once the bar staff call time. I’d say it’s up to us to make the most out of what time we each have left.
Which is why, I’m a photographer.
Projects
- Shooting the Fire BrigadeI'm looking for the Fire House. In fact, it's not a large building but the smoke billowing out of the windows gives the game away. I'm here to photograph the London Fire Brigade’s training, and it strikes me as funny that some people are more scared of a camera, than walking into a burning building!
- I Am None Of ThisRACE HAS NO BASIS IN REALITY Using the concept of race is a bit like categorising cars by their colour rather than their make. Or saying that as a cherry turns from green to red, it’s turning from one type of fruit into another. The historical concept of race, as we know it, came about as a means to further empire and slavery: to make it palatable. The concepts that were invented to explaining and justify both exploitation and apartheid are so ingrained, that even the advent of modern genetic
Work history
PhotographerSlater King Photography
London, United KingdomFreelance
Skills
- Adobe Photoshop
- Adobe Lightroom
- Adobe Indesign
- Commercial Photography
- Conceptual Photography
- Corporate Photography
- Portraiture Photography