I often get asked “who is the most famous person you’ve photographed”? When I was asked again recently I went to my usual my top answer “Princess Ann”. This got me thinking — who are the other well-known people I’ve photographed? I thought I’d better write an article now after 19 years, otherwise I may forget soon! Some of the experiences I’ve already written blogs for, I have hyperlinked where appropriate.
I’ve scanned through my memory and photo archive and these ten people sprung to mind, there have been Olympians/sports professionals too, but I can’t remember their names now. These are the ones I can remember as well as Princess Ann (she needs no introduction of course, I blogged her shoot here).
Jo Malone — well known for her high-end fragrances/candles (my friends were extremely excited about this one and were encouraging me to sneak a few candles home)! Jo was a really inspirational speaker and came from very humble beginnings, she’s battled cancer and I also found her to be a really down to earth lovely person.
Sir Dave Brailsford — best known for being head of the cycling team “Team Sky”. I’ve actually already written an article on Dave as it was such a life changing experience to learn about “The Chimp Paradox”, the principles behind this were used to train this very successful squad.
Nadia Sawalha — actress and TV presenter, she gained notoriety in the sitcom “Ab Fab”! I was the stills photographer on a “ Lloyd’s Pharmacy” advert she was starring in in London. The most memorable part of the day was when we got half way through the filming… someone realised the focus puller had made an error and the whole shoot had filmed again! A few eyes rolled and we ran five hours late!
Liz Truss — the Foreign Secretary and in the current leadership campaign. I photographed Liz at an event in Cirencester at Watermoor Point where she was campaigning to become the next Prime Minister. This day was 31c and an awful lot of people were in attendance and very keen to get selfies with Liz. This provided a lot of challenges as a photographer once the structured part of the event was over as it was really hard to get near her without endless bodies and phones obscuring my shots lol!
Ruth Kelly — former Member of Parliament. She was at a Capita conference many years ago, this was my first of experience of “jostling with the press”! There were several other photographers all hustling for the best angle of Ruth in the press pit. I had to stand my ground at times to ensure I fulfilled my brief. This experience confirmed to me I didn’t want to pursue a career in press photography.
Nick Hewer — Alan Sugar’s right-hand man in “The Apprentice”. I met Nick briefly before taking photos of him speaking, it was such a long time ago all I can remember is he was the same height as me and people were asking after “Margaret” was!
Rankin — arguably one of the most famous photographers (apart from me of course). 🙂 He was speaking at a Unilever conference; it was somewhat nerve wracking as a photographer of around eight years’ experience at the time to capture this iconic photographer! Luckily I was able to shoot him unobtrusively and I was happy with the shots I provided. (The photo in this article is Rankin being interviewed by Dave Lewis).
Ellie Simmonds – is a British former Paralympian swimmer. She was speaking at an event in London where she held a fireside chat. I found her extremely personable and very humble in her story. I was lucky enough to have a couple of one on one chats with her!
Dave Lewis— CEO of WWF, formally CEO of Tesco Bank and Unilever. (I’ve written article on one of my most impactful shoots when Dave was CEO of Unilever, see link). I have a lot of professional respect for Dave he showed great leadership in his Unilever days, I watched him speak on/off for around six years and found him captivating. I later went on to photograph Dave’s wedding, which was a huge privilege as he is a very high-profile figure in the business world.
Ann Gottlieb — a renowned perfumer inventing fragrances such as “J’adore Dior”. I seem to remember I was wearing this fragrance whilst I was snapping her!
Others have included Vince cable (Lib Dem Leader), Meera Syal (actress from “The Kumars at No. 42”), Nigel Havers (well-known actor) and Andrew Cotton (UK big wave surfer).
So there we are, I think you’d agree with me Princess Ann is the correct answer to give, however I have been very lucky to encounter all these interesting characters over the years!