Sometimes I despair at the thought that photography cannot really make life any better for me or the people I photograph, especially when life isn’t at its easiest. I keep coming back to the way photography can hold on to something of a passing moment — a place, an encounter, … Read the rest

Just an ordinary parking area around a tower block in London Fields, with a few young boys playing into the dusk like they do on any other summer evening.
But this time, Odile and I were there, determined to get something out of the location. And I think we eventually … Read the rest

If there is one thing that makes me proud to be Iranian, it is the Iranian women.
A vast majority of them have been pioneers in breaking through walls of suppression — at a time when conservatism, patriarchy and the suppression of women are increasingly being dressed up as virtues … Read the rest

You may tell yourself it shouldn’t make a big difference. You may be very much mindful not to let your care or respect waver because of that. You may go about the whole shoot just as you have done quite a few times by now, with such different people.
And … Read the rest

CTO or no CTO? That was the question! The shoots for this project are not that easy for me. I am not an experienced portrait photographer or particularly communicative. Yet I give myself just two hours to meet someone I have never met, deal with a place I may barely … Read the rest

Sequencing still images has always mattered to me. It is about the experience of seeing photographs unfold in time, and how snapshots from a continuum of time can, simply put, become more than the sum of their parts.
Watching Before Sunrise (1995) again in a proper cinema in Vienna this … Read the rest

“As luck would have it, I was actually looking for someone to model for a portrait shoot in Hackney.” That’s what I first wrote to Odile, quite spontaneously. After all, it was one of my favourite photographs from Hackney Wick that had led me to her, and I was genuinely … Read the rest

As if Cindy Sherman’s Untitled Number 92 is ingrained in my brain, reminding me never to look down on a woman as a photographer or otherwise, I tend to avoid downward-looking angles when photographing women if I sense any vulnerability in that positional relationship.
But this time, I believe Kat’s … Read the rest

This is probably Kat’s least favourite photo from our shoot — although, to her credit, she said she was easy about the photos I picked!
But to me, this photo, next to the earlier one I posted, is perhaps the best demonstration of her talent and range. Just 91 seconds … Read the rest

I met Else during the few days she was visiting London. When she told me she’d been dancing since the age of four, I suggested Southbank Centre as our location. I also knew that the BFI had this giant portrait of Marilyn Monroe on display. Marilyn is someone I’ve come … Read the rest