End of an era

Nothing lasts for ever, and unfortunately, my long-standing association with the famous North East fashion brand Barbour has come to an end due to their media production being transferred to an in-house studio with a team of creatives dedicated to the task of product photography.

I’ve been shooting Barbour products for their brochures & website for 7 years now, & I’d become accustomed to the bi-annual call to arms in order to photograph 2000+ products over two month periods in the spring & autumn seasonal campaigns.  Many 18-20 hour days in my old studio were spent engaged in pure graft, along with stylists, assistants, and the marketing team at Barbour – producing product images of various garments on mannequin, or flat on poly-boards.

I started shooting for the company back in 2007 – using a space in their old warehouse. I’ve seen the clothing range grow year on year, and actually won the business back after losing out temporarily to a huge London based packshot studio. I moved the production to my studio for a few years, & increased my capacity to 200 completed shots per day (the average packshot photographer is targeted for 40). I used their studio space briefly last autumn to shoot the Autumn/Winter 15 campaign, but now that they’ve set up themselves, it means a big hole in four months of my working year.

During that time, I’ve had some great times, obviously developed some amazing techniques, and photographed some lovely garments – collaborations with Paul Smith, Adidas, Land Rover, Grensons Shoes, Alice Temperley, To Ki To, Anya Hindmarsh, & many more. I shot the jacket that Daniel Craig wore in Skyfall (while my little boy was being sick all over the studio floor coincidentally), I toured the factory with Coventry based rockers The Enemy, did location shoots for the Barbour blog, & created elaborate advertisment images for posters & point of promotion content. All sorts of stuff. An all round amazing client to have basically. Best of luck to the brand new team there, who will go from strength to strength.

My future is a bit uncertain now that i’ve lost my biggest client, but I’m sure all will be well. Onwards and upwards!