Yesterday was the launch of my portrait exhibition of thirty women professors of psychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry in Denmark Hill, South London. The exhibition will run for 6 months to 1 year.

The project was a real challenge. Not least because the majority of the participants hated having their picture taken! This forced me to work really hard in what was only a half-hour session with each person. Suffice to say I couldn’t rely on cheeky one-liners. It was also a mission finding different locations we could use around the campus. It’s amazing how fit you get lugging camera gear and lighting stands up and down stairs.

I chose to do the whole exhibition in black and white. I’m really glad I made this decision early on, as I’ve learned a lot about colour and monochrome shooting, and what lighting, composition, backgrounds suit both formats.

Here are the results of an intense 2 week shoot, and below a few images from the Inspiring Women launch event.

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