I had the good fortune of spending ten years at Lancaster Literature Festival where I was in a position to capture writers in my lens. An ongoing project.
I was recently asked to photograph a new festival for Morecambe – the West End Weekend. Organised by the West End Million team, WEW is a celebration of the West End of Morecambe, it’s streets, it’s shops, it’s creativity and it’s people. Taking place over Friday and Saturday 9th/10th September, the festival included street performers, … [Read more…]
Last week I visited the home of Lancaster author Carys Davies to take some new publicity portraits shots. Carys has a new book of short stories on the way this autumn published by Salt and it was time to get new portraits. After a chat about what would and wouldn’t be suitable we spent an … [Read more…]
Later this month I shall be holding my second photo exhibition of the year. I will admit to being still very nervous of the whole idea of exhibitions, but in this case it’s a nice marker of my movement into full-time photography. In 2003 I joined Lancaster Litfest as humble Admin assistant. I’d spent about … [Read more…]
A selection of writer portraits taken over the last ten years at Litfest and beyond.
I recently had a photoshoot with local singer/songwriter Katy Pickles for my @Offstage@ exhibition project. Katy asked if she could use this picture from the shoot for the cover of her forthcoming EP.
Having been a bookseller for many years of my earlier life, I do find I get an extra special twinge of excitement when one of my images is used on a book. I’ve had quite a few author photos appear on back covers, but getting a front cover is ace! Well this weekend sees the … [Read more…]
Today’s post is a bit of a companion piece to my previous one of Blake Morrison. Again, this was a Litfest commission and a part of the same wider project that Blake Morrison is involved in. All will become clear later this spring. For now, suffice to say this is author Livi Michael, for Litfest, … [Read more…]
On Friday I had the pleasure of shooting some portraits of the writer Blake Morrison for Lancaster Litfest for an upcoming project. What a lovely chap he is! Here’s a few from the session. Pin It Jonathan Bean Photography | Lancaster based professional wedding and portrait photographer | www.beanphoto.co.uk
Congratulations to Carol Ann Duffy, Poet Laureate, who it has just been announced has won the Costa Poetry Prize for her latest collection “The Bees”. A couple of years ago I had the pleasure of driving Carol Ann around Lancaster and Morecambe whilst on her visit to Lancaster Litfest. On the way we stopped for … [Read more…]
My Litfest colleague Sarah Hymas, has a new collection of poems out. “Host” was launched at the Maritime Museum on St. Georges Quay, Lancaster, an event I was more than pleased to attend. Together with Sarah I have really enjoyed the opportunity to photograph all the Flax writers that she has been editor to. The … [Read more…]
After blogging Amy’s shots for the Flax021 writer profiles recently, I got a bit behind on editing and missed off the other shoots from the set, so without further ado, joining Amy Prodromou in This Road we’re On (Flax021) is Chris Witter,Naomi Kruger and Emma Bragg. The launch for the issue is on Wednesday 30th … [Read more…]
A couple of years back I photographed Jane Eagland, a local writer for Flax (if you haven’t got it by now, Flax is the publishing imprint of Lancaster Litfest). Jane was selected for inclusion in Square Cuts the very first Flax publication, and I had a brief from Sarah Hymas, the Flax editor, and from … [Read more…]
I’m back shooting for flax again at the moment, it’s quite astonishing to think that this is the 21st publication from the Lancaster digital publisher – a coming of age?I love shooting the portraits for their writer profile pages, and myself and Flax editor Sarah Hymas seem to have a nice relaxed method developed over … [Read more…]
Last week, before slipping away to celebrate my birthday and my in-laws Golden Wedding anniversary in sunny Derbyshire, I just had chance to slip in a portrait shoot with writer Deborah Swift. I’d shot Dee last year for Litfest but had never been happy with the results and offered to re-shoot when Dee said her … [Read more…]
Another set of profile pictures for the forthcoming flax020 audio anthology. Today is Carla Scarano. Jonathan Bean Photography | Lancaster based professional wedding and portrait photographer | www.beanphoto.co.uk