Fifteen-minute Portraits: An Arty Christmas Gift

Okay, let’s get this out of the way: Yes, it’s November. Yes, it’s not actually Christmas yet. And if you get me started on the fact that the Manchester Christmas Markets are already being built then you’ll have to hand me a beer and let me rant for a few hours.

Doesn't mean I’m above marketing my services as a Christmas present, however. So, on to the meat of the message!

Fifteen-minute Portraits are back for a second year!

Last year I started a Fifteen-minute Portrait service, which was a roaring success. The basic premise (which I shamelessly nicked from Jeremy Cowart), is this:

Here's how it works: the sitter comes to my studio in Manchester, we have fifteen minutes to shoot and chat. We pick a few favourite frames together, then we're done. The selection of the final portrait is mine, and because I'm limiting the amount of retouching I'm doing, the sitter should have their image within 24 hours.

This year, I’m not just offering the option to book a session with me. I’m also offering gift vouchers. Want to buy your loved one something quirky and different? Buy them a Fifteen-minute Portrait voucher.

The vouchers are valid for up to a year, so let’s make something cool together!

Can we shoot something cool together in just 15 minutes? Come and find out!

One of the biggest joys in making portraits, I find, is getting to meet interesting people. And the truth is that everyone is interesting in some way. I've yet to meet a truly boring person in my career as a photographer.

But here's the thing: when you work a lot with models and musicians and people with a media profile to project and maintain, you encounter a lot of artifice. Not always deliberately; there's rarely a moment that a person decides "I shall pretend to be someone else in front of the camera," but often: The band who want to look like hard-core rockers, and who are completely different when the camera is off them. The model who is painfully shy until the camera points their way.

For my latest project, I want to do something different. I want to work with people who don't regularly sit in front of a camera for a professional portrait. And I want to push the boundaries, creatively, of what I'm able to do: with lighting, with sets, with props. I want to make portraits that are weird and wonderful and different.

And because I like to make my life harder, I'm giving myself only 15 minutes per sitter to shoot a portrait. 

Here's how it works: the sitter comes to my studio in Manchester, we have fifteen minutes to shoot and chat. We pick a few favourite frames together, then we're done. The selection of the final portrait is mine, and because I'm limiting the amount of retouching I'm doing, the sitter should have their image within 24 hours.

For all of this, I'm charging just £30 per sitter. That's a fraction of what I'd normally charge for a shoot. Why? Because I honestly believe that people want interesting and different images of themselves, and £30 is not a high bar to clear for most of those people.

If you're in North-West England, come and be a part of it all. You can read a bit more about the project and book a session over on the 15-minute portraits page.

I can't wait to work with you!