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We recently spent 5 minutes catching up with Rich Hendry, photographer and owner of the Great Eastern Bear where our LPA Futures exhibition is currently on display. Here is what Rich had to say…

- Can you tell us a little about what you do?
I work freelance as a photographer for editorial, advertising and design clients. I also own a gallery in Shoreditch which I set up to promote fine art photography.

- How long have you been a photographer and what made you decide to become a photographer in the first place?
I’ve always wanted to be a photographer since I was a child, I undertook my first commission for an agency in Edinburgh when I was 17.

- What inspires you and your photography?
Most of my inspiration comes from people I meet and stories I hear, as well as books / films / music. I’m keen to try and produce work that conveys a certain emotion rather than a distinct graphical style or technique.

© Rich Hendry

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We recently had an opportunity to catch up with the lovely Will Hudson, founder of It’s Nice That, on TWO occasions. In addition to being one of our ‘magnificent seven’ which comprised the LPA Futures judges, we also spent time catching up with him this week, finding out more about him and his work. Here is what Will had to say…

© It’s Nice That

- Thanks for joining us Will, can you tell us a little about what you do?
I’m founder and director of It’s Nice That, a London based publishing platform focused on championing creativity across the art and design world. We do this by publishing work online, through our quarterly magazine and programme of events. I’m also co-founder and director of INT Works, an independent creative agency all about understanding brands to deliver creative solutions with meaningful results. Clients include Nike, Channel 4 and MTV.

- It’s Nice That is one of our favourite websites here at LPA, how do you see your site within the cultural sphere?
We try and cover a real breadth of creative work, from graphic design, illustration, photography and art to fashion, film and product design. I think it’s really important that things things can be seen side by side and more importantly that we can stick a second year illustration student next to an established ad agency. It’s Nice That has never been about saying “this is the best” it’s much more about something that resonates and makes you look again.

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After another incredibly successful year of LPA Student Challenges, we thought it would be fun to catch up with one of the winners from last year.

Jordi Ruiz Cirera won our 2012 LPA Student Challenge Number 3 and named the LPA ‘One to Watch’ which couldn’t be more true! Since winning the LPA Student Challenges, Jordi has gone on to win the AOP Student Awards 2012, the Deustche Bank Award for Photography 2012 and the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2012.

Here’s what we gleaned from him in our ’5 minutes with…’.

⁃ Can you tell us a little about yourself and what you do?

I’m a documentary photographer from Barcelona based in London. At the moment I’m combining personal long-term projects with editorial and corporate assignments.

© Jordi Ruiz Cirera

⁃ You had an incredible 2012, what was your personal highlight?

Indeed I still can’t believe it, I had a year full of celebrations and good moments. It started just graduated from my MA, and not long after that I was on the Sunday Times Magazine which was fantastic. Just a couple of months later I was named the AOP Student of the year, another really good highlight widely celebrated. But of course the best was winning the Taylor Wessing portrait prize, I am truly honoured of getting such a competitive prize considering the high level of the entries.

© Jordi Ruiz Cirera

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We’ve spent 5 minutes with people in every area of the photographic industry, from model bookers to animal talent agents. For our first chat of 2013, we thought we’d stay a little closer to home and caught up with the inimitable Charlie Cave of LPA Style. With a wealth of experience in the fashion and retail industry, Charlie is one of the most creative stylists in the business. Here is what she had to say….

-­ Tell us a bit about yourself and what you do?
I am a stylist for both stills and TV commercials. My work involves researching, mood-­boards, props, set builds and wardrobe. I am also a mother to two amazing little girls. Unfortuately both work and children have been most unkind to the bags under my eyes.

- ­How did you become a stylist?
Whilst at university, I did work experience for the jewellery designer Tom Binns in New York where I met several fashion stylists. I become really interested in the idea of styling, but found the fashion industry incredibly scary. So I decided to try and get experience in interior styling. After graduating, I worked at Habitat and Liberty department stores doing visual merchandising and window displays. During this time I also did lots of assisting, then after several years I started getting my own jobs. I was very lucky to work with two brilliant stylists/journalists who took me under their wing, Vinny Lee & Margaret Caselton. They taught me so much – I am very grateful to them.

- What are the main skills you need to be a commercial stylist?
You need to be extremely organised, with good knowledge of all the prop houses, stores etc. An ability to get on well with people and most importantly understand the brief is key.

Charlie with fellow LPA Style Ellie Tobin

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We were delighted to announce LPA Futures 2013 ‘Call For Entries’ earlier this week.  The success of the competition would not be possible without the support of sponsors and we’re chuffed to be partnering with Metro Imaging this year.  So when ’5 mins with…’ came round again, one of our sponsors seemed an obvious choice and who better than Steve Macleod, Creative Director at Metro.

Here’s what he had to say…

Can you tell us a little about Metro Imaging?

Metro Imaging (MI) is 35 years old and has always been regarded as one of the great innovators in Professional Photographic Production. Over the years it has adapted to manage clients expectations as we continue through the analogue and digital transformation.

It is always an exciting challenge, we have introduced digital B&W silver gelatin, large mural Ctype, framing and Metro-Print online services over recent years and now provide a comprehensive end to end solution – we help edit, print, mount, frame, ship and install.

© Steve Macleod

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We often use animals in our shoots here at LPA and have worked with the legendary Gerry Cott, founder of animal acting agency A-Z Animals, many times over the years.

Gerry is always a pleasure to deal with and it was fascinating spending 5 minutes with him – what an interesting life!

Can you tell us a little about your company, A-Z Animals?
A-Z Animals was founded in 1983 – I was asked to do some filming with my Border Collie, Marley (named in honour of Bob Marley) and it slowly grew from there. Our first major project was training three pigs for the feature film ‘A Private Function’ with Maggie Smith, Michael Palin and Richard Griffiths which was funded by George Harrison from The Beatles

As the founder of the business, how have you seen the industry develop over the last 30 years?
Working with animals nowadays is very much more considered, controlled, and regulated which I am very happy about.

What’s the strangest request you’ve ever had?
Filming with Russian Squirrels in Ukraine.

People always say ‘never work with animals’, how would you convince them otherwise?
We have helped build the portfolio of many photographers and show reels of many production companies – these are the people who know best about working with animals – when they come back to us, we know we’ve made “working with animals” easy for them.
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As part of our ongoing ’5 Minutes With…’ series, we recently spent a few moments chatting with Gavin Schneider of Gavin Schneider Productions.

Based in Cape Town, Gavin Schneider Productions is one of South Africa’s leading production companies, regularly working with a wide variety of international clients. Here at LPA we have a close-knit relationship with Gavin and his team, having collaborated together on a number of projects over the years including shoots for Orange and Vipnet. Our producer Lauren even flew out to Cape Town earlier this year to work with Gavin on a shoot with LPA photographer Nick Daly. She took these great ‘behind the scenes’ images!

Here’s what the man had to say…

Can you tell us a little about your company, Gavin Schneider Productions?

We offer professional production assistance & facilitate advertising, catalogue, editorial & video shoots in Cape Town, South Africa. We are supported by a dedicated team of full time office staff and regular freelancers during our busy season. Our newly refurbished 300 sq. offices offer a casting studio, boardroom & lounge facilities with Wi-Fi & internet .

How did you get into the industry and set your own company up?

After studying and receiving a diploma in Marketing & Tourism, I decided to continue my passion for photography. I was an amateur portrait & lifestyle photographer and was fortunate to be given the opportunity to production manage and photo assist many top international photographers through a few production companies in Cape Town in the early 90’s. I had the opportunity to assist fashion photographer, Peter Lindbergh full time in Paris which I turned down to pursue my zest for production & promote Cape Town as a location for all international shoots.

So what’s so great about shooting in Cape Town? There must be an endless source of amazing locations and fantastic weather, what’s the down side?

Fortunately, there are not many down sides to producing in Cape Town, which is the very reason clients return year after year. Cape Town is favourable in every aspect of production – offering incredible landscapes, white sand beaches, mixture of modern & European style architecture, experienced crew, extensive equipment & unit support, and a wide variety of international and local models. With the present rate of exchange, Cape Town remains a good value destination with reasonably priced accommodation.

The only downside is the limited amount of flights from the UK & Europe directly into Cape Town – fortunately there is no time change – so no jet lag!

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A couple of months ago we met the fabulous design agency Mat Dolphin and thought they’d be perfect for our next ’5 mins with’.

Here’s what they had to say…

Tell us a bit about who you are and what you do?

We are Mat Dolphin, the creative partnership between Phil Cook and Tom Actman. We design identities, logos, branding, websites, mailers, posters, books, annual reports, fonts, signage, packaging, apparel, large format stuff and anything else you can think of. We work with a wide range of clients including interior architects, beauty bloggers , PR agencies, bars and restaurants, high street banks and record labels.

Whats the story behind your name?

It’s a closely guarded secret I’m afraid (although not impossible to work out).

What do you love / hate most about your job?

Love – We’re our own bosses. We have complete control over what we do – the creative side of things, how the business is run, which projects we decide to take on, when we feel like dropping everything and going for a pint. Every decision is down to us.
Hate – We’re our own bosses. It’s impossible to switch off and nothing is ever good enough.

What’s the most interesting campaign you’ve worked on?

It’s a cliché to say that the one we’re about to work on is the most interesting but, as with most clichés, it’s true. We’re always most excited about what’s just around the corner. That said, working with the DJ Norman Jay to rebrand his Good Times Soundsystem was a bit of a turning point for us as a company and something we were both passionate about. It was also the first time we’d seen our work in the public domain on such a scale – seeing random people at Notting Hill Carnival wandering around in T-Shirts we’d designed was pretty good.

Who wears the trousers between you?!

We share one pair with three legs.

Who inspires you?

In no particular order – Both our mums and dads, Stanley Kubrick, Peter Saville, Josef Müller-Brockmann, Roids MSK, Bjork, Rei Kawakubo, Aphex Twin, Charles Bukowski, Alex Trochut, Sanderson Bob, Ernest Hemingway, Barry Mcgee, Alan Fletcher, David Attenborough, Dash Snow, Non-Format, David Shrigley, John-Paul Thurlow, Kaws, Milton Glaser, The Designers Republic, The Sex Pistols, Mark Farrow, Ridley Scott, Adrian Shaughnessy, Ari Marcopoulos, Akira Kurosawa, Chris Cunningham, Gil-Scott Herron, Revok AWR, Steve Jobs, Stephen Hawking, Alex Turner, Mark Rothko, Zomby DDS, Anthony Burgess, Michael C. Place / Build, Alfred Hitchcock, Kool Herc, Wally Olins, Napoleon Bonaparte, Os Gemeos, Bibliothèque, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Paul Rand, Gerhard Richter, Angus Hyland, Stevie Wonder, James Jarvis, Vladimir Nabokov, Tony Hart, Paula Scher, Lee Scratch Perry, Ady Le Roux, Universal Everything, Mario Hugo, Ai Wei Wei and thousands of others.

What advice would you give to someone starting out as a designer?

Absorb everything you can. Graphic design, typography, photography, film, painting, sculpture, flower arranging. Whatever it is, if it’s visually creative and interests you, study it obsessively. Then ignore it all and come up with your own ideas.

What are your favourite blogs / websites?

There are a lots we regularly check but, in my opinion, jjjjound.com is by far the best thing on the internet.

If you could have a superpower for the day, what would it be?

The ability to pause time so we could get everything done.

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Check out some of their work by visiting their site, see what they’re blogging about, or follow them on twitter.

As part of our “5 Minutes With…” series, we spent 5 minutes with Kerry Harrison who has been represented by LPA for just over a year.

Kerry is one of a growing band of stills photographers who also shoot moving image, and he has even set up his own film production company The French Exchange: http://thefrenchexchange.com/

An established commercial photographer shooting for clients such as Little Chef and NPower, his documentary and narrative style made it an obvious progression.

Here is his story…

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As part of our ’5 MINUTES WITH…’ feature we’ve interviewed Tom Hunter, internationally renowned photographer, artist and lecturer of photography at London College of Communication.

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