#INSPO

After a few years in London, Rob made the jump into
freelance, but the city’s notoriously high rental and living
costs prompted a move back up to Liverpool where he
opened up a new studio, alongside a tattoo artist friend
of his. Yes, while Rob was photographing in one room, his
buddy was inking people in the next. This was in no way
detrimental to the launch of his freelance career, in fact, it
became something of a trademark; ‘the clients that hired
me quite liked it! I’m a guy with a big beard, and dreadlocks,
and tattoos... It kind of made sense! It helped because I’m
in a creative field. If you’re a creative and you’re seen as
eccentric, it’s a good thing! That’s helped me a lot over the
years.’ Working with the likes of Burberry and Topshop, has
his grungy personal style ever been judged when pitching
to potential clients? ‘In the early parts of my career I was
judged more on my age than my style. I’d speak to people
on the phone and they’d expect me to be late thirties, mid
forties, then I’d turn up and they’d see I was twenty-three,
twenty four, and mistake me for the assistant. You could see
a little glint in their eyes, a surprised look... With regards to
my personal style I just try to be me. I’ve never followed
trends. I was that strange kid who wanted dreadlocks since
he was five years old [after many failed attempts since
the age of five, he got his dreadlocks aged 17, and now
boasts luscious waist-length dreads. [And I can say from
experience working with him, he can flick that hair as well
as any L’Oreal model!].’
He fell into fashion photography for the fun creativity
involved in fashion imagery. ‘You’re creating a piece of art; it’s
a different way of working and thinking. For me, personally,
I find fashion work much more expressive than landscapes
or portraits... same again when I moved into the commercial
advertising sectors, it’s somewhere I can be expressive.’ And
this is what Rob is best known for, his creative, conceptual,
graphically manipulated photography. It was after he
moved back up North that he started experimenting with
manipulation. His first big personal project was to create
a dress from water. Starting with the model and lighting,
he got his base image sorted, then spent the rest of the
week with his studio assistant throwing buckets of water
at a brick wall with the camera clicking away. And, as
chance would have it, a friend in an apartment above was
emptying a waterbed through a hose through the window.
This became the straps of the dress (we already mentioned
a degree of his success has come through luck, right?). Once
he had the water images he spent a day and a half finding
a technique to remove the bricks whilst keeping the water
texture and highlights. In the end, he used several duplicates
of the same water splash with various blends to achieve this.
There were six to seven hundred layers of water needed
to create the dress, taking a further 50 hours to complete.
The moment he sat back and looked at the final image
was both his proudest and scariest moment to date, asking
himself, ‘how do I top this?’ By photographing and editing the
Microsoft British and Irish Lions tour campaign, that’s how. A
composite image shot in Liverpool at dawn (shot from 5am
to 8am), with extra buildings, weather, clouds and street
features added, and lions super-imposed (photographed by
someone else with completely different lighting, requiring
Rob to ‘paint’ in shadows and mane detailing to get the
right effect). The job took four weeks to complete, and was
his first big campaign. ‘Regular feedback from the creative
and art directors of “we want to be able to taste the lions!”
will forever stick with me. It was one of the most stress-filled
months of my career to date, but also probably one of the
most enjoyable as well.’
On shoots, Rob works with a quiet confidence, regularly
checking in with the stylist or art director to ensure he’s
capturing the right light, mood and atmosphere for the story.
He explains to the model what sort of image he’s trying
to achieve, shows them their best shots, and encourages
them to better them further. His softly spoken, laid back
demeanour makes shooting with him so comfortable, and
no job is too much trouble – in a brief exchange between
#INSPO Beauty Editor, Lucy, and Rob, discussing the finish
on the skin for this month’s beauty editorial, his response
to the extra editing work was simply ‘who needs sleep
anyway! They shall be perfect in time for the deadline then
I will collapse somewhere dark’. Breaking a lot of fashion
industry stereotypes with his lack of ego and arrogance, it’s
no surprise he gets booked over and over again.#