And I got to photograph Charles. Charles is someone I have been wanting to photograph for a long time and this was the opportunity I needed. Charles is the father of a good friend of mine and you will rarely meet someone so dignified, calm and genuinely hospitable. He is from Ghana and the village he is from, his family are the ‘Chiefs’ of the village. Charles turned down the opportunity to become the chief, allowing the privilege to pass on to his brother, choosing to stay in London and raise his family instead. I am sure that he thought I was quite mad wanting to photograph him, however he was more than gracious with his time and I felt I was able to capture the serenity that he embodies.

The other piece of work I entered was a portrait of a sports climber, who I photographed as part of a ongoing project. I shot this on medium format black & white film to give me the texture that I felt would match the scene.

These are often high pressure shooting situations and this commission was no exception. The various leaders of this blue chip company are only together once or twice a year and have a very busy schedule of meetings on those occasions. You only have one window of opportunity, in this case under twenty minutes and you have to cover three or four setups to cover the brief. Having a good team is essential in these situations and I am very honoured to work with some great assistants. These multiple location lighting setups were all ready to go, so when we had those precious few minutes between board meetings we were able to move fluidly between them, get the shots for the brief and most importantly keep the subjects happy and comfortable, as I’m sure they have more important matters on their minds. Here are a few of the shots:

Check out AC Slater on Myspace & Deadly People Recordings

Thanks go out to: AC Slater : Tas Elias – Deadly People : BA – Production : DT – Assistant : BB – Security Detail