A couple of months ago I was commissioned by Time Out to do my biggest shoot yet and photograph Ben Drew (aka Plan B) for a feature to promote the release of his debut film Ill Manors.
I was pretty nervous, particularly because the magazine had requested an urban estate setting for the pictures, except I had to do it within the vicinity of his film distributers in Holland Park which is one of the poshest parts of London!
I only had 30 mins with him so I wasn’t able to stray too far.
I arrived super early so I could do a reccie and eventually found a perfect environment which was quiet but offered a few interesting backdrops.
As soon as we began the shoot, I began to relax.
I found Ben to be a really charming, sweet guy. He could perform for the camera but every now and then would break off and start laughing at me… which I’m taking as a good sign.
The 30 minutes flew by but I still managed to get more set ups than I had expected which was great, mainly because he was comfortable in front of the camera and chilled out, so the whole shoot had a really relaxed vibe. The only low point was my embarrassment at announcing that he was good with his hands (only in the sense he didn’t make them look awkward as so many people do) but he took it in good gesture and once again laughed at me.
Needless to say, I left the shoot with a tiny crush and an excitement to see the film.