How I Curate Premium Creative Fashion Photography - for brands

Premium Creative Fashion Photography - for brands. A Tale of Uncertainty Becoming a Blessing

Steve Jobs (founder of Apple) famously once said "people don't know what they want until you show it to them."

We now live in a world of mediocre photography. Sorry, but it's true. Despite the huge advances in camera technology, all that advancement has enabled (from what I see) is a lot more people proclaiming to be "photographers" but who have little, and sometimes no knowledge or understanding, of what it means to be a photographer. Or even how to control how a photograph actually looks.

The reason my work stands out, and the reason why brands love the experience of working with me is not simply for my ability to create compelling, attention grabbing photographs, but it is also the professional experience of working with a photographer who understands the brand objective, the brand style, and who can take care of the process of creating them a photographic collection that stands apart using a network of studios and models that love to work with me and deliver my vision.

I often pitch myself to brands, as do most professionals in the current era. It's a painstaking process to try and get noticed amidst this noise of mediocrity that has become so normal today. The kind of brands I pitch to, though, are not your everyday brands. They are exclusive couture fashion houses, and the ones who specialise in more gothic styled clothing. Nevertheless, despite my current visual portfolio, more often than not I am ignored or dismissed because the recipient a) does not know me b) has never worked with me and c) assumes I am a generic photographer like everyone else. I highly suspect in the majority of cases many of them never actually get to the part where the value truly lies.

Since May 2024, I have been carefully curating a special collection of very specific photographs. They are all centred around the magic of black and white photography with a dark twist. My own personal project, Vampirique, which I've run throughout 2025, is another even more niche example. Why do I do these projects? In order to market my services to brands - at least, the visual aspect of the services. The real magic comes in what is much harder to convey - and that is my character and my ability to get my team to help me deliver the vision. And those skills, only few modern photographers posses and mine date back to the 1990s, when photography and the act of being a photographer was a true trade-craft that was valued.

Anyone can photograph a man or woman who is pretty and say "Oh wow - look at my photography" but that really is not photography - that is just taking a picture. My 13 year old can do that with an iPhone, and every 13 year old did the same thing back in the 80s and 90s. The value is in the curation, and the understanding of the brand, and adding a story or perspective to the photographs. And also getting the best from the model who is sporting the chosen garments. Lift a model up so he or she feels amazing, and they deliver far better creations than they do from someone who just clicks clicks and clicks again. And lastly, it's about understanding what the client NEEDS, or WANTS.

Beautiful Creatures London are classic example of a brand who was initially a stranger to me, and I to them. The proprietor no doubt thought when I approached her "Here's another camera waving photographer wanting to feature my premium clothing", but she was good enough to give me a shot. Her experience of shooting with me with her model Marita Volodina totally flipped her expectation of photography. I've detailed some of her kind feedback below, but her words typify what I hear a lot today. She had been left disappointed and down-hearted by her previous experiences of average photographs delivered by average photographers. I turned up in a shirt and trousers, a professional but enthused attitude, a proper camera (Hasselblad), kind encouragement and clear direction, and I delivered for her the best images she has ever had of her high fashion clothing.