Hannah Anstee

A couple of months ago, I received an email from Hannah. It felt like a Hebden Bridge Venn diagram had been completed. We were both aware of each other, we share a few friends, so this felt like a bringing together of overlapping circles!

Hannah wanted images for her new website and business. As a life coach and writer, she was moving into business coaching for neurodivergent life coaches.

We met for a cup of tea in a quiet corner of a cafe in town, and talked about the images Hannah wanted.

Going into the shoot, it felt like a mini collaboration. I was excited to create images that reflected Hannah, her warmth and approachability, both creative and grounded.

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“It’s incredibly gratifying to post photos I genuinely admire and feel authentic to who I am.”

— Hannah

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The location Hannah picked was an absolute dream. We could create little mini sets within the mill giving different chapters to the shoot. The stairwell came in handy too!

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“As an introvert, a photo shoot can be intimidating with all the focus centred on you, but I never felt pressured. Instead, I felt like I was in good hands.”

— Hannah

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The mill light was soft and diffused, ideal for that natural feel. It shifted around as we worked, and we worked with the subtle changes to the light and shadows. It always takes me a few shots to just settle into my rythm, starting with the more tried and tested poses. And then the gear shifts into more creative territory where we can experiment with a few lifestyle poses, candid moments, the ones that add personality and warmth to a gallery.

This session was a reminder how much I love portrait photography. Creating the images where people feel seen, where we’re working together to create a selection of photos with longevity and can be used for websites and socail media.

If you or someone you know is looking for fresh portraits, it would be lovely to connect.

Here’s to more sessions that bring together those connections, and a bit of that magic light. Talking about light, I’ll leave the last words to Hannah…

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“Sarah possesses an extraordinary passion and talent for harnessing light and shadow - she’s genuinely a light wizard! The photos she captured far exceeded my expectations, showcasing possibilities I hadn’t imagined.”

— Hannah

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You can find out more about Hannah’s work here, and follow her writings and thoughts on Substack.

Half The Story

I don’t think I’ll ever not get excited when an email pops up from the lab to say my scans are ready. When I started shooting film again a few years ago, there’s sometimes that little added element of surprise with the first of the roll shot. The ones that are not shown in their entirety. The ones where I’ve taken the first test shot when the film wasn’t fully wound to its correct beginning position. What makes up the other section? Those colours that seep onto the image, the embers that burn onto the emulsion. Tiny fires that swallow a little part of the story.

I thought I’d share a few from the last couple of years.

And very occasionally, there’s a little surprise at the end too.

Valérie Wartelle on Film

I walked into Valérie’s studio space and marvelled at the floorboards beneath my feet. ‘They came from a boat that sailed the seas’ Valérie told me. The morning light was just peering in through the mill window onto a shiny patch on one of those floorboards, and for a moment I thought I could hear those waves. It seems so fitting that Valérie’s studio is situated in one of the old mills in Halifax, on the banks of a river, the water from which would have been used to produce the materials the mill was making. And turning full circle, water is a part of Valérie’s process too.

Valérie commissioned me to make a film about her work, her inspirations, and her processes. Along with my camera for filming, I also took my analogue film camera to take a roll throughout our day together. And I wanted to share some of them here, along with the film, and some of Valérie’s words.

‘I love the mill because it has its own story to tell. In the building, you can see where it’s been pushed and pulled and twisted’.

Valérie’s process is very tactile. There’s movement, rhythm and repetition in the way she works with the materials. It’s very meditative to watch.

‘It is that rhythm, that repetition that seems to nudge me a little bit in this semi-meditative space, and I find that space quite freeing.’

‘I feel my work is effectively an expression of this sensory dialogue between me, the materials, and the process.’

In the film I made, these 3 and a bit minutes are a culmination of all those excited planning conversations after Valérie first wrote to me. This film feels like such a collaboration. That Valérie wanted it to include certain aspects of her studio life and process, but wanted me to tell it as a reaction to what I felt and saw watching her work. And you can see more of Valérie’s beautiful work at her website here.