“ What I love to do, what keeps me going back into the studio every day, is revealing something unique about every person I photograph so whoever looks at the image feels a connection.”
It is this talent for getting to the heart of the subject that has seen Emma enjoy an impressively successful career over 20 years. She has shot divas in their dressing rooms, rock stars in their homes, women prisoners in Iraq and nurses in Camp Bastion, Afghanistan; she is still one of the few British female photographers to have visited a war zone. Her long career has seen her travelling from Belgrade to Iraq, from Antigua to Mombassa, from Bangkok to Croatia and many, many places in between. Over the years she has done everything from doorsteps to pack shots but now her speciality is portraiture and fashion.
“I feel naked if I don't have a camera with me.”
When she started working for the picture desks of the national newspapers she was to become only the second female staff photographer on a tabloid beginning at The Sun and then moving to The Daily Mirror. She began on door steps, photo calls and shooting news events as they happened working to strict deadlines and under enormous pressure. She was asked by the features desk to help them out in the studio and soon began shooting more and more fashion, celebrities and features. She now runs The Daily Mirror’s studio in Shoreditch.
“When I photograph someone they need to feel at ease with me so the end result is a collaboration between the sitter and photographer. I am fascinated by people, each individual gives something different of their personality to the photograph.”
A Youth Training Scheme kick started Emma’s career with the Northampton Chronicle & Echo where she had the time and space to truly learn her craft. As a black and white printer she learned to perfect that skill, whilst pestering the photographers to take her with them on jobs. Her persistence eventually paid off and she built up experience shooting with large format cameras. This vital grounding in the basic techniques of photography has been the foundation for Emma’s success.
It is Emma’s awareness of her unique position as one of only a few female photographers working in the news industry that fostered her particular interest in women’s issues and in showing young girls what they can, and should, achieve. In particular, having been to Afghanistan and Iraq she recognised that young women in the western world must be encouraged to make the most of the tremendous opportunities which are open to them in order to nurture the next generation of Strong Women.