001 Soho Home Editions Shoot
March 5, 2020
So I’ve been freelance for just shy of two months now and I’ve already been lucky to work on a couple of exciting projects!
A couple of weeks ago I went along to a Soho Home shoot to help assist interiors photographer Milo Brown and I wasn’t going to miss this opportunity!
The shoot was in a location house in Clapham with a beautiful open plan kitchen/diner (unfortunately I got no BTS images of the space as I was there to gain experience).
To celebrate Soho House’s 25th year, they commissioned 8 artists to create a piece inspired by their favourite Soho House - and these were what we would be shooting! The day would consist of three main shots: one in the dining area and two in the living room.
9 am
Call time - Introductions are made and from there it’s pretty much all hands on deck! I’m there to mainly help Milo with the photography kit but of course, ‘many hands make light work’, so I help move furniture, unpack props and make tea!
10 am
First shot - the shoot producer, photographer and stylist work very closely to build the composition, chose the best crop and position of the shot. It’s just great to see how different people work together!
Whilst I help Milo get all of the shots needed Ida the stylist gets on styling the second shot once the set builders have finished painting, helping save time. (Yes that’s right, most of the time in location houses they’ll paint the existing walls to the colour the Stylist has chosen if the current colour doesn’t fit the brief! They then have to paint it back to the original colour).
11:30 am
Second Shot - This consists of a combination of the same artworks in a different setting. This shot includes a sideboard and a beautiful lamp which can be brought on the Soho Home website. Milo works with the natural light of the rooms in order to get that homely feel in all of the shots.
1 pm
Lunchtime! Often on shoots, there’s not a lot of time to just stand around and chat so this is a great opportunity to get to know everyone a little! As the focus of the shoot is the Artworks, they employed an Art Technician called Darius. I’ve never actually been on a shoot with an Art Technician before so it was great chatting about what he does - one of the best things about being freelance, meeting loads of interesting people and learning new things!
1:30 pm
Finishing the second shot - we have to cover the shots both in portrait and landscape. This is pretty much universal across most marketing shoots as it means the client can then use the images on multiple channels.
The image below is by Illustrator and Artist Julie Verhoeven. This was a pretty special moment for me when I realised this was one of the artist’s works we were shooting. Verhoeven inspired me a lot when I was at school doing my art GCSE and A-Levels so it was an influence in my choice of a job in the creative industries!
3 pm
Final shot! We are in the same room for this shot (quite a small living room) so swivel around to shoot Sue Webster’s edition ‘a brief history of Shoreditch’. In this piece, she created a spider diagram linking all of the people and places that have made the house what it is over the years.
All of the shots included other pieces designed by Soho Home, one of my favourites being the ‘flower footstool’ in orange (see my shot of it below!), which also comes in an array of beautiful jewel tones. The monochrome artwork and orange footstool stand out beautifully against the ‘Hunter Dunn’ green by Paint and Paper Library.
5 pm
That’s a wrap! We have to get everything packed up and away, but most importantly painted before the owner returns! The whole day ran really smoothly so luckily everything is running on time!
It was honestly such a fantastic day with such a lovely team. You’re constantly learning on shoots and adapting to a team’s particular work style so no shoot is ever the same! It’s 100% confirmed to me that going freelance to pursue a career in interior styling was the right thing to do. It’s not going to be smooth sailing and will involve a lot of hard work but I’m now ready more than ever to tackle my new path head on! Do you like the shots? Would you have any of the artwork in your home? I have to say, I think ‘33 Des Voeux Rd Sheung Wan’ by Stephanie Sin, inspired by Soho House Hong Kong would be the piece I’d choose. I’ll leave you with my favourite shot of the day with a great team!
Photography: Milo Brown
Stylist: Ida Jakobsson-Wells
Art Technician: Darius Lambert
