artists register

Sandi Friend

THE STREET IN A WEEK Real people telling their story.

THE STREET IN A WEEK Real people telling their story.

Statement

I asked for a SLR camera for my 15th birthday, I couldn’t draw as well as I would have liked, but instinctively knew when art ‘looked just right.’ I loved my canon T50 but film photography for a teenager was a very expensive hobby!

 

Following many nannying jobs around the world, I returned to England and enrolled in a Photography A’Level evening class. After a matter of weeks I had rediscovered my previous interest and knew this was what I wanted to do. 

I immediately changed courses, completed a Nat. Dip in photography and then straight onto a Ba Hon Photography course at renowned Blackpool College. 

I left with a H.N.D. ( if you can remember those - you can tell how long ago it was, as we had half a day on new software called ‘photoshop!) a 2:1 BA Degree ( 1st for the images!) and auto entry into the BIPP at Licentiateship level. 

 

Most of the students, myself included, moved to London to get work and I started assisting established photographers. Learning about production, working with Art Directors, Model agencies, honing lighting skills and how to run big shoots. I was keen to get going alone and started shooting editorial portraits for magazines. Once I had an agent,  they secured me more work shooting for Mens health Magazine and I began to shoot children’s fashion.  

 

I then had two children of my own, was surprised at just how much I adored them and got a bit distracted!! 

 

Now I love that my days are often quite different; as the industry is constantly changing, I have adapted to keep working!  I currently enjoying shooting more interiors, travel and commissioned corporate Artwork.

 

I work with clients to develop their brands, shooting photography that compliments and explains their business and helps to move it forward.

 

However the Kids Editorial Fashion is a constant work stream. Creating ‘the right look’ to match a clients requirements all takes time: ideas, creative meetings with the editors, planning, advising the crew.  Working with set builders to create the right environment for the shoot and suggesting hair and makeup to compliment the clothes styling are all creative and exciting elements of the production. 

 

The bulk of the images I would like to share with you this weekend were commissioned by International Estate Agents Knight Frank, they are a collective of London locations that were important to the company.  

 

 

 

Biography

 SANDI FRIEND - PHOTOGRAPHER Biog.

 

Sandi friend graduated with a BA Hons in photography from Blackpool college - Lancashire University. She has a wealth of experience and expertise in her field of portraits. Having worked with clients including  The Independent Review and Men’s Health Magazine, EEDA, Angels and Urchins, Boots, Manchester United, Healthy Planet, The Lake District National Park, Junior Magazine, BBC, and Sprout Pictures.

 

Her unique vision, strong ideas, energy and project management and natural interest in people ensure the successful delivery of the Art brief or Commissioned project.  A member of the Association of Photographers, she has been awarded a merit for her work and is now in demand on the photographic lecture circuit.  

 

For most of her work, the emphasis is on portraits, images of real people. Shooting things like ‘Relative Values’ for the Independent Magazine, behind the scenes portraits at Manchester United, Booker long list writer Sarah Hall, Poet Jacob Polley, Darcey Bussell, actors such as Fay Ripley and Dominic West of ‘The Wire’ fame and most recently David Tennant and Stephen Fry.

 

Her philosophy, besides all the technicalities, is simple. A portrait in its essence is a collaborative process, so how the sitter responds to the experience and photographer is visible in the final image. If you enjoy it  - it shows. 

 

The eclectic mix of images on The website is both personal and commissioned images taken over a period of time and whilst visiting different people and places. Images inspired by travel, and fresh visuals. The photographs are the results of the authors response and visual connections to the people and environment. 

 

A favourite project and consequent exhibition was for The Lake District National Park and it involved a trip back to the original core of her career as a photographer. A portrait-led shoot photographing aspirational people in an inspirational landscape. Six of the images have been lent to the exhibition by the L.D.N.P

 

Sandi has a highly regarded reputation as a children’s editorial, fashion photographer and for private children’s portrait commissions. “I love photographing children, the images are so important, honest and of ‘the’ moment. By their very nature children highlight that you can never go back.  You often find that parent’s don’t realise just how important the pictures will become.”

 

Her work is in demand and is reflected by an impressive range of clients: Huggies, Practical Parenting, Covers and Editorial for Angels and Urchins Magazine alongside Advertising for Bunny London, Young England and Junior Magazine.