Sir Stephen Fry began his career on the sketch comedy series Alfresco and the sitcom Blackadder, before gaining recognition as part of the comedy duo Fry and Laurie alongside Hugh Laurie, appearing together in A Bit of Fry & Laurie and Jeeves and Wooster.

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In 2010, Sir Stephen was made a patron of Humanists UK for his exploration of the human condition through the arts and his humanist contributions to ethical questions in public life. In the 2023 Channel 4 Alternative Christmas Message, he stated "I am Stephen Fry and I am a Jew" embracing his Jewish heritage despite not always identifying strongly with it, and noting that he has Jewish ancestry on his mother's side. 

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This portrait was taken at an event organised by Jewish News at which Sir Stephen and Robert Peston were guest speakers.

Alfred Dubs, Baron Dubs, is a British Labour Party politician and former Member of Parliament. In September 1994, he was made a Labour life peer.

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Born in Prague, Czechoslovakia, to a Jewish father and a mother from Austria, in June 1939 at the age of six, Dubs travelled as an unaccompanied child refugee on the Kindertransport. He was one of 669 Czech-resident, mainly Jewish, children saved from the Nazis by British stockbroker Nicholas Winton between March and September 1939.

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In 2016, in response to the European migrant crisis and drawing on his own childhood experience, Lord Dubs tabled what became section 67 of the Immigration Act 2016, under which UK local authorities admitted unaccompanied child refugees as asylum seekers.

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From the series One Life commissioned by Warner Bros Pictures and exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery (this portrait was acquired by the National Portrait Gallery for the National Collection).

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To see more of my One Life series, click here

During 2025, to support Bradford's City of Culture status, the Yorkshire Region of the Royal Photographic Society (RPS) delivered its Portrait of Bradford project. Over three days, six photographers - all members of the RPS - produced 163 portrait  photographs of people who live, work or visit the city of Bradford. These were broadcast on the 'Big Screen' in Centenary Square, Bradford, with a curated selection of 12 of the portraits exhibited at Photo North Festival 2026, in Leeds.

 

This photograph, from the RPS Portrait of Bradford series was published in the RPS Journal (Volume 165, No4) and is one of the 12 curated images now held permanently in the RPS New Collection.

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To see more of my RPS Portrait of Bradford series, click here

Alexandra Shackleton is the granddaughter of Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton (1874-1922). She is a passionate advocate for continuing the legacy of her grandfather and promoting research in the areas that fascinated him. Succeeding her father, the geographer and Labour party politician, Lord Shackleton (1911-1994), younger son of the explorer, Alexandra is President of the James Caird Society, and has been at the heart of all its activities since.

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This portrait was commissioned for a National Portrait Gallery project, working with Pau Hernández LRPS, one of my former A-Level Photography students while mentoring her during her BA Photography studies at University of the Arts London (UAL). 

Katie Chapman is a former English professional footballer who played as a midfielder for leading clubs including Arsenal and Chelsea. Known for her inspirational team leadership and competitive style, she won numerous domestic honours and was part of Arsenal’s historic 2006-07 squad that captured the UEFA Women's Cup.

 

With 102 Chelsea appearances and 14 goals to her name, Katie called time on her Chelsea career in 2018 by which stage she had also amassed 94 England caps and provided vital leadership as the Lionesses secured a third-place finish at the 2015 Women's World Cup in Canada, a tournament which is looked back on as a watershed moment for the sport.

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Off the pitch, Katie became known for balancing elite football with family life, returning to play at the highest level after becoming a mother - an achievement that helped highlight the evolving professionalism and visibility of the women’s game in England.

Sir James Bellingham Graham, is the 11th Baronet of Norton Conyers. Sir James is photographed on the stairway leading from the Great Hall at Norton Conyers, near Ripon, his ancestral home.

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The Graham Baronetcy of Norton Conyers was created on 17 November 1662 for Richard Graham (1636–1711) in recognition of his services to the Restoration of the Monarchy. Richard was the second son of Sir Richard Graham (c.1583–1654), a Royalist from Cumberland who was wounded in 1644 at the Battle of Marston Moor.

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From the series Yorkshire Baronets, celebrating the honour of baronetcy and portraying baronets in their ancestral homes.

Gerda was born in East Prussia in 1926, one of three daughters of master tailor Rutwin and Anna Josselsohn. When Rutwin was arrested and detained by the SS> When he was released, Rutwin and Anna decided the family should flee. Unable to obtain his visa without a birth certificate, in June 1939 Rutwin sent Gerda and her two sisters on the Kindertransport. Sadly, Rutwin and Anna were arrested and sent to Theresienstadt concentration camp where they were murdered by the Nazis.

 

Gerda kept her father's measuring tape which is now in the Holocaust Museum in Newark, Nottinghamshire.  For this portrait, Gerda is pictured with her own measuring tape in memory of her beloved father.

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From the series Generations: Portraits of Holocaust Survivors commissioned by the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust in association with Imperial War Museum and the Royal Photographic Society. This portrait was shortlisted for the Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize.

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To see all 12 of my Generations portraits, click here

Robert Peston is the Political Editor of ITV News and host of the weekly political discussion show Peston (previously Peston on Sunday) alongside ITV News Deputy Political Editor Anushka Asthana. From 2006 until 2014, he was the Business Editor of BBC News and its Economics Editor from 2014 to 2015. He is the founder of the education charity Futures for All (formerly Speakers for Schools).

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Peston was born into a non-religious Jewish family, and has described himself as culturally, rather than religiously, Jewish. His father - a Labour life peer - was a patron of the British Humanist Association and an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society. As the son of a life peer, he is entitled to the courtesy style "The Honourable", but does not use it.

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This portrait was taken at an event organised by Jewish News at which Robert Peston and Sir Stephen Fry were guest speakers.

Stephen Fergus was a face worker at Easington Colliery in East Durham, from 1977 to 1993.  After the closure of the colliery, Stephen had successful careers in haulage and logistics. He now manages, runs and fundraises for Easington Social Welfare Centre - "the Wellie" - with the aim of ensuring it remains at the heart of the Easington community for future generations.

 

He is an ambassador for the welfare of former coal miners and wrote the foreword for Coal Faces published in 2024 by Image & Reality to commemorate the last 60 years of coal mining in Britain.

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From the series The Last Men Standing, published in 2023, a series of portraits of the last men to mine the coal faces of the East Durham coalfield. I photographed Stephen again, in 2024, for the book Coal Faces.

Fishing has long shaped the life and identity of Holy Island, a small but historically significant island off the coast of Northumberland and connected to the mainland by a tidal causeway. For more than a thousand years, the surrounding waters have sustained the community, providing both food for local families and a livelihood through trade with the mainland. Yet as boats become fewer, and with a lack of young people entering the trade, this once-vital tradition is slowly fading and the fishing heritage of Holy Island is now in danger of dying out.

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Building on its long-term research presence on Holy Island, the University of Durham Department of Archaeology is working with the local community in understanding and sharing the heritage of the fishing industry on the Island and the associated maritime activities. A series of portraits of the last remaining fishers has been commissioned to support this project.

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From the series The Last Fishers of Holy Island for the University of Durham Department of Archaeology, to be published late 2026.

In 2005 two childhood friends, Lida Kindersley and Els Bottema, spent time in Suffolk after each had been through a year of cancer. On their first long walk along the beach, they picked up some white shells and, sitting down to rest, arranged them around a plant.

 

From that day on, every walk added more shells to a growing line, symbolic of their slow day by day, shell by shell recovery: this became The Shingle Street Shell Line. Twice a year they spend a week repairing the line and find that many people have added to it. Lida and Els see this as,"Frail and transitory, like us and those who come and wonder at it, the line is a signal of courage and survival."

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From the series Women at the Edge of Land, commissioned by ceramicist Ali Gane, to support her project exploring the relationship between women and that space where the land becomes the sea.

The My Voice Project is an oral history and holocaust education initiative run by The Fed, the largest Jewish social welfare charity in Greater Manchester. The project documents and preserves the life stories of Holocaust survivors and refugees who settled in Manchester, the North West, and increasingly London.

My Voice supports survivors in recording their full life stories - before, during, and after the Holocaust - in their own words. Through a series of interviews conducted by trained volunteers, these testimonies are transcribed, edited, and published as individual life-story books written in the first person, ensuring the authentic voice of each survivor is preserved.

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For the Generations: Portraits of Holocaust Survivors project, I was commissioned to take portrait photographs of 12 Holocaust survivors from the Greater Manchester area.  Taken at the same time, separately from the Generations project, these are purely personal portraits - close-up, black and white, square format - and were never intended for publication. However, they proved popular with The Fed and were eventually used as the visual identity for the My Voice project.

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To see all 12 of the My Voice portraits, click here

Blacksmiths were essential to the building and maintenance of the canal network. They forged and repaired the ironwork that kept locks, bridges and boats functioning - hinges, bolts, chains, tools and fittings that were subject to constant wear on a working waterway. Canal-side forges allowed this work to be carried out quickly, ensuring that damaged equipment could be repaired or replaced without long delays.

 

The Canal & River Trust (CRT) looks after 2,000 miles of canals and rivers across England and Wales. At the historic forge at Apperley Bridge on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal, former professional blacksmith David Wadsworth, demonstrates to the public traditional forging techniques and explains the processes involved in shaping hot metal on the anvil. Working with a coal-fired forge, bellows and hand tools typical of the nineteenth century, he brings to life the craft that once supported the daily operation of the canal.

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For a series commissioned by The Canal & River Trust and exhibited at the CRT heritage site, Finsley Gate Wharfe, in Burnley, Lancashire.

York Cemetery was opened in 1837 and went into voluntary liquidation in 1966. Over the liquidation period, under control of the Crown, York Cemetery became a derelict wilderness and its buildings decayed. In 1984 a group of concerned York citizens decided to retrieve the situation and formed what eventually became York Cemetery Trust.

 

Oliver Clarke (left) began working at York Cemetery in 2007. It was intended to be a temporary role over the summer but he ended up staying for three

years. In 2010 he left to work with adults with learning disabilities in Ireland for a year and returned when he found he was missing work at the cemetery.

 

Rob Harris (right) began his working life as a green keeper before becoming Head Groundsman at the cemetery.  He feels privileged to work in such a beautiful place and says that working for York Cemetery has given him the opportunity to improve his skills and learn more about horticulture. He now also runs a landscaping business.

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From the series The English in Particular inspired by the book England in Particular by Sue Clifford and Angela King for Common Ground, published by Hodder & Stroughton in 2006 (ISBN 0340826169).

 

This portrait won the International Art Portrait Photographer of the Year award in 2017 and was published in The Photographer (the magazine of the British Institute of Professional Photography (BIPP) in 2019, issue 1) with a feature titled 'Common People' following my winning BIPP Professional Photographer of the Year 2019.

Martin started his career as an apprentice gardener while still a teenager and by the time he turned 21 had become the youngest Head Gardener in the country.

 

As a past show director of the Harrogate Flower Shows, Martin now judges and gives gardening talks at shows across the UK. He is a senior RHS judge and judges at the Chelsea Flower Show and many other shows. He writes for several publications, including The Dalesman, is a regular broadcaster on BBC Radio, and presents Pots & Trowels on YouTube and Facebook.

Martin is also a Garden Advisor at RHS Harlow Carr, Chairman of the Garden Show at the Great Yorkshire Show and President of the Friends of the Valley Gardens.​

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This portrait was taken in The Pinewoods, at Valley Gardens, Harrogate, for A Guide to the Trees of Valley Gardens, Harrogate by Jane Blayney and Simon Hill, published by VIDAR Media in 2022 (ISBN 9781999346867)