Ben Reeves is a London based still life photographer. Working with high profile brands such as Adidas, Chanel , Peroni and Lanserring and with his work regularly published in the Telegraph, Schon Magazine and Esquire, Ben is known for his deconstructed still life photography. Exploring the notion of what is real, Ben distorts our concept of what is natural with his ethereal images. With a background assisting internationally renowned fashion and still life photographers, we caught up with Ben to find out how he learnt his craft and discuss his passion for personal projects.
We love your dramatic use of light. How did you learn your craft?
A lot of my technical experience was learnt from my assisting days. I worked with some really good photographers who had quite a dramatic style or still life photographers who would have very precise and technical lighting. I was something I was naturally drawn to and picked up quickly. I’d develop it further within my own work and something I’ll always experiment with.
What are you doing to cope with lockdown #3?
January is generally a time to focus on admin and the office side to the job and plans for the new year. Nothing particularly exciting, so workwise lockdown #3 has been focused on that and family for now. But attention will surely turn to personal work once I’m bored of all that in a few weeks!
How important are personal projects to you?
Personal projects are very important to me. It’s an opportunity to experiment with imagery which I may not necessarily be commissioned for and where the boundary is a lot more open. So it becomes an area with a lot of personal investment which will naturally have quite a personal connection with.
What advice would you give to emerging photographers?
The best advice I can give for emerging photographers is to shoot as much as possible. You learn so much and keep the energy of your work up. Advice I don’t follow enough myself.
Having worked with high profile brands and having you work regularly published, what do you find is the most effective way of marketing yourself?
Best marketing tool for me is word of mouth and making personal connections. Instagram and other platforms are great for getting to know who’s out there and what they do but I always have found the majority opportunities have come from the personal connections I’ve made along the way.
Can you tell us about a stand out project?
There’s not necessarily one project that stands out but for the purpose of the question the forest skulls project I shot a good while ago now. It was one of the first still life personal projects and kick started me concentrating on this area of photography. It was also selected and won the still life category for the AOP assistant awards.
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