About
I've been working on and off as a freelance photographer since 1986, the early years of which were regular portrait/feature commissions for Sunday supplements, glossy magazines and national and international newspapers. My fascination with industry, commerce, and the corporate world has led me to increasingly focus my effort and attention on working within the corporate communications market.
Initially, the type of commissions undertaken for this sector was business portraiture, in the last several years this has frequently progressed to the creation of brand-related imagery projects for large listed companies. These commissions, to create new image library assets, are primarily driven by three major factors: -
1. Traditional stock imagery is too generic, lacks authenticity and does not always reflect the brand's distinctive style and core values
2. Managing the purchased rights to images from stock channels such as Getty or Corbis adds time and expense, not to mention potential liability!
3. Sharing images across a large organization becomes a challenge, notably when half of them are buried in emails, CDs, and outdated websites.
My style of work is fresh, clean and contemporary. My expertise is quickly building rapport with people who may well work on the shop-floor, to those who are senior in the boardroom. I make allies with managers who may not necessarily be stakeholders in the creation of new brand imagery; I work with little fuss, my editorial background has given me the skills to quickly set up and dismantle complicated lighting. On a typical shoot day, I can be highly productive in creating great images that adhere to brand iconography. These images are used right across an organizations communication channels including social media, website, printed brochures, marketing collateral, responses to tenders and other outlets with no additional licensing fees
Ryan West - Associate Partner at McLean HR Limited