About

 

Sean Gleason is a portrait and fashion photographer based in London.

He has photographed some of the world’s most successful actors, models and athletes.

Biography

I started taking pictures when I was 9 years old.

It was the start of a passion for photography that remains today.

My first experience of taking pictures was in the US when my father coached a women's softball team. I was handed various cameras by the players to capture the action and emotion during the games.

At secondary school I was introduced to the darkroom and the magic of BW printing and knew by the age of 15 I wanted to pursue a career behind the lens. 

After studying Photography at the prestigious Bournemouth and Poole College of Art. Soon after leaving found work as studio assistant at Chalk Farm Studios. Within a year I went freelance and was introduced to in demand fashion photographer, Robert Erdmann, who soon took me on as his First Assistant.

One of our first assignments was shooting in LA staying at the Chateau Marmont and to this day I remember waking looking out of the balcony at downtown LA at sunrise thinking what a privileged job I have. It’s a feeling I’ve never lost over the years as I have travelled the world. I spent seven further years working as an assistant to many other high-profile photographers Including Mario Sorrenti, David Sims and later Kim Knott

But my first published work was down to bit of luck and taking a chance whilst working as assistant to Vogue photographer, Kim Knott shooting Armani’s new collection at his house in Pantelleria in Italy for the Sunday Times magazine when heavy rain made it impossible to shoot and Kim was already confirmed to shoot in London the next day. The Fashion Director took a chance and allowed me to shoot the editorial. Giorgio Armani described them as 'beautiful images that captured the spirit of his collection and home'.

Further commissions followed for magazines such as Vogue, Elle, Marie Claire, Tatler, Wallpaper, Esquire and GQ and in 1998 I decided to move to NYC and started to shoot more celebrities. A young Orland Bloom Interview magazine, Beyonce for InStyle, Liam Gallagher for Elle to name just a few. Having moved back to the UK in 2003 I won a commission photographing for Robbie Williams Management, IE Music, capturing him on tour, on the set of his music videos and at home in LA in a reportage style. Working with IE lead to winning brand sponsorship projects from 19 Management with both David and Victoria Beckham for many of ther clients, Meiji, Gillette, Vodafone, Adidas and M&S where I would shoot on my own pre lit set under direction of theAd agency involved.. These were often on the days they were also filming commercials. This was my first experience of shooting, what I would now call, ‘Specials photography’.

But it is my work in film that is now my real passion.

Getting under the skin of a movie and its actors has been addictive as has the staggering scale of the productions I’ve worked on.

As a lover of film, finding myself on a vast, complex movie set has been exhilarating and a real challenge – constantly learning from the work of the Director of Photography and the wider lighting team and applying those skills and techniques to my own work on set.

My first ‘on set’ film commission came via Working Title when asked to photograph Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen on “Pride and Prejudice.”

On the Oscar winning film, “The Father,” starring Sir Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Colman, I was asked to shoot both the unit stills and the main artwork for the movie. My photograph of Sir Anthony and Olivia Coleman became one of the defining images of the marketing and publicity campaign for “The Father.”

My film work has grown significantly and I have since photographed John Derek Jacobi , Ellie Bamber , John Travolta, Orlando Bloom, Helena Bonham Carter, Liev Schreiber, Sir Ian McKellen, Dame Helen Mirren, Benedict Cumberbatch, Rachel Weiss, Mark Strong, Gemma Arterton, and Kristin Scott Thomas amongst others.

My work Photography still encompasses multiple photographic disciplines across the fashion and the luxury sector as well as entertainment, advertising and unit photography.

I live in London with my wife and three children.

 

Contact

 
 

FILM Credits

 

THE FATHER
DIR Florian Zeller, DOP Ben Smithard
Trademark Films, Film4, Canal +
Embankment, Sony Classics, Lionsgate

THE CRITIC
DIR Anand Tucker DOP David Higgs
BK Studios, Fearless Minds, Seven Stories

GOLDA
DIR Guy Nattiv DOP Jasper Wolf
Qwerty Films, Embankment Films
Bleeker Street, Met Film, Vertical Entertainment

THE SHEPHERD
DIR Iain Softley DOP John Mathieson
BK Studios, Argo Films
Disney +

MY SISTERS BONES
DIR Heidi Greensmith DOP Joel Devlin
BK Studios

MOSS & FREUD
DIR Iain Softley DOP John Mathieson
BK Studios, Argo Films
Disney +

THE FORSYTE SAGA
Example

 

Copyright

 

© All images on this site are copyrighted and may not be downloaded or reproduced in any way.