Happy Birthday Icon!

By Matt Gore owner and founder iconphotomedia

There we were 10 years ago in The Tramshead pub just outside Saltaire (the Victorian model village near Bradford http://www.saltairevillage.info/), Guzelian photographers Matt Gore and Robin Hammond were hatching a plan to launch a photographer's agency that was to become iconphotomedia.

If memory serves me rightly (we were in the pub) some of the company names being banded around included:

Photo Republic
Untitled (we just got a kick out of visualising this in print as a byline)
M6 Pictures
Magenta 

Eventually, we agreed on iconphotomedia and have been lucky to be so well supported by a core of great clients for the last decade.

Our very first job - by Matt Gore for the Times Educational Supplement, who went on to become one of our biggest clients - was shot in Harrogate as Matt packed up his rental flat to move to London to start icon with Robin.

Picture by Matt Gore/iconphotomedia 

Graham Hoyle, chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) published in the Times Educational Supplement

Even on the drive down to London, Matt stopped off in Leeds to shoot a commission for Leeds Metropolitan University..

Picture by Matt Gore/iconphotomedia
University students dress up WW2 style to entertain a local school visiting for a history lesson

Of course, we had no idea then that icon would go on to become such an outstanding success. In the early years we applied a very simple principle - to provide eye catching broadsheet style photography for a wide range of editorial and commercial clients. 

Here are some interesting numbers....

Heartfelt thanks to everyone who has helped icon survive and thrive over the past decade; our lovely clients and suppliers, a lot of which have become good friends, and also to our friends and family who have put up with the sometimes crazy lifestyle choice that is Professional Photography. 

Matt Gore

Group shots........!!!

by Vicky Matthers

def  Group:  a number of persons or things ranged or considered together as being related in some way.

I'm not sure if you agree with me but group shots are a photographers nightmare, well, certainly mine anyway! I can honestly say that when a client mentions the word group shot I actually cringe and physically wince with pain!

I have always found it difficult to find suitable locations for large numbers of people without it starting to look like a football or rugby team photo!  You definitely need a good vantage point, especially with groups of 7 or more, stairs are often a good option if you can find them as long as you don't end up blocking any fire exits.  Of course the problem in our job is that you usually can't see the location beforehand and have about 5 minutes to make a decision as to where you are going to put a whole team of people that you have never met before and have no idea what they look like.....winge, winge, winge!!!

Recently I was lucky enough to do some photography for one of our regular clients in London.  The brief was to photograph a team of about 9/10 people looking happy and proud, hopefully in an outside location near the office.  The logistics of photographing outside in the centre of London are a bit of a nightmare, as you can imagine!  Even though we thought we had permission we found out on the morning of the shoot that we needed to get approval from the building management group.  Luckily the right person was found and permission granted about 30 minutes before the afternoon shoot!

I like to get to a shoot early to scope out a place, usually in a nice coffee shop nearby.  As I was sitting in a Starbucks opposite the offices I was going to I noticed a perfect place for my group shot:

I decided to light the picture very simply as I knew that I wouldn't have much time with the team as taking them away from their office meant there was no-one there so we had to be quick!  I used one Quadra light with shoot through brolly slightly left at the front and one Quadra light far left up high to catch the tallest person of the team at the back!

All things considered I think that it was a success, I just wish that I could transport those concrete blocks with me everywhere!!!