Rory Lewis

Last updated

Rory Lewis
Rory Lewis Photographer Self Portrait.jpg
Lewis, age 32, self portrait
Born (1982-10-05) 5 October 1982 (age 40)
Chester, England
Known forPhotography
AwardsWinner of The Portrait of Britain 2017, 2018, 2019 & 2020
Website www.rorylewis.studio

Rory Lewis (born 5 October 1982 in Chester, England [1] ) is a British photographer known for his celebrity portrait photography. [2] Lewis's inspirations include the works of the artists Hans Holbein the younger, [3] Caravaggio, Titian and Thomas Lawrence and the German Expressionist movement of the 1920s.

Contents

Education

Lewis originally studied Medieval History at King's College London. [4]

Works

In 2012, Lewis held his first exhibition, Keeping Abreast, at the Bluecoat Gallery in Liverpool. Held in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support, the collection featured unseen portraits. [5]

David Warner portrait by Lewis, Nov. 2013 David Warner (Actor) Rory Lewis Photographer.jpg
David Warner portrait by Lewis, Nov. 2013

In 2013, his portrait of actor David Warner was acquired by the National Portrait Gallery, London. [6] The portrait was Warner's first sitting since Cecil Beaton photographed him in the mid 1960s. [7]

In 2014, Lewis photographed and held his first major portrait photography exhibition. Entitled 'Northerners', the project was an entirely new collection of portraits from a cross section of northern English actors, celebrities, sports personalities, and politicians. Held in aid of UNICEF, the exhibition featured portraits of Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Ian McShane, Emma Rigby, Beth Tweddle, Craig Charles, General Sir Nick Houghton and Mayor of Liverpool Joe Anderson. [8]

In May 2014, Lewis photographed Uruguayan footballer Luis Suarez in a campaign for Pepsi. [9]

In 2016 Lewis photographed all the remaining Victoria Cross & George Cross recipients for a new portrait project. [10]

In 2017 Lewis photographed actor Rufus Sewell in Los Angeles. The portrait was acquired by the National Portrait Gallery. [11]

Throughout 2016–17, Lewis embarked on a portrait project entitled Soldiery [12] British Army Portraits. Photographing over 278 British soldiers, and publishing a book of the collection. [13] The collection was exhibited at Armed Forces Day Liverpool 24 June [14] and then moved to The National Army Museum in London from 31 January – 12 February 2018. [15]

As part of the Soldiery project, Lewis held portrait sitting with WO2 Deborah Penny, Britain's first transgender soldier to serve in the front line. [16]

In 2018 Lewis embarked on a new project entitled Portraitist, [17] including portraits of former prime minister David Cameron. [18] The portrait sitting was featured by the Guardian Newspaper. [19]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yousuf Karsh</span> Canadian photographer (1908–2002)

Yousuf Karsh, FRPS was a Canadian photographer known for his portraits of notable individuals. He has been described as one of the greatest portrait photographers of the 20th century.

Roger Mayne was an English photographer, best known for his documentation of the children of Southam Street, London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Terry O'Neill (photographer)</span> British photographer (1938–2019)

Terence Patrick O'Neill was a British photographer, known for documenting the fashions, styles, and celebrities of the 1960s. O'Neill's photographs capture his subjects candidly or in unconventional settings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Don McCullin</span> British photojournalist

Sir Donald McCullin is a British photojournalist, particularly recognised for his war photography and images of urban strife. His career, which began in 1959, has specialised in examining the underside of society, and his photographs have depicted the unemployed, downtrodden and impoverished.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Wood (photographer)</span> Irish photographer

Thomas Wood is an Irish street photographer, portraitist and landscape photographer, based in Britain. Wood is best known for his photographs in Liverpool and Merseyside from 1978 to 2001, "on the streets, in pubs and clubs, markets, workplaces, parks and football grounds" of "strangers, mixed with neighbours, family and friends." His work has been published in several books, been widely shown in solo exhibitions and received awards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rineke Dijkstra</span> Dutch photographer

Rineke Dijkstra HonFRPS is a Dutch photographer. She lives and works in Amsterdam. Dijkstra has been awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society, the 1999 Citibank Private Bank Photography Prize and the 2017 Hasselblad Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Gallagher</span>

Robert Gallagher is a commercial and editorial photographer currently based in Los Angeles, California. He has been awarded four times in the Communication Arts Photography Annual, named one of the 'Top 25 Photographers of 2016' by Creative Quarterly and is archived in The National Portrait Gallery in London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Artists of the Tudor court</span> Painters and limners engaged by the Tudor dynasty between 1485 and 1603

The artists of the Tudor court are the painters and limners engaged by the monarchs of England's Tudor dynasty and their courtiers between 1485 and 1603, from the reign of Henry VII to the death of Elizabeth I.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tim Hetherington</span> British photojournalist

Timothy Alistair Telemachus Hetherington was a British photojournalist. He produced books, films and other work that "ranged from multi-screen installations, to fly-poster exhibitions, to handheld device downloads" and was a regular contributor to Vanity Fair.

Huw Lewis-Jones is a British historian, editor, broadcaster and art director. Formerly a historian and Curator of Art at the Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, Lewis-Jones left Cambridge in June 2010 to pursue book and broadcasting projects. He is the Editorial Director of the independent publishing company Polarworld.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Derek Ridgers</span> British photographer

Derek Ridgers is a British photographer known for his photography of music, film and club/street culture. He has photographed people including James Brown, the Spice Girls, Clint Eastwood and Johnny Depp, as well as politicians, gangsters, artists, writers, fashion designers and sports people. Ridgers has also photographed British social scenes such as skinhead, fetish, club, punk and New Romantic.

Scot Sothern is an American photographer and writer. He has created controversial black and white photographs of prostitutes in Southern California, whom he photographed from 1986 to 1990. In 2010, he began photographing and writing about sex workers in Skid Row, Los Angeles. Sothern described the photographs as exposés that expose both the women and also the artist behind the camera.

Blake Little is an entertainment, advertising, and fine art photographer based in Los Angeles since 1982. He has had assignments in advertising, film, television, book and magazine publishing. He has worked with personalities in entertainment, sports and politics. His work has been exhibited in New York, Seattle, Indianapolis, Los Angeles and Japan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Todd Gray (artist)</span> American artist

Todd Gray works in photography, performance and sculpture as a contemporary artist who lives and works in Los Angeles, California and Akwidaa, Ghana.

Charlotte Cotton is a curator of and writer about photography.

Patricia Anne "Tish" Murtha was a British social documentary photographer best known for documenting marginalised communities, social realism and working class life in Newcastle upon Tyne and the North East of England.

Anthony Hernandez is an American photographer who divides his time between Los Angeles, his birthplace, and Idaho. His photography has ranged from street photography to images of the built environment and other remains of civilization, particularly those discarded or abandoned elements that serve as evidence of human presence. He has spent most of his career photographing in Los Angeles and environs. "It is L.A.'s combination of beauty and brutality that has always intrigued Hernandez." La Biennale di Venezia said of Hernandez, "For the past three decades a prevalent question has troubled the photographer: how to picture the contemporary ruins of the city and the harsh impact of urban life on its less advantaged citizens?" His wife is the novelist Judith Freeman.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Minna Keene</span> Canadian photographer (1861–1943)

Minna Keene, née Töneböne, was a German-born, self-taught Canadian pictorial portrait photographer, considered "hugely successful".

Stephen McLaren is a Scottish photographer, writer, and curator, based in Los Angeles. He has edited various photography books published by Thames & Hudson—including Street Photography Now (2010)—and produced his own, The Crash (2018). He is a co-founder member of Document Scotland. McLaren's work has been shown at FACT in Liverpool as part of the Look – Liverpool International Photography Festival and in Document Scotland group exhibitions at Impressions Gallery, Bradford and at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh. His work is held in the collection of the University of St Andrews.

Craig Easton is a British photographer who lives in The Wirral and works on long-term social documentary projects that deal with the representation of communities in the North of England. He has made work about women working in the UK fish processing industry; about the inter-generational nature of poverty and economic hardship in Northern England; about social deprivation, housing, unemployment and immigration in Blackburn; and about how the situation in which young people throughout the UK live, influences their aspirations.

References

  1. Liverpool Echo Interview 18 July 2014 http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/whats-on/whats-on-news/photographer-rory-lewis-latest-exhibition-7449860
  2. Liverpool Echo Newspaper Article 12 June 2012 http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/how-liverpool-portrait-specialist-rory-3339544
  3. Hans Holbein the younger http://rorylewisphotography.com/holbeins-inspiration/
  4. Biography https://www.rorylewis.studio/the-team
  5. Liverpool Echo Interview 12 July 2012 http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/how-liverpool-portrait-specialist-rory-3339544
  6. National Portrait Gallery David Warner http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw248086/David-Warner?LinkID=mp64101&role=sit&rNo=2
  7. Photographer Rory Lewis captures Northern stars of stage, screen and football pitch for new exhibition http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/whats-on/photographer-rory-lewis-captures-northern-7895590
  8. Northerners: Rory Lewis photographs Gandalf and a General https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-29657598
  9. Rory Lewis Luis Suarez for Pepsi https://www.rorylewis.studio/blog/luis-suarez-for-pepsi/
  10. Rory Lewis Website Victoria & George Cross http://rorylewisphotography.com/portfolio/victoria-george-cross-portraits/
  11. "Rufus Sewell (Actor) Portrait Acquired by National Portrait Gallery London – Portrait Photographer Rory Lewis Liverpool & London & Los Angeles (CA)". Portrait Photographer Rory Lewis Liverpool & London & Los Angeles (CA). 4 December 2017. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
  12. Liverpool Echo Newspaper (Soldiery) British Army Portraits http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/portraits-parade-photography-exhibition-armed-12882717
  13. Rory Lewis Book Soldiery British Army Portraits https://www.rorylewis.studio/soldiery/
  14. 2017
  15. Beale, Jonathan (3 February 2018). "The 'changing face' of the British Army". BBC News. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
  16. "British Army Soldier, Warrant Officer Class 2 Deborah Penny Portrait Acquired by National Portrait Gallery London – Portrait Photographer Rory Lewis Liverpool & London & Los Angeles (CA)". Portrait Photographer Rory Lewis Liverpool & London & Los Angeles (CA). 19 December 2017. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
  17. Portraitist Exhibition BBC News https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-45004510
  18. RORYLEWIS (23 December 2018). "David Cameron Prime Minister Portrait Sitting". Portrait Photographer Rory Lewis Liverpool & London & Los Angeles (CA). Retrieved 23 December 2018.
  19. "Rory Lewis's best photograph: David Cameron looks back without regret". TheGuardian.com . 23 January 2019.