Russell Tovey

August 2019

Russell Tovey - as well as being a very successful actor, he is also a long term art collector and also runs a great podcast called TalkArt

I got to shoot in his loft apartment, in Shorditch, which was full to the brim with works that he had collected. Not many that I recognised - except the Gavin Turk and Tracey Emin’s, but that’s down to my very mainstream knowledge of painters.

I asked him which pieces were important to him and he would like to be photographed with, but he said he liked all his collection, so I basically shot everywhere. We chatted a bit about ‘Years and Years’ the near future BBC show he was in, and I was less gushing than everyone else seems to be about it. He was a bit startled / offended, so I added that he was obviously great in it. Which he is! And his easygoing relaxed manner returned.

This is the first shoot that I had done on a FujiFilm GFX50s, which I hired and I really liked the feel of the images. There is a mysterious depth to the look of the shots and the colour are great. I did have a bit of issue with morié on his jacket, but managed to fix that in post.