Ben Quinton Photography

2012-07-02T10:20:00.001+01:00

I've finally got a new site up, with lot's of new work, including my full project from Ethiopia. However, it also means I'm now switching over to word press, so I won't be posting here anymore! So be sure to come over and subscribe to the new blog on my site!

2012-06-15T21:52:00.000+01:00

This week has been insanely busy so sorry for the lack of posts. I've been busy building a new site that will be going up very shortly. It'll contain a lot of new work, as well as some new editorial. I've also been finishing off the retouching for Project Harar, and I found this portrait of Giftu and her Father...

2012-06-06T11:40:00.001+01:00

Whilst wandering the corridors of Yekatit Hospital in Addis Ababa, this lady asked me to take her portrait...

2012-06-05T17:48:00.000+01:00

So as I'm working through the mountain of Ethiopia photos I've come across these. One evening I visited Mike, a very talented producer and musician who was over from Denmark recording all different kinds of music. He'd set up in a friends beautiful log cabin in the lush forested Entoto Hills that sit on the northern tip of Addis Ababa. So here's a couple of pics of him.

Film from Ethiopia

2012-05-31T19:25:00.000+01:00

Whilst in Ethiopia I shot quite a few rolls of film. I've finally got it developed and today started scanning it. So for now I'd like to show you two landscapes from the Bale Mountains. These were taken on the drive across them at 5am occasionally stopping to get out and take some snaps.

2012-05-29T13:20:00.000+01:00

Sorry for the radio silence, I've been really busy since coming back from Ethiopia with a couple of jobs, but also working through the mountain of retouching and video editing from Ethiopia. For now though here's a quick portrait from a town in Ethiopia called Shashamane, the "Mecca" for Rastafarian's...

Back from Ethiopia

2012-05-17T11:41:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I arrived back from my 8 week trip to Ethiopia with Project Harar. It was an incredible experience, I met so many amazing people and of course took thousands of pictures. So now I'll probably be glued to my screen retouching and editing for quite some time. In the last week I shot a few new stories with a good journalist friend Matthew Newsome who lives in Addis. I thought I'd give you a small preview without giving too much away so here's a couple of photo's for you...

2012-05-07T11:00:00.000+01:00

Here's another portrait from Cheshire, this time pictured is one of the nurses, Lema, who works at Cheshire Homes full time...

2012-05-04T16:22:00.000+01:00

So currently I'm working through a tonne of footage from the trip so far editing it all together... Tomorrow I'm off the the Rastafarian "Mecca" Shashamane to shoot a new story unrelated to Project Harar. For now though here's another couple of my favorites from the surgery...

2012-05-03T14:56:00.001+01:00

Here's another photo of Natty who I introduced to you earlier...

2012-04-30T16:04:00.002+01:00

So now the surgery is over here in Ethiopia. The main bulk of the team have gone, and now I'm working through a myriad of gory graphic shots from the different operations. Most of them I'm not sure I can share on here, they'll have to wait until the full series goes up. For now though here's a couple of shots of Graham, one of the British surgeons who came out to operate.

More from Ethiopia

2012-04-24T07:35:00.002+01:00

Here's another portrait for you from Ethiopia. This one is of Durya Majid. For now though I'm off to surgery… will have some more shots soon!

The future of Ethiopian photographers

2012-04-21T09:15:00.001+01:00

Let me introduce you to Natty…

Natty is the son of the cook at Cheshire Homes, aged 13 and currently at studying at school. He's incredibly bright, and every evening comes at 6 on the dot, to play games on my mac. I decided to take him down to help photograph the patients. Together we set up a daylight studio to get some nice portraits of the patients. I taught him how to use the Mamiya RZ67, and then moved onto the 5D shooting tethered. I showed him how to focus it and off he went taking pictures of me. After watching me edit one picture he picked up Lightroom instantly, and for the rest of the shoot was doing my cropping, checking the sharpness and making picks without any help. It amazed me how quickly he picked it all up… no more than 20 minutes! Natty's definitely one to look out for, although at the moment he wants to do web design!

Here's my portrait of him, as well as the portrait he took of me and then edited himself. Also a quick shot of him at work… There will be more portraits coming soon.

A couple new favourites from Ethiopia...

2012-04-13T10:43:00.000+01:00

Thanks for the great response to the Guardian story I shot a couple weeks back. I'm busy with Project Harar at the moment, but am planning to try to squeeze in a few more stories. For now though here's a couple new favorites from my work with Project Harar...

Running story for Guardian Weekend

2012-04-07T11:54:00.002+01:00

Just before I left for Ethiopia, I was asked by the Guardian Weekend to shoot a story on the town of Bekoji in my first few days. The town of Bekoji are running mad, every morning you see groups of young runners running up and down the main street, often on their way to their daily training session with the famous Coach. It was a great story to shoot, and I worked with Guardian journalist, Simon Hattenstone, who was brilliant. His words for the feature are brilliant and well worth checking out here. A gallery of pictures can also be seen here.

For now here's some tear sheets…

A few favourites from Ethiopia so far...

2012-04-02T18:31:00.000+01:00

So really starting to get into the flow of things now in Ethiopia. This week I've been at the Cheshire Homes just outside Addis Ababa, covering the nutrition and hygiene program before surgery takes place with Project Harar. Here's a few of my recent favorites.

Also, make sure you buy a copy of the Guardian on Saturday, as the Weekend magazine will be featuring a large feature I shot at the beginning of my trip. Should be a great piece as Simon the journalist was absolutely brilliant!

125 Magazine

2012-03-23T09:51:00.001+00:00

Exciting news... way back in December I was asked to shoot a small portrait series for the new issue of 125 Magazine along the theme of Olympian for the introducing section. I decided to look at the olympians of the everyday and focused on young mums as they are so often stereotyped in the media when they in fact show great strength and stamina. Also included in the piece are some of my archive images.

Want to say a massive thanks to Lacy, Sarah, Megan and Annabelle for participating. Also a big thanks to Rickardo for his styling, Kate Sheldon and Harsha Chavda for their brilliant makeup, and Fiona Walsh Cook for her lovely interviews!

Click on the image for a larger version...

First few days in Ethiopia

2012-03-22T14:50:00.002+00:00

Hello from Ethiopia!

The first few days in Ethiopia have been a real adventure. I've been incredibly busy shooting a commission for a publication back home. Lots of 6am starts and late finishes! Now I'm due to head off to Harar with Sebsibe, one of Project Harar's local staff, to get stuck into the my main project, and main reason for being here! I'm not sure how easy it will be to access internet to if there's some radio silence please forgive me! Anyway, here's a couple of shots from the past couple of days…

New Tumblr for Ethiopia

2012-03-17T16:58:00.000+00:00

Right, very very last minute. I fly out to Ethiopia on Monday evening for 2 months shooting several different stories. As part of this I'll be working with a great charity Project Harar. Between us we've set up a Tumblr which will be updated with pictures I'll be taking as well as with text throughout the trip, so share this link around and start following the new Tumblr to be kept up to date! The Tumblr will also be linked to my Twitter page and Project Harars page for those on Twitter. I'll be posting images on here too, but just a warning, they will have been edited on a laptop screen!

Here's the link guys, and catch you soon!

projectharar.tumblr.com

Touba Distribution interiors

2012-03-05T14:29:00.001+00:00

So a couple weeks back, I was commissioned again by fashion PR company, Touba Distribution to shoot their London showroom at 2012 S/S fashion week. I don't normally shoot interiors but still enjoy it from time to time. I shot the whole job on film. Here's some of the results…

I still have prints left to raise money for Project Harar, if you're interested please go to my Just Giving page and select a print and then donate. Thanks to everyone who has already bought a print!

Boxhill

2012-02-23T14:00:00.002+00:00

Took a day trip out to Boxhill in Surrey the other week with Lili. Was beautiful sunshine, and amazingly not too cold (well not for me, it was for Lili). Boxhill is going to be the location for the downhill/uphill section of the Olympic cycling this year, so will definable be attending that (not because I want to see a crash of course)! Shot a roll of film whilst up there and here's a couple of the shots...

I still have prints left to raise money for Project Harar, if you're interested please go to my Just Giving page and select a print and then donate. Thanks to everyone who has already bought a print!

Snow

2012-02-20T14:00:00.012+00:00

Yes I'm sure that by now with the recent snow you've probably been bombarded with photos of the white stuff that we English seem to love just as much as we hate it. So now it's my turn... these were taken up on a very crowded Parliament Hill. It's a shame I couldn't record the sound. It was (not to sound to soft) beautiful to hear the air thick with the sound of happiness: all you could hear was laughter and screaming. Here's a couple, taken with my new (old) RZ...

I still have prints left to raise money for Project Harar, if you're interested please go to my Just Giving page and select a print and then donate. Thanks to everyone who has already bought a print!

Also for those interested, have a read of this brilliant post by Tom from Project Harar on the Independents website!

Big announcement...

2012-02-15T14:00:00.005+00:00

On the 19th of March I will be off to Ethiopia for 2 months working on a collaboration with the charity Project Harar. Project Harar helps young people with serious facial disabilities including noma, tumours, animal attacks, cleft lip and cleft palate to access high quality medical care. This will be a huge trip, with Project Harar flying out some top professors and surgeons from Guys Hospital in London performing roughly 60 operations in a short space of time in difficult conditions.

I'll be flying out early to help show the whole story. To put it briefly I'll firstly be visiting some of the patients villages meeting and photographing them, and then traveling with them into Addis Ababa, documenting the surgery, and then traveling back with them in order to show the whole process. I'll also be shooting some short films as part of the project, something I'm very excited about.

Whilst out there I'll also be shooting some new personal projects.

I'm in the process of setting up a special Tumblr for the trip, where I'll be keeping a visual diary posting stories and images as the trip progresses so be sure to follow (I'll get a link on here before I leave).

Currently I'm helping get funding together for the trip, and as part of this I will be selling 10x8" signed prints from my Ghana project as well as two from my hunting series for £10 with all proceeds going towards the trip. So please get involved and help out by buying a print! Or if you're cash strapped you can help out by sharing this on Facebook and/or Twitter!
If you're after a specific print, or a larger one just drop me an email. Alternatively you can help out by donating on Project Harar's Just Giving page - http://www.justgiving.com/project-harar

Will keep you all posted of any further news, and thanks in advance for the help!

Monocle OS Maps feature

2012-02-13T17:46:00.000+00:00

Last December I was asked by the Monocle to go down and shoot a lead story on Maps, but looking at Ordnance Survey and how they keep up with the digital age. It was a fascinating visit; being a photographer I most enjoyed getting shown the quality of their aerial cameras... where 1 pixel correlates to 4cm on the ground.

All the mapping is done in 3D hence the 3D screens and glasses. It was quite funny at first seeing an office full of people wearing 3D glasses. Anyway, its ran as a 4 page story, and below are some of my favorites from the day.

P.S. Was pleased to see a friend and great photographer from the US called Sean Litchfield had his first story in the Monocle this month too!

More pheasant images...

2012-01-31T18:30:00.001+00:00

A couple new hunting shots from last weeks shoot. The negatives got pretty badly damaged very annoyingly... creating hours of work for me to do in post cleaning them all up. They'll be slowly leaking their way onto here...