Sessions

Real Sessions

The portfolio shows my best photographs. This page shows a whole session, as it happened — including the parts that were nothing like the plan.

A portfolio is a photographer's best work, chosen one frame at a time. It is useful, but it answers the wrong question. What most parents actually want to know is simpler: what will we get?

So this page is the ordinary thing rather than the exceptional one: whole sessions, as they happened. More will follow, and what they mostly show is that no two look alike.

Wide awake, and then not

In the studio · from the Mini Newborn Collection to the Classic

They had booked the Mini Newborn Collection, and it was the right choice: a first baby, no older brothers or sisters, one hour.

He was a few days old, and he wanted to be awake. Not unsettled — content, alert, looking straight at whatever was in front of him. So that is what we photographed. The whole first hour is a wide-awake newborn, which is not what most people picture when they think of these photographs, and is one of my favourite things in the world to do.

When the hour was up, his parents asked whether they could move up to the Classic Newborn Collection and stay a little longer, to see if we could get him asleep as well. I had nobody booked after them that day, so we could.

He fed, and he fell asleep. The second hour is almost all of that: curled, and held — first in his mother's arms, then in his father's.

Both hours are on this page — the one we had booked and the one we added. It is the same baby, sixty minutes apart.

A mother resting her face behind her swaddled newborn's head, both in profile
Close view of a newborn's ear and the fold of the wrap around them
A father leaning over the mother as she holds their sleeping newborn, in black and white
A father leaning over the mother as she holds their sleeping newborn in both arms
Both parents seated together in the studio holding their newborn, a round mirror on the wall behind
Both parents forehead to forehead, holding their sleeping newborn between them
Both parents standing by a window holding their newborn, the studio wall bare around them
Both parents nose to nose while holding their swaddled newborn, in black and white
A newborn asleep in a cream wrap, held in their mother's arms
A mother holding her swaddled newborn in both arms and looking down at them
A mother holding her swaddled newborn against her chest and looking down at them, in black and white
A mother seated in an armchair holding her swaddled newborn, looking at the camera
A father leaning down to kiss his sleeping newborn's head
A newborn asleep in a wrap, a hand supporting their head on a textured blanket, in black and white
Both parents lying down with their sleeping newborn, smiling at the camera
Both parents leaning over their swaddled newborn, the mother kissing the baby's head, in black and white
A father kissing the mother's cheek as they lie beside their sleeping newborn
Both parents lying down on either side of their sleeping newborn
A mother lying beside her sleeping newborn and smiling at the camera
A mother lying down and kissing her newborn, the studio room visible behind
A mother lying beside her swaddled newborn on a white bed, in black and white
A mother lying down with her cheek resting against her sleeping newborn
A newborn curled asleep in a white wrap on a white backdrop, in black and white
A newborn asleep in a cream wrap on a cream backdrop, feet showing
Both parents standing together in the studio, holding their swaddled newborn
A mother holding her swaddled newborn up to her face and kissing them, against a bright background
A mother kissing her newborn in low light, in black and white
A mother kissing her newborn's forehead, the baby asleep in her arms
A newborn looking upward while their parents kiss above them
A father kissing the mother's forehead as they both hold their swaddled newborn, in black and white
A father kissing the mother's forehead while she holds their newborn, backlit by a window
Both parents standing close together holding their newborn, backlit by a bright window
Both parents standing forehead to forehead, holding their swaddled newborn between them against a bright window
A father leaning nose to nose with his newborn held in his arms, in black and white
A father smiling down at his newborn held in both arms, in black and white
A father holding his newborn against his chest, his face lowered to the baby's head
Close-up of an awake newborn in a wrap looking upward, a hand supporting their head, in black and white
A newborn awake in a light wrap, a hand cradling their head on a textured blanket, in black and white
A newborn's feet held in a mother's hands against her chin, in black and white
A newborn awake in a wrap on a white backdrop, in black and white
A newborn awake in a cream wrap on a cream backdrop, looking towards the camera
Extreme close-up of a newborn's closed fist, in black and white
A newborn curled asleep in a loose wrap on a white blanket, in black and white
Very close view of a newborn's open eye and nose
Close view of a newborn's face in low light, in black and white
Very close view of an awake newborn's face beside a parent's finger
A newborn awake in a cream wrap, lying on a cream backdrop

Their first, and they were nervous

In the studio · the Classic Newborn Collection

They drove up from Hemel Hempstead, which is not close, for their first baby.

I could see it when they arrived, and I see it most weeks. A first-time mother is nervous, and the worries are always the same ones: what if she does not sleep. What if she will not settle. What if she cries when you undress her and you do not know what to do.

I know those from the inside — I have had them myself — so let me answer them the way I answer every family. None of it is yours to solve. It is mine, and it is most of the job.

Take the undressing, which is the part people dread. A baby arrives from the car bundled up and warm, and if you take all that off quickly she notices and objects, and she is right to. So it happens slowly, one layer at a time, in a room that is already warm, with as long as it needs in between. Almost always nothing happens at all.

They relaxed once they saw it was simpler than they had pictured. Most people do, usually inside the first twenty minutes.

Both parents leaning in together to kiss their sleeping newborn
A newborn wrapped and asleep, small within a bright white frame, in black and white
Extreme close-up of a sleeping newborn's nose and lips
A newborn wrapped and asleep, small within a bright frame, the wrap fanned out beside them
A mother holding her newborn's foot to her lips, in black and white
Extreme close-up of the sole of a newborn's foot
A mother holding her newborn's foot to her lips and kissing it
A newborn's foot resting in a parent's open hand
Extreme close-up of a newborn's toes in low light, in black and white
Close view of a newborn's ear and the fine hair along the hairline
A newborn asleep with their head resting on a parent's hands, in black and white
Close view of a sleeping newborn's cheek and closed eye
Close view of a sleeping newborn's closed eye and nose, in black and white
A mother lying down beside her sleeping newborn on a cream beanbag
Both parents lying down on either side of their sleeping newborn
A mother kissing her newborn's head, seated beside a bright window
A mother smiling with her hand resting on her newborn's head, seen close in
A mother's hand, wearing her engagement ring, resting on her newborn's head
A mother kissing her newborn's head beside a bright window, in black and white
Both parents lying down and watching their newborn sleep between them
A newborn curled asleep in a cream wrap on a cream backdrop
Extreme close-up of a newborn's lips and chin against a bright background, in black and white
Both parents' hands gathered around their newborn asleep on a cream backdrop
A father kissing his sleeping newborn's head, both hands cradling the baby
Both parents leaning in to kiss their sleeping newborn's head, in black and white
A mother smiling at the camera with a hand resting on her sleeping newborn
Both parents smiling at the camera from behind their sleeping newborn
A mother holding her swaddled newborn against her shoulder and looking down at them
Both parents standing together holding their swaddled newborn and looking at the camera
Both parents looking down at their newborn held in the mother's arms
A father looking at the mother as she holds their newborn against her
Both parents with their heads together above their swaddled newborn
A father kissing the mother's head while she holds their newborn between them
Both parents holding their swaddled newborn, the father in profile, in black and white
A father holding his swaddled newborn against his chest and looking down at them
A father leaning nose to nose with his newborn, the baby awake in his arms
A newborn seen from above on a cream backdrop, one arm raised, a parent's hand supporting
Both parents in white holding their swaddled newborn and looking at the camera

Look through those and you will notice her parents are in most of them. That is not a family shot added at the end. There are stretches of every newborn session when a baby just wants to be against somebody's chest — and rather than wait for that to pass, I photograph it. Those minutes are not the gaps between the pictures. They are very often the pictures.

The ones where everybody looks at the camera are there too, and every family should have them. But the ones I would keep are the other kind: a father's hands, a mother's mouth against a foot, three people arranged by nothing except where the baby needed to be.

They have been back three times since.

With a brother of twenty months

In the studio · the part nobody can plan

When you book, I send a short questionnaire about the children — what they like, what they do not. If a child loves books there are books out when they arrive; if it is dinosaurs, there are dinosaurs.

And then I put the plan away, because with a brother of twenty months there isn't one. A first child is going through something enormous the week his sister arrives, and how he decides to feel about it on the day is genuinely unpredictable. So I start every session with no plan at all. The plan is to watch.

Some children stay pressed against a parent's leg for a long while. I never ask a child like that to come and be photographed — not once, not gently, not at all — until I can see he has warmed up. I put toys out and I photograph the baby, so that whatever is happening in the room is happening somewhere other than on him.

Others arrive at a run and will not leave their sister alone; they are in the pictures within minutes. Both get there in the end — one simply needs longer. Working out which is which, and then giving him that time, is my job and not yours.

He was in between. Neither glued on nor glued to her.

So we began with his sister, who obliged by starting the session asleep, and that made the first stretch simple. After a few frames of her on her own I brought his mother in — and that turned out to be the whole thing. Watching his mum do the exact thing we were going to ask him to do took all the strangeness out of it. When she stepped away I asked whether he would like a turn, and he came straight over. Then the same with his dad.

By the end I did not have to ask. His parents got into position with the baby and he ran in on his own, which is how the four of them ended up in most of these.

A mother lying down and kissing her swaddled newborn's head
A newborn asleep in a cream wrap with the corners of her mouth turned up
Extreme close-up of a sleeping newborn's face, in black and white
A mother lying cheek to cheek with her swaddled newborn
A newborn asleep on a pale blanket, seen close, in black and white
A newborn asleep in a loose cream wrap on a cream backdrop
A newborn asleep in a cream wrap with both feet showing
A newborn asleep with both feet drawn up close to her
Close view of a sleeping newborn's cheek and closed eye
A mother lying beside her swaddled newborn and looking up at the camera
A big brother leaning over to kiss his newborn sister, in black and white
A big brother kissing his newborn sister's head, close in
A big brother kneeling down to kiss his sleeping newborn sister
A big brother lying down beside his newborn sister and kissing her
A big brother looking at the camera from beside his sleeping newborn sister
A big brother reaching out to offer a small toy to his newborn sister, his father beside them
Both parents lying down and looking at their sleeping newborn
Both parents lying down behind their sleeping newborn
A father holding his newborn in both arms and kissing her head
Both parents and the big brother gathered behind the sleeping newborn
Both parents and the big brother lying around the sleeping newborn
Both parents and the big brother around the newborn, the brother laughing at the camera
A newborn asleep with both feet resting in an adult hand
A father kissing his swaddled newborn's head against a bright window, in black and white
Both parents holding their newborn up between them against a bright window, in black and white
Both parents and the big brother together against a bright window, in black and white
A mother seated in a pale armchair holding her swaddled newborn and looking down at her
A father seated holding his swaddled newborn and smiling at the camera
A father seated with the big brother on his knee and the newborn in his arms
Both parents seated in an armchair with the newborn and the big brother beside them
Both parents seated with the newborn while the big brother stands next to them
Both parents, the big brother and the newborn together, all looking at the camera
A mother in a yellow dress holding her swaddled newborn, flowers behind them
A mother in a yellow dress holding her newborn close, flowers in the foreground
A mother in a yellow dress kissing her newborn's head, flowers out of focus behind
A mother resting her cheek on her newborn's head, both with their eyes closed
A mother in a yellow dress leaning nose to nose with her newborn against a bright window

They are twenty months old exactly, all the way through, and that is the part I would not trade. A family session that could have been photographed with any other family is a session that has not told you anything.

We spent most of it talking about Rome

In the studio · both parents and a big sister

He was only a few days old, and we began the way I usually do, which is by not starting. Coats off, kettle on, everybody in the room getting used to being in it.

What was different was what we talked about. Somewhere in the first few minutes it came out that his father had lived in Rome for a while — and Rome is where I am from. So the morning turned into a conversation about a city we both know: what he missed about it, what I do, the things you only notice once you have left. His mother joined in, his big sister — not yet two — had a whole room to inspect, and the baby slept through the introductions.

I am putting that before the photographs because it is not a digression from them. People are photographed the way they feel, and two people in the middle of a conversation about somewhere they love do not hold themselves like people being photographed. Almost everything I like in this set comes from that.

Then the rare thing happened. He stayed asleep — not just at the beginning, but the whole way through, including the undressing, which is the moment a baby is most likely to have an opinion about proceedings. He slept through that too, and he was still asleep at the end. Everything that mattered was photographed inside the hour.

I want to be careful with that sentence, because it is exactly the kind that turns into a worry on the drive over. It is not the reason the session worked, and it is not something you can bring with you. The first session on this page is a baby who was wide awake for a solid hour, and those are some of my favourite photographs I have ever taken. Asleep, awake, halfway between and changing his mind twice — it makes no difference to what you go home with. It changes the order I do things in, and the order is mine to sort out.

A sleeping newborn seen close, the face turned and both arms curled in
A mother lying beside her sleeping newborn, one hand resting on the baby's head
A sleeping newborn's head and ear resting against a parent's shoulder, one tiny hand curled below
A father leaning down to kiss his sleeping newborn, who lies wrapped on a cream blanket
Macro of a newborn's curled fingers and tiny nails, resting on an open palm
Two parents kissing, their sleeping newborn wrapped on the blanket below them
A father kissing his sleeping newborn's head against a bright white background
Macro of a sleeping newborn's nose and lips, seen in profile
Close-up of a sleeping newborn's face, both hands drawn up under the chin
Two parents kissing above their sleeping newborn, who lies wrapped between them
A newborn asleep in a cream wrap, seen from the side on a cream blanket
A newborn asleep in a cream wrap, seen from above on a cream blanket
A newborn asleep in a wrap on a grey blanket, both feet showing at the hem
A newborn asleep curled on their side, one foot showing beyond the wrap
A newborn asleep on a cream blanket with both arms drawn in against the chest
A newborn asleep in a cream wrap, small in a wide and otherwise empty frame
Macro of the sole of a newborn's foot and the toes, just above a cream wrap
Both parents leaning in over their sleeping newborn, the father's lips against the baby's head
Macro of a sleeping newborn's lips and chin, with the ear behind
Macro of a sleeping newborn's closed eye and nose against a bright background
Macro of a newborn's foot, the first days' skin flaking across the heel
A mother's face pressed against her sleeping newborn's cheek
A mother cheek to cheek with her swaddled newborn against a bright white background
A newborn in a cream wrap, held in a mother's hands and seen from above
A mother leaning down to kiss her sleeping newborn, who lies wrapped on the beanbag
A mother looking down at her sleeping newborn, held against her shoulder
A mother sitting in an armchair holding the newborn while the big sister kneels beside them
A mother kissing her sleeping newborn's head against a bright white background
A big sister kissing the newborn, who is held in her parents' arms between them
A big sister and her mother both leaning in to kiss the newborn

There are only a handful of frames of the two of them together, and I would rather say so than let you count them and wonder. A sister who is not yet two gives you what she gives you on the day, and my job is to take that and not go looking for more — the same as it was with the brother of twenty months further up this page. The few we have are among the best things in the set. That is almost always how it works out.

Some mornings go like this one. Most do not. Nobody looking at the pictures afterwards can tell which kind of morning it was, and that is rather the point.

Why the whole session, and not five frames

A portfolio picture is chosen. A session is what happened.

What you see above is one morning, all of it — not five frames chosen afterwards. It is the honest answer to what will we get, and it is a different answer for every family, which is the reason I do not photograph to a plan.

Colour is the clearest example. Look through the portfolio and you will see the same palette almost everywhere — warm, neutral, quiet. That is deliberate, and it is mine: I want nothing in the frame competing with the only thing worth looking at, which is your family being itself. There is a wardrobe here in the studio, for mothers as much as for children, in exactly those tones, and it is yours to use.

Scroll back up these sessions, though, and that palette breaks in places. That is deliberate too. I will always guide you on what to wear — mostly so that four people are not wearing four colours that argue with each other — and inside that, wear whatever makes you feel most like yourselves. Some of the colours on this page are nothing like my portfolio. Those are the sessions that could not have been anybody else's.

If there is something about yours that makes you wonder whether it will work — a toddler who will not sit still, a dog you want in the pictures, a grandparent visiting from abroad that week — tell me when you write. It is almost certainly not the first time.

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