Matthew Andrews
Reportage-trained, thirty years in, still not interested in the shiny version of anything.
Robert Frank said a photograph only needs one thing: the humanity of the moment. Thirty years and several thousand assignments later, that’s still the only rule I work to. I’m in the business of photographs that hold up under scrutiny — the kind that make you look twice because they’re clearly not staged.
Rapport, fast
School was an international school in Brussels on the British curriculum, with a constantly shifting mix of nationalities — diplomats’ children, mostly, arriving and leaving as their parents’ postings did. Growing up somewhere that varied and turned over that much teaches you to feel at home with strangers within minutes, whoever they happen to be that term. That’s a better piece of professional kit than any camera when the brief is “natural, not staged.”
No embellishment
AI can generate a stock photo in seconds. Photoshop can manufacture a smile. Neither produces a photograph an audience believes. I shoot what’s there, retouch lightly, and stop. If a picture needs heavy correction to work, it wasn’t the right picture.
The worst line I’ve ever read in a review of anywhere — restaurant, hotel, brand — was that it had “worked hard to look like a chain.” That’s the failure mode I’m hired to avoid.
Training was at St Martin’s School of Art. The thirty years since have gone into corporate and institutional work for banks, insurers and law firms, and — alongside it — portraits of Floella Benjamin, John Amaechi, Tamsin Greig, Philip Glass, Toby Jones, Paul Whitehouse, Jarvis Cocker, Christopher Hitchens and Andrew Marr, plus King Charles III and the late Queen Elizabeth II.
AIG· NatWest· University of Law· ICAEW· Chatham House· Marks & Clerk· Nike· American Express· Barts Health NHS Trust· The Wall Street Journal· Timera Energy· Talbot· Financial Times· The Commonwealth· Jefferies· Barclays· Doran Browne· Artichoke· Artangel· Faber & Faber
After nearly thirty years on the South Coast, we swapped sea for green and moved to Wye — a small, historic village in Kent on an old Roman road, convenient for the City of London, Paris, Brussels and the rest of mainland Europe. It’s home now to me, my wife (my childhood sweetheart), and our two Labradors, Lois and Pluto — our grown-up children have long since flown the nest. I still run, when the roses and dahlias allow.
We have a longstanding relationship with Matthew for both portrait and event photography, to the extent that he functions more as an extension of our internal team than a contractor. Working with Matthew is always a seamless, stress-free process, with subjects always at ease, and us secure in the knowledge that the images we want or need will be delivered to a high standard and on time. We cannot recommend Matthew highly enough.
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