#2 STEVE SHIPMAN CELEBS AND WEDDINGS
I first met the photographer Steve Shipman in 2013. He came on a photography workshop I was hosting about still images and sound combined. Actually, it was the first workshop I’d hosted for photographers. I’d been shooting professionally less than a decade, he’d been photographing considerably longer.
He was the ninth name to book on and I made some notes about him. I wrote; “Very proficient photographer, really nice chap too.”
But Steve is so much more than that, which you’ll gather by the modest gallery of celebrities below. I’m sure he wooed them with his beautifully disarming nature. Keanu Reeves, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Baroness Thatcher, they’ve all been ‘Shipmaned.’ Actually I could spend the next half hour just reading names from his who’s who list of well known personalities and historical figures. So, I’m rather pleased if a little embarrassed he granted me his considerably proficient time back in 2013, because although I didn’t know it then, I’d just fortuitously bumped into a, one in a million type person.
I think if you asked anyone lucky enough to have been his friend, you’d probably find one word appear more than any other when asked to describe this really nice chap; generous.
Because despite all the people he’s photographed, the stories he’s told, the newspapers and magazines that have shared his work all over the globe, and even the fact seven photographs of his feature within the National Portrait Gallery’s collection, arguably the most important British archive for photographers and photography, despite all that, he was never too busy if you called, I never heard him belittle, run down or decry another’s work or most importantly passion for the business or art of photography. And whilst nobody can be that perfect I’m sure, if you ever did partake in that thumbs down style depreciation that’s become a new and sadly accepted currency of social discourse, he’d just disarm you with a glint in his eye and knowing look that said; “Are you sure you don’t want to rephrase that last sentence, into something, well, kinder?”
This Focus Episode guest is Steve. Steve Shipman. A very proficient photographer, and a really nice chap too.
All images used with permission Steve Shipman estate. Not to be reproduced.
FURTHER REFERENCE
Main website: https://steveshipmanphotography.com/
National Portrait Gallery: https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp70067/steve-shipman
Purchase Steve’s Micro Stories, tales of life, tales of being alive: https://www.blurb.co.uk/b/9474626-micro-stories