Portrait of Actors + The Story behind the Image

Chasing A Dream Copyright Carla Coulson

This isn't the kind of portrait that I get to take everyday!! But hey I am up for anything and there is nothing more fabulous than working with a bunch of young actors with no inhibitions. 

I was in London to shoot these three young actors and when I arrived at Freddy's door (on the ground) he greeted me in a kilt and a frying pan full of eggs and bacon. I loved him immediately. We had all sorts of different things planned and being in the last months of acting school these boys were game for anything. 

A big part of photography is dress-ups and being actors they sure loved to dress up. We did all sorts of shots during the day, in the back of taxi cabs, on the top of floating barges and of course I couldn't resist a kind of Johnny Rotten 'no photos' please with Freddy in the kilt.

At the end of the day the boys begged me to take this shot of them out the front of Freddy's house. You can't see them in the pic but Freddy had his very best shoes on and the fab pose was created not to scratch the shoes. Tom and Nikesh constructed a sort of belt/leash they tied to the back of Freddy's braces and there we were out the front of the house in a posh suburb with the boys taking Freddy for a walk and me looking like a depraved photography. 

We were cacking ourselves with laughter, tears running down my face and the boys trying hard to keep a straight face when Freddy's mum alighted from the taxi. All of a sudden I felt extra weird but she was marvelous. She stepped over Freddy and threw us a 'keep up the great work'. Love the English!!!!

Shooting notes:

Shot with natural light on a soft grey London day on my Leica M8 and converted to black and white using DXO Filmpack.

Carla xx

Follow me on Facebook

Join the conversation on Twitter

Pin Me on Pinterest

Check Out the Gear I use