17 years of Pennie Withers Photography: some memorable spaces along the way
Property Photographer Berkshire | Commercial Photography Berkshire
This September marks 17 years of Pennie Withers Photography.
Every year, when my business anniversary comes around, I like to look up the traditional anniversary gift to see whether it might provide a little inspiration for my annual anniversary blog. Apparently, 17 years is the furniture anniversary.
Rather than using that as an excuse to buy myself a new sofa, it got me thinking about some of the many different spaces I have found myself photographing over the past 17 years.
As a property photographer in Berkshire, I obviously spend a lot of time photographing buildings and interiors. But looking back, some of the spaces that stand out most are memorable for completely different reasons.
Here are just four of them.
The Royal Albert Hall
There are certain places where you can't help but stop for a moment and take in your surroundings, and the Royal Albert Hall is definitely one of them.
I was there to photograph a conductor during rehearsals for a performance of Disney's Beauty and the Beast. Because the auditorium was empty, I was able to wander around the space with virtually no one else there, seeing it from angles you would never normally get to experience as a member of the audience.
I even had the chance to go into the Royal Box!
It was one of those occasions where being a photographer gave me access to a very familiar place in a completely unfamiliar way, and it is definitely one of the more memorable spaces I've photographed over the years.
Westminster, from a rather different perspective
I've done photography at Westminster School many times over the past 17 years for their marketing photography and it has to have one of the most extraordinary backdrops of any school I have worked in.
Westminster Abbey appears almost casually in the background of so many photographs. It's certainly not your average school setting!
I have also photographed inside the Abbey itself, including a carol service where I was based high up in the organ loft. To get the photographs I needed, I had to poke my camera lens through the decorative balustrade, looking not unlike a sniper.
Definitely one of the more unusual positions I've found myself working from over the years.
An empty building that meant rather a lot
This next space wasn't grand, historic or particularly glamorous, but it is probably one of the most significant on this list.
In May 2020, I photographed an empty commercial property. It was my first professional photo shoot since the Covid lockdown had begun in March.
Like so many people, I had suddenly gone from being incredibly busy to being unable to work at all. The only reason this particular shoot could go ahead was because the building was completely empty, which meant I could work alone and socially distance.
I remember taking this photograph of my camera and tripod bags before the shoot. After weeks of not being able to pick them up for work, it felt surprisingly good to see them packed and ready to go again.
The building itself may not have been especially memorable, but what that shoot represented certainly was.
Sometimes it's the people who make a space memorable
Another shoot that sticks in my mind was the official opening of a care home by the Duke of Kent. Because a member of the Royal Family was attending, security was understandably extremely tight and I had very little creative control over the photography. I had to work within the restrictions of the day and simply be ready to capture the right moments as they happened.
The building itself was, of course, an important part of the story, but what made the day memorable was what was happening and the people I was there to photograph.
Looking back through these photographs has reminded me that it isn’t always the most beautiful or impressive spaces that stay with me. Sometimes it’s where I was, who I was photographing or simply what that particular shoot represented at the time.
Seventeen years has taken me into a huge variety of homes, businesses, schools, offices, venues and many other spaces, and I still love the fact that I never quite know where my camera might take me next.
So perhaps furniture isn’t such an inappropriate anniversary theme after all.
