NEW SIGNING / ORLANDO GILI
LPA are incredibly excited to announce they now represent Orlando Gili, award-winning portrait and documentary photographer.
Winner of both the AOP Awards 2022 (Portrait category- Gold!) and Portrait of Britain 2019 amongst many other accolades, Orlando’s work is critically acclaimed, thought-provoking and aesthetically bold. He brings us a world of colourful people and situations. British culture is often at the heart of this photographer’s lens, documenting a whole array of captivating characters from football fans to Royal fans, pub dwellers to night tube travellers, barbers to butchers, farmers to festival goers! His ability to translate hidden social codes through photography gives his work an interesting edge as does his honed photojournalistic eye.
Prolific with his personal projects, publishers love him, Orlando’s images can be regularly seen in the likes of The Guardian, The Telegraph, Sunday Times Magazine, FT Weekend, Time Out and Vice. As you can imagine he is also in demand by many brands and agencies who can’t get enough of the authentic, credible vibe he contributes. His clients include Google, Halifax, Volkswagen, Bafta and Borough Market to name a few.
Orlando has some fascinating picture books to his name, including ‘Trivial Pursuits - The English At Play’, ‘An Opinionated Guide to London Pubs’ and Que Sera Sera.
He has also started to move into exhibiting his work in recent years.
We couldn’t wait to find out more about his career thus far.
Here’s what he had to say…
How did you get into photography?
I had a chance encounter with photographer and printer Alex Schneideman during my final year as an undergraduate, whilst studying history and politics at Newcastle University. During holidays in London, I started helping him out in his Kensal Green studio just for fun, this where I developed an interest in photography. By the time I had graduated, it fortuitously overlapped with Alex needing a full-time assistant to cope with his work load, so that’s how it all began.
What themes tend to run through your work?
Beyond the overarching theme of people, which bridges together my portrait and documentary work, I’m interested in exploring the ways people come together for leisure. Within this arena there are many unfolding themes, from social posturing to group belonging and fashion. I’m also fascinated by how people express their individuality, and how this overlaps with community.
What project are you working on at the minute?
An empowering and sensitively captured portrait series about men with alopecia, inspired by my own recent alopecia universalis condition. The core motivation behind the series is to raise awareness of the specific complexities of being a man with alopecia, exploring the themes of vulnerability and masculinity. The project is in collaboration with the charity Alopecia UK.
There seems to be a strong photojournalistic influence in your work, who are your photography heroes?
In fact my grandma, photographer Janet Stone, who brilliantly captured some of the most prolific creatives and intellectuals of her day including Benjamin Britten and John Betjeman.
We’ve heard there’s quite a photography scene in Peckham, where you live- tell us a bit about that.
There is definitely a photography culture in Peckham, over the years I’ve met many photographers that live in Peckham, or in the adjoining neighbourhoods. In fact, I run an informal meet-up called PPS (Peckham Photo Salon) for local photographers in the area, we get together over a pint and share work, as well as the trials and tribulations of being a working photographer. It’s a small organically formed group open to all and includes a real mix of photographers, from those specialising in architecture, portraiture, street or commercial and lifestyle. There is of course the annual Peckham 24 show, taking place over the same weekend as Photo London at Somerset House. It has really laid down the marker as Peckham being a key area for photography in London. There’s community feel in the neighbourhood, and it’s ideally placed to shoot in central and east London, whilst there is also the well run local Sunset Studios.
Every had any disasters on set?
Ages ago I was photographing English explorer James Ketchell on the Thames near Tower Bridge, he was setting off up river in an an attempt to row all the way round the UK coastline. It was bright spring day, but out of nowhere the heavens opened, and the dingy I was shooting from quickly became completely waterlogged. Sadly my laptop packed away in a camera bag couldn’t withstand the combination of rain and water in the boat, and was fatally damaged!
What has been one of your favourite past projects?
A past project I enjoyed shooting was a social documentary series celebrating the different ways the English come together in leisure. It incorporates the traditional and the quirky, with the modern and cosmopolitan.
After a year of shooting various events across the country, from the barbaric medieval annual sport of barrel kicking, to party-goers at summer music festivals, I approached Hoxton Mini Press. The project was published as Trivial Pursuits – The English at Play in 2020. My submission was greatly helped by my portrait of binocular wielding elderly opera fan being on the back cover of the BJP magazine, and selected for Portrait of Britain! Dedicated opera fan Roddy has been visitor at Glyndebourne, famous for its annual opera festival, for more than 70 years. He met his wife there when he was 19 and the couple went every year until her death in 2018.
What would be your ideal commission?
A portrait series shooting every living us president in their homes – Joe Biden, Donald Trump, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Jimmy Carter.
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
Hopefully more of the same but working on substantial ad campaigns and shooting even more editorially in the UK, but also for US publications, maybe European ones too. I would like to have started to incorporate moving images into my practice too, as well as developing a few personal projects alongside.
What makes you unique?
I think I bring a specific combination of strong colour palette, natural lighting and empathy with a humorous nod and tender core.
Ok you’re stuck on a desert Island…what 3 things are you bringing?
A miniature wind turbine that would generate electricity but also double as a fan, a record player complete with extensive Vinyl collection (powered by the wind turbine), a leatherman to repair the wind turbine and catch fish.
Welcome to the team Orlando!
Orlando is UK based and readily available for shoots and commissions. Email hello@lisapritchard.com to find out more.