Hauser and Wirth, Menorca

Who needs Somerset?! Just came back from a trip to see the new Hauser and Wirth gallery/restaurant/gardens on the Isla Del Rei in Mahon, Menorca. Fantastic, beautifully done, understated and all rather picturesque. Menorca is all those things too, but the island proved to be an oasis of calm on a rather crazy ‘Fiesta’ bank holiday in the Balearics! This gallery and garden promises to be even more interesting as the project is finished and ‘grows in’. Take your chance now and go see it!

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The island was home to a military hospital (it even cared for soldiers of the Spanish Armada), and the buildings have been tastefully converted in to the art galleries. Mark Bradford was the artist displayed there for this first exhibition, and the grounds have been planted by the most famous garden designer in the world, Piet Oudolf

Summer madness

What a crazy, (not) lazy summer its been this yer. For the obvious reasons, I’ve been catching up on work, and whizzing around the country shooting hotels, gardens, interiors and people… Here is some of the lovely editorial work I have done (many thanks to the magazines for the way they have published them…. I am looking forward to a productive late summer and, dare I say it, autumn! here’s to misty mornings, cooler evenings and fab low angled light, which makes for a good looking image… oh, and some cider apple harvesting ;-)

thanks to VSP interiors, French Brooks Interiors, The Concrete House, and Ambrose Vevers

Work for 25 Beautiful Homes, originally published in Homes and Gardens

Shot for Country Life magazine, summer 2021

Grand Designs Magazine article, shot at the concrete house in Lewes, Sussex

Shot for Period Living magazine, Summer 2021

Many thanks for taking a look, and please do get in touch if you need photography. I am very happy to chat through your ideas, and can give you an upfront quote. I am off to the garden to build a seed bed… I am shooting a book for the wonderful Pimpernel Press… due out in a year or two, but watch this space…

Best Pub Interior?

Hidden on my website amongst all the fabulous interiors I shoot for magazines, designers, hotels and so on, is my favourite interior of all. Down at the bottom of Devon is the Pigs Nose Inn… Just look at that red snug! I shot my local a few years ago but it hasn’t really changed, and best of all it’s back open after this horrendous year. Thats the table where I drink my cider and eat all the crisps in the pub…

The Pigs Nose Inn

Fear not, I haven’t turned in to a red nosed cider-drinking, croc-wearing old git (or have I?), no, I have been working hard of late, shooting for a couple of hotels, and for some interior designers based in London. And also working on a new project about cottage gardens… images below.

I’m looking for beautiful cottage gardens to photograph, so if you know any, let me know…

Thanks to The Pigs Nose Inn, Kitesgrove Design and to Beth Tarling in deepest Cornwall..

Happy Christmas!

A bit early I know, but wow, what a year we have had… we all hope 2021 will be a bit better, let’s toast the end of this mess and hope for better things. Wishing you all some good rest and relaxation… and do try to enjoy yourselves, even if it seems difficult. Things, as they used to say, can only get better… cue the music! love to all, Mark

Cosy fireside Christmas greetings!

Hotel Photography for Swinton Park in Yorkshire

Winter hotel shoots can be challenging (short dark days for a start!) but we have just returned from a fabulous three day stay at Swinton Park hotel, photographing cosy firesides, the new spa, the deer in the parkland and scrumptious afternoon teas. The Hotel is set in 200 acres of parkland near Masham in Yorkshire, and surrounded by lakes and gardens. Guests have access to rivers, reservoirs, moorland, dales, and beautiful countryside bordering the Yorkshire Dales National Park.

Glorious Swinton Park Hotel

Cosy winter warmth at the hotel

The billiard room is the perfect place to relax after a long day tramping through the countryside, and drinks by the fire are watched over by a well adorned local resident (!)

The grand dining rooms of Samuel’s restaurant

The spa is situated in a brand new building and has pools, sauna, treatment rooms, gym and beauty rooms. It sits beautifully in the landscape, with a lovely walled garden alongside and a luxurious ‘Terrace Bar’ just next door.

Chill out in the fabulously appointed new Spa at Swinton Park

Hotel Photography at the Grove Hotel in Hertfordshire

I recently spent three busy days shooting at the Grove Hotel in Hertfordshire (hosts to the Ryder Cup and a very famous current American President!), with Martin Hulbert, interior designer extraordinaire, who has remodelled and designed most of the rooms over the years. The lounges and bar areas were magnificent, and we took time to shoot the conference facilities too. Slightly surreal as it turned out, as the current Covid crisis meant that the whole place was empty… made things easier for our work, but Im sure that now they have reopened, things are a lot busier there! I love the attention to detail in Martins work; the fabrics and wall coverings are all hand painted, the colours are beautifully restrained and furniture all hand picked, or designed and made.

I have also been shooting gardens galore… its high season and the planting is lovely, the days are long and I am making the most of it. I have done features for Country Life, Country Homes and Interiors and various other garden publications. Let me know if you are an editor looking to fill space next year! I have lots of options..

Garden Photography near Winchester

I have also set up and begun selling some of my prints. These are beautifully printed black and white images, of Italy, gardens around the world, corners of Devon, Venetian gondoliers and barrels of cider in atmospheric barns! … ideal for interior designers with walls to fill in hotels or houses… take a look at the page, I have even found a fabulous framer who can finish off the piece to perfection.

Wild flower verges at East Prawle

If you are interested in persuading councils to NOT mow your local roadsides, please do take a look at the Plantlife website and sign their petition!

Late last year, we decided not to mow the verges alongside our small private road where we live. In only our first year of no-mow its been a revelation. The number of wild flowers has increased, and there are plants there that I had never seen before. Usually, the verges of the road are strimmed every couple of weeks, and this process obviously means that many of the natural plants are unable to produce seed. The next stage will be to mow after the seeds have set, in late summer. The result of all this is that verges are brimming with flowers and insects, and (in my opinion) it looks fantastic! Here is a list of some of the species I recorded just this summer…

Bristly Ox Tongue

Field Poppy

Ribwort Plantain

Greater plantain

Curled Dock

Broad leaved dock

Heath Bedstraw

Common Mallow

Wild Carrot

Perennial Sowthistle

Fennel

Greater Knapweed

Yarrow

Rough Chervil

Cats Ear

Red and White Campion

Scarlet Periwinkle

Creeping Cinquefoil

Field Bindweed

Herb Robert

Broomrape

Hairy Tare

Hedge Woundwort

Hedge Mustard

Nipplewort

Red and White Clover

Dandelion

Field Daisy

Birds Foot Trefoil

Small Flowered Cranesbill

Common Vetch

Hop Trefoil

Meadow vetchling 

Trailing tormentil 

Fleabane

Common mint

Common ragwort

Greater willowherb 

Hawkbeard 

Pineapple weed

Great mullein

Field scabious

Yellow rattle 

Hogweed

Spear thistle

Hemp agrimony

Agrimony

Common bent (grass)

Yorkshire fog (grass)

Ox-eye daisy

False oat grass (grass)

Interior photography for Country Living Magazine

Delighted to see this piece in March’s Country Living Magazine featuring the beautifully timeworn Devon home of Patricia Campbell of Applebarn Vintage - it was the sort of place that made me want to put down my camera and settle down for tea and cake by the fire while listening to the hypnotic sound of the ticking clock - zzzzzzz. But, as I’m an interior photographer and there to do a job, that would not have done at all. I always prefer to use natural light when photographing and think it’s particularly effective in such an atmospheric interior. If you know of any houses, old or new, grand or humble, that you think might make an interesting magazine feature, do let me know. Thank you!

Photography in Devon for Country Living magazine

Hotel Photography

I thought I’d write a little bit about hotel photography and why I find it such a satisfying part of my photographic work. I photograph hotels throughout the United Kingdom, Italy and France, Spain and soon India! I started my career as an interiors photographer, adding garden photography soon after. I have always loved gardening and beautiful gardens so it seemed a natural step to photograph them too especially as many of the magazines that I worked for had garden sections too. There’s nothing more inspiring and good for the soul as being out at dawn photographing a sublime garden.

Photography at Chateau Impney

Much of my time is spent photographing flowers and my fascination in photographing all things macro, small and floral, led me in to photographing food. It’s similar in many ways. I use natural light, I go in close and the current trends for fresh clean and unfussy food means that a plate of wonderfully prepared food can look much like a plate of flowers!

Barnsley House Hotel

So, in the early days, as I was asked to photograph a hotel in the Cotswolds. In fact it was Barnsley House, a fabulously designed place, done by one of my now regular interior photography clients Martin Hulbert Design!. It was also the home of legendary garden guru Rosemary Verey, mentor of Prince Charles. I soon realised that photographing hotels is a combination of my favourite bits of my job, the interiors, gardens, food and lifestyle.

Photography at Il Borro, Tuscany

A lot can be accomplished during a day at the hotel, especially if you are well organised. We can do 4-5 bedrooms, including bathrooms if required, some living areas, some food and a selection of other important areas ( maybe the spa? the restaurant, or even maybe the staff?) In an ideal world I would do two days as It gives me the chance to shoot over the evening, or early morning as well, and in a large hotel, it is surprising how long it can take navigating around the rooms as they become available! However, I am sometimes asked for just a half day, perhaps just to showcase the new menu, or a couple of new rooms recently decorated.

Photography at Borgo Pignano, Tuscany

Please do get in touch to discuss, and please take a look at this guide to hotel photography, which can give you an idea about how the day of the shoot progresses. Obviously, I am flexible, I can fit in with the rooms becoming available, and I am quick and tidy. Call me or email to discuss. Thanks for reading!

Please do contact me if you would like me to send you a free printed portfolio of my hotel photography

And while you are here, perhaps I could ask you to head over to my revamped Facebook Page and give me a like? many thanks.

Venice, 'La Serenissima', photography in most beautiful city in the world

I have been countless times to Venice and have taken countless photographs. These two are part of a collection I did back in May of this year (its that time of year when I finally go through un commissioned images for picture libraries), and these two struck me as rather nice. Its hard to take a bad picture in Venice, but every single view must have been done before… occasionally its possible though to find something satisfying. Italy is a favourite place for me and I regularly work there, shooting hotels and houses, and right now, as the weather closes in again in the UK (and with an ominous election just around the corner!), I feel like being there right now! If you’d like to see more of my Venice images, here’s a small selection of the many on my stock library Alamy …