Studio Tour

Celebrating 30 years in Portrait Photography

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Andy Brown

My love of photography began when I was a child. My Father gave me my first camera; a secondhand battered 126 camera that you could barely see through and had travelled with him through the Far East during his time in the Army. I was hooked and my future career was determined by that little camera and my love of the pictures I took. That very camera is still displayed pride of place in the studio as it was what started my lifelong love of photography.

After leaving school I went to college for two years to study Photography and I couldn't wait to set up my own studio after leaving college in 1988. At first I photographed whatever work came along but mostly weddings and some press work, but my heart has always been in photographing people, interacting with them and seeing their personality and characters shine through in the pictures.

In 1997 I finally opened my first high street studio and I've never looked back. Our new studio on the Quayside in Newcastle is the culmination of years of planning experience and designing the perfect space to create the images I know people will want to hang in their homes.

I also love teaching photography and have trained thousands of amateur photographers through Photobarn Photographic Training which has been based in Alnwick in Northumberland for the last 8 years but is moving to the new studio as well. I especally love teaching people about the profession of photography. It has always served me so well and I believe the more professional photographers there are the bigger the profession will become. Knowledge is there to be shared and this has always been the ethos of Photobarn.

I, like many of you reading this, have a busy life working in my business that I am passionate about and I also have a young family (four kids, a wife, seven cats and a dog!), so I understand how easily life passes you by and the kids just keep growing up. It seems only two minutes since my eldest was a newborn baby and now he is nearly 13. I never underestimate how important portrait photographs are they are what we look back on in the future and really do help us create the family history that is so important. Pictures are a vital part of our family story and so often nowadays we don't do anything with them except put them on a phone or tablet. Hanging a portrait inside your house really does turn it into a home. That's why I'm so passionate about what I do: family is everything and the pictures we create at the studio help people to create their family memories.