Photographer Chantel King

It’s 11am on a Thursday and the doorbell rings just as photographer Chantel King sits down to have her interview with me at her beautiful home in Archway in London. As she goes to get the door, it gives me time to soak in the colourful furnishings, squish my feet into the patterned rug beneath my feet and drink the tea she’s made for me.

Once Chantel comes back up after getting her delivery I ask her if she’s ready before pressing record, she nods and sits back comfortably wearing an oversized zebra print jumper and jeans and I delve right in. Can anyone take a photograph? She laughs before gathering her thoughts and answering….Anyone can take a photo, but not everyone can capture an image. It’s a sharp succinct answer but I’m interested to know more so ask her to elaborate. The term that’s often used in Photography ‘is having an eye’ that could mean a mixture of things, from composition being able to frame an image within the shot- so the way you start an image and end it. People have mobiles so they can snap away, but its without thought generally, one thing that really annoys me is when people cut off the feet or they take it from the middle of the forehead, and it doesn’t bother them, but it’s such a pet hate of mine. For many artist’s you’re thinking about the image, the emotion, the mood you’re trying to convey, so yeah there are many elements.

I’ve collected almost every piece of work my sister has done throughout the years, but I was as surprised as anyone when she went on to do photography I wonder is it’s something that she always wanted to do from a young age. Definitely not, I’ve been asked this before and it’s a really strange one because I think many people say from the moment they picked up a camera they were hooked, but from my experience mum would drag us around taking pictures that I never wanted to take, and I hated it. We both begin to laugh at the memory… but I also thought I couldn’t do it, I never saw any black photographers much less to female ones, I didn’t even think it was an option. Once I finished secondary school I went on to do business studies, so I could work in an office because that’s what I thought people did, they got to a certain age went and got a good job with a briefcase and suit sort of thing and y’know I thought that was life after school. I didn’t think that life could have such creative possibilities.

You have photographed for the Guardian newspaper, Stylist magazine, Grazia and many more can you explain a bit about the type of photography you do? My main focus is beauty, I also do portraiture mostly of celebrities or people in the public eye. When I’m shooting beauty I like to be fairly close to my subjects I have a 50mm lens which allows me to do that and I normally shoot at a lower angle so the subject looks more heroic in the shot, a lot of people like to shoot further away, but for me to have such distance loses connection.

Just as Chantel takes a sip of her tea I want to hear what about the work that gets her excited, is it the light, shade, the colour…I’m always drawn to the colour I just think it’s so fun, whether it’s in the make-up, or the background you can do so much with it. It doesn’t make you feel nervous? When I first started it was a little scary using colour, I was told by many other photographers things like if you do a bold lip avoid a bold eye, it was kind of the rule of thumb and I did that at the beginning. But I remember at one point I had this car crash of a shoot when everyone wanted to do their own thing and it was a mess! But later on in my career, when I got to work with really good collaborators from make-up to hair stylists who knew how to be bold but cohesive, that’s when I stopped being scared and wanted to challenge the use of colour more.

With a period of growth obviously propelling Chantel forward, I wonder if breaking away from rules and conventions is something that interests her. Oh god there have been many revelations along the way and confidence can certainly grow from that, people can be critical over something that’s different from that clean classic beauty image, so every so often I do like to push those boundaries. Great to hear that rebel spirit is alive and well, does that mean there’s no prep before a shoot what’s the starting point. No, I do prep definitely, but I try not to over prep otherwise it takes a bit of the magic away, primarily I like to think about the mood I want to convey; the worse thing about not prepping is that no one knows what’s going on, you can lose trust as the lead photographer which could be a loss of an opportunity when you could’ve used that time to create something special.

How closely do you and your team follow the brief? It depends if its my own brief I have quite a collaborative method but if its external I don’t always get to choose my team, regardless you still have to know how to deliver quality results. Ever the consummate professional I can see that Chantel demands a lot from her photographs to meet standards no matter what the brief is or who is on the job, I wonder if she works with reoccurring concepts or if that wheel of ideas is forever changing….It depends, I’m still building my portfolio and as we discussed I’m not shy when it comes to using colour so that’s one aspect, but I also enjoy photographing people with different backgrounds and body shapes. One thing I realised when I started was that there wasn’t enough diversity within my work and that was something I actively wanted to change, having said that I am also aware that I may be the ‘go to girl’ to photograph only the black and brown model because of my skin colour -which I’m not opposed to, but my book shows a range of diverse faces. I’m about to jump in with my next question when I can see Chantel is still mulling over the question Sorry, I was in a meeting just the other day she continues and the art director looking at my portfolio told me she was impressed by the range of skin tones I’d showcased, she said she was still surprised how many photographers still have a lack of diversity in their portfolio.

We’ve heard throughout the years that people of colour do not sell magazines, are things changing in the world of photography when it comes to inclusion or is it just lip service? Chantel shifts in her seat and takes a breath and I can totally understand the discomfort, it’s such a tiring and frustrating question for one main reason, it still has to be asked. I’ve been in the industry for over 12 years so I’ve definitely seen a progression, when I first started you’d rarely see a black model on the cover except for maybe the Naomi Campbells of this world, so they’d have their one high profile model y’know, and even on shoots before which wasn’t that long ago when I was assisting I’ve been in situations where the magazine decided they wouldn’t use a black model because they used a model with a darker hue for the previous issue, but obviously if it were a white model that had been photographed that question would never have come up in conversation.

So to answer your question yes there have been changes but there’s still a long way to go, but I’m looking through magazines, reading books and there has been a shift in seeing more of not just black models, but Asian, Indian, non-able bodied, deaf, LGBTQI, curvy models and many others on our screens and in our literature and it’s fantastic.

As her face lights up at the prospect of change I cease the moment to ask her that well-heeled question about her inspirations. The photographer who made a big impression on me was Tim Walker his work is generally theatrical and jumps off the page at you. I remember seeing his stuff at the time I’d graduated and he was like everywhere, but I was completely magnetised by his style which for me not everyone was doing at the time. It’s when I realised you can push the boundaries and explore what’s beyond, you could be different.

What does a day on shoot day look like when you’re on set with Chantel King…It’s a lot of running around she laughs pushing her glasses up on the bridge of her nose. I like to be in control but I always relax when I know I have a great team, I set up before anyone gets there put some music on, and set the mood. We both do an impromptu shoulder jiggle at the word ‘mood’, then double over laughing at our sister vibes. I make sure everyone has breakfast, I know I’m like mum because it’s a long day and sometimes people forget the simple things. Then I gather the assisting team together to make sure they know what I want for the lighting, next I’ll bring the glam crew together to go through the ideas, introduce myself to the model[s] who are sometimes surprised that it’s me I ask why… Well they’re not usually expecting a black female photographer to be heading the shoot, but its all met with love and smiles, and its sometimes funnily enough what gets people more amped which is sweet.

All that’s left is for me to go out there to get the best possible shots I can.

Thanks sis love ya

By Sabrina Bramble