Steve Reeves

Steve’s background…

“I love photographs of people more than anything. My full time job is a film director. I normally do commercials but have done a movie and several short films too. I love working with actors. I love getting great performances more than anything and always try in my film-making to get across some kind of emotion that will resonate with the people watching. I started our as a writer so I’m not actually a particularly visual person. A beautiful image doesn’t interest me as much as a poignant, funny or sad moment. To me, it’s all about people.

I took up photography about 3 years ago. Initially by taking candid streets shots around South London (where I live) and Soho (where I work). I’ve recently got into street portraits combined with interviews with the people that I photograph. The act of taking a shot of complete strangers and then chatting to them afterwards has had quite a profound effect on me. It’s made me a lot less cynical as I’ve got to see just how friendly, open-minded and decent the average person on the street is. The media is so negative and divides us all by pointing out our differences, but chatting to strangers has made me see that no matter where in the world a person comes from, people are all pretty much the same.

My passion, for as long as I can remember, has been to tell stories. I play with all sorts of mediums to do this, painting, drawing, writing, film making. Film making is where I find myself now but photography is still the medium I enjoy the most. It just you, a camera of some kind, your eye and instincts. For me photographs have always been about finding a connection to what's around me. It helps me understand my place in the world and hopefully it sometimes helps others too.”

Steve’s inspiration…

“Below are 3 of my favourite photographers. None of them do what would be considered ‘beautiful work’.

I love the work of Elliot Erwitt. He finds the humour in ordinary life. His observations are wonderful. He seems to notice the extraordinary amongst ordinary life. I can only imagine how many miles he must have walked and how many shots he must have taken to have captured so many unique and beautifully observed moments.

Of course I also Love Martin Parr. His work is ace. It’s just so British. Even when he shots abroad his work feels so British to me. Perhaps it’s the subtle humour, perhaps it’s just the way he looks at life but all his shots resonate with me. I feel that I know all the situations that he photographs which I find quite comforting in a strange kind of way. I saw his exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in 2019 and it was just amazing. He really gets under the skin of everyday life.

I love the work of Nan Goldin. Her shots are incredibly personal and unflinching. It’s the brutal honesty of her shots that appeals to me. She just shows the human condition in its rawest form. It’s never crossed my mind to photograph the people I know or my family apart from when I do personal snaps. That’s all that Nan Goldin does and thanks to having friends and relatives that are a lot more interesting than mine, she does it brilliantly.”