Girl Allowed: Underwordly Nicola Roberts Portrait Gets Awards Billing
Shortlisted in the Spotlight Awards: Portraiture & Celebrity Photography category for a moody portrait of Girls Aloud star Nicola Roberts.
The Sound of the Underworld
I’ve been working with agency AKA on the key art & editorial photography for smash-hit musical Hadestown for a few years now, so when the producers brought in Girls Aloud singer Nicola Roberts to play Queen of the Underworld Persephone in summer 2025, I was on hand to shoot moody portraits to grab press coverage.
Haze-Free Hades
We shot in the beautiful (& very dark) environs of Jack Solomon’s Jazz Bar – perfect for the vibe of the show, but with some very stringent rules against pumping in haze. So, all the in-camera atmosphere & drama came from coloured gels, lens flare & using some clever Prism Lens FX handheld prisms.
Nicola brought the posing elan of an experienced pro, with beautiful styling from the team & ace retoucher Matt Brewin gave the imagery polish in post.
In the Spotlight (Awards)
Fast-forward to Summer 2026 and the shot above is one of 10 images shortlisted in the Spotlight Awards: Portraiture & Celebrity Photography category, by judges including:
- Nigel Barklie, Freelance Picture Editor, The Times (UK)
- Craig Greenwood, Executive Creative Director, Publicis Production (UK)
- Nana Agyeman, Head of Pictures and Video, WSGN (UK)
- Tristan Hopkins, Brand Picture Director, Radio Times, Immediate Media (UK)
- Joanne Banks, Photo Editor, The Economist (UK)
- Alex Collares, Associate Creative Director, VML New York (USA)
- Arlene Fernandez, Creative Producer, Global Advertising, Unilever (USA)
- Axel Didon, Global Creative Director, EMEA, APAC, USA & LATAM, Ogilvy (Unilever) (Singapore)
Win or not, it’s lovely to be in the mix amongst some truly stunning images.
You can check our the full shortlist here: https://www.productionparadise.com/spotlight-awards/shortlist/15/portraiture-celebrity/
