Time travelling portraits for Birdsong

I travelled back over a century for the inspiration to create a portrait & key art campaign for the UK tour of WW1 drama Birdsong.

Choosing the Medium

Over several shoots this year, I was commissioned by friends Original Theatre to shoot portraiture & key art for their 30th anniversary production of Birdsong, adapted from the Sebastian Faulkes novel, out on tour now.

Originally, back in early 2024, with only Eastenders actor Max Bowden cast as the engineer/sapper, the brief was simply ‘press shots’.

So, I took my cue from D C Harries’ First World War military portraits, the striking archive of a Welsh photographer who shot the plate camera images that many soldiers had taken before they left for combat. 

We didn’t have the time or capacity to create actual collodion wet plate images – basically the mottled, dreamy ‘olde worlde’ images most people probably think of when they imagine old photographs- so I crafted a multi-light set up that featured quite hard, toppy lighting, with a leafy green backdrop, gel-lit to appear the blue-green-yellow colours of early dawn.

I then shot Max on a medium format Fuji camera at very shallow depth of field, and through a glass prism to capture some of the distortions and irregularities that are characteristic of wet plate images.

We aimed for the sense he had stepped out from the tunnels to take brief respite from heat and murk, and with Max bringing the detail and emotion, I shot away.

Then it was over to ace retoucher Matt Brewin to add some of the grain/scratches/ colour to take the wet plate image concept further. Swipe to see the ‘off-camera’ and ‘edit’ versions. We did get as much in camera as we could.

Love in a Time of War

Later, in summer 2024, we set up a second shoot with leads Charlie Russell and James Esler, playing Isabelle and Stephen.

The brief now was character shots to match the original set up, but also the creation of potential key art imagery centred on the romance between the two.

Kudos to Charlie and James for really committing to the process and finding these delicate, truthful poses, that could really have smacked of cliche otherwise.

We obviously did a good job between us, as the images did become part of key art for the tour, beautifully worked into their title treatment by BOB KING Creative.

Tech & Crew

Shot on Fujifilm UK gfx 100 s and Profoto d2s.

Client: Original

Styling: Original team

Makeup, hair and ‘mud’ : Becca Lymbourides

Art Direction: Michael Wharley

Assistant: Ruben Davies

Retouch: Matt Brewin