Meet the YPA interviewees
Timothy Allen was born in Tonbridge in the South East of England in 1971. At 22, after graduating from Leeds University with a BSc Zoology he left the UK and spent 3 years traveling around Indonesia which was the catalyst that sparked his passion for photography. In the nineties, after beginning a part-time diploma in photography, Timothy joined an aid convoy to Bosnia in order to shoot his first year reportage project. Six months later he had dropped out of college, moved to London and begun working for the Sunday Telegraph, later inspiring commissions from all the British broadsheet publications and finally, a 6 year position at The Independent working predominantly on features and portraits. Timothy joined Axiom Photographic Agency in 2002 leading him to cover a dynamic and broad spectrum of global stories with subjects ranging from the civil war in the remote Spice Islands of far eastern Indonesia, to the intriguing subculture of The World Taxidermy Championships in Springfield, Illinois.
In recent years, the focus of his work has turned to our planet's remaining indigenous societies and he currently devotes his time to documenting the diversity of humanity's cultural heritage. His multi award winning documentaries have taken him to every corner of the globe, from 19 000 ft up in the Himalayas to 40 metres beneath the South China Sea as well as projects within communities in the Arctic, tropical rainforest and remote desert locations.
For his latest body of work, Timothy spent almost 2 years shadowing BBC film crews during the production of the landmark television series Human Planet. The weekly blog he wrote documenting his experiences during that incredible journey can be found here.
Interview with Timothy Allen on "Last Call with Carson Daly".
Justin Sutcliffe’s love of photography started at the age of six. Entrusted with his father’s old rangefinder camera and a single roll of colour slide film for a day-trip to Calais with his grandparents, he was instantly dazzled by the magic of capturing the world around him. A decade of pictures later he received his first SLR camera as a birthday gift and subsequently built a small darkroom in the attic of the family home in order to pursue his photography.
His entry to the profession came in 1987 when he landed the job of trainee photographer at the Western Gazette in Yeovil. After getting a good grounding in the regional press he moved in late 1989 to South West News Service, a Bristol-based agency serving the national newspapers and magazines.
The high-pressure news environment led to a slew of front-page pictures, magazine spreads and two nominations that year in the "British Press Photographer of the Year Awards": Best Newcomer and Best Environmental Picture, the latter of which he won.
Using the awards as a springboard he moved to New York in 1991 and set up as a freelance photographer, soon forming a small agency concentrating on covering US issues and news events for the UK and European publications including the fall of Haiti and the Oklahoma bombing.
Returning to the UK just before the Millennium he became a regular contributor to The Sunday Telegraph, travelling widely on assignment for them including to the Middle-East, Africa, and Central Asia.
His photographic coverage of the 2002 hostage siege in a Moscow theatre became the defining images of the tragedy and won several awards including a highly prestigious "World Press Photo" as well as Best Photo Essay in the British Picture Editor’s Awards.
Justin continues to cover issues and news around the world, in particular he has spend time in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban in 2001. His work appears occasionally in the Sunday Times and he is a regular contributor to the Independent on Sunday. His photographs have appeared in several books including "Five Thousand Days", "Requiem for the Heartland" and "Photo 19". Additionally he produced the photographic illustrations for two children’s books both of which were accepted into the library of congress as educational texts.
He currently lives in Whitstable with his wife and son and enjoys sailing and cycling when not behind a camera.
Abbie Trayler-Smith is a documentary and portrait photographer whose work draws primarily on an emotional response and engagement with her subject. Her work embraces the personal and private aspects of people’s lives and is driven by a desire to get under the skin and cut straight to the heart of the issues she chooses to explore.
Abbie grew up in South Wales, studied Law at Kings College, London and now spends her time living and working in London and Devon. After an initial period with the Telegraph as a photo-journalist she now travels globally to complete assignments for a large variety of clients including Time Magazine, GEO, Marie Claire, Tatler, The New Review, The Independent on Sunday, Guardian Weekend, Oxfam, UNICEF and BBC Worldwide. She has covered major events such as the Iraq war, the Darfur crisis and the Asian tsunami as well as spending time on long-term projects in the UK. Her major project on the lives of asylum seekers in the UK, 'Still Human, Still Here' was exhibited at HOST Gallery, London, in 2009 with the accompanying multi-media film receiving critical acclaim and winning both The Nikon Award 2009 and The PPY Best Multimedia Piece 2009. In 2010 she won 4th prize in the prestigious Taylor Wessing Prize exhibited at The National Portrait Gallery for her portrait of Chelsea from the series Childhood Obesity, an ongoing personal project.
She joined Panos Pictures in 2007 and became a member of Panos Profile in 2010.
John Wright is one of the UK's leading fashion, portrait and advertising photographers. Winner of an unprecedented 7 awards in this year's Prix De Paris, Europe's largest photographic competition, and holder of the 2010 Magazine Cover of The Year award John is listed by Luerzer's Archive as one of the world's Top 200 Advertising Photographers.
John's career has been varied; from his first job as an assistant to Royal paparazzi to running his own photographic news agency and working as picture editor on three of the UK's leading national newspapers. Reportage, news, features, celebrity, fashion and advertising photography are just some of the areas he has worked.
Using digital techniques to create unique images, John is constantly exploring new methods in execution and post shoot manipulation to keep his photography as striking as possible. His work covers a diverse number of styles including cool visuals for the music industry, theatrically entertaining TV images, sophisticated fashion and probing editorial portraiture. His diversity is reflected in his client base which includes GQ, Marie Claire, Sony Music, Warner Music, Channel 4, the BBC as well as leading PR and advertising agencies. From his East London studio, John employs a full time production team who handle his marketing, production and syndication.
