Fifteen years ago, we formalised this passion by launching Style:Noir. At the time, it was a bold rebrand of the classic "low-key" portrait - black tops, deep shadows, and a focus on the face and shoulders. It was designed to be a sophisticated alternative to the bright, high-key family photography that was popular at the time. Over the last decade and a half, Style:Noir has become a cornerstone of our studio, and portraits from this series now hang on countless walls across West Yorkshire. It has proven itself as a style that doesn't date; a portrait taken in 2011 looks just as contemporary today.
But a signature style must eventually evolve.
We are now taking the Noir aesthetic into a more cinematic, structural territory. By moving the focus to the side profile and utilizing a more aggressive, directional lighting setup, we are able to define the unique contours of the human face with sculptural precision.
The beauty of this new approach lies in its versatility. It allows us to create powerful individual studies, but also to montage several family and group images together. By capturing each person in profile and then carefully blending those silhouettes into a single composition, we create a unified family portrait that is as much a piece of modern art as it is a photograph.
This is the next chapter for Style:Noir - moving from the classic head-and-shoulders portrait to a dramatic, silhouette-based collection that celebrates the profile and the bond of the family group.
