Member Article

Talented Yorkshire photographer snaps up national photographic award

A talented Yorkshire photographer has won the prestigious Guild of Photographers Documentary wedding Image of the Year 2014 award, beating thousands of other entrants across the competition.

Suzy Mitchell, whose studio is at the foot of Ilkley Moor, said: “I was elated to have my image chosen as the Documentary Wedding Image of the Year and to put Yorkshire on the map as we have some amazing opportunities for outdoor photography across our beautiful county, including Bolton Abbey where the winning image was taken.”

Suzy was born in Sheffield and practised as a solicitor, before studying photography at college in Leeds and setting up Suzy Mitchell Photography ten years ago.

Looking back on the past decade, Suzy said: “Changing paths completely from the legal world to becoming an entrepreneur with a creative business was an exciting, if somewhat daunting, step but one which I’ve never regretted. I’m very much a people person and love the relationships I’m able to build with my clients.”

Having created a hugely successful portrait business in and around Yorkshire, specialising in children’s fine art portraiture shot almost entirely on location, Suzy is now extending her range to teenagers and young adults.

She explained: “One of my greatest pleasures over the past 10 years has been watching the families I have photographed grow up. I’ve realised that many of the tots I’d photographed when starting out are now in their teens and heading towards independence, including my own daughter Helena and her friends.”

“Finishing GCSEs or A levels, leaving home, going to university, embarking on a gap year, turning 16 or 18 are key events to celebrate and parents often forget that these stages in their children’s lives are as important to record as those when they were very young.

“It is all too easy to let the time slip by and then when you look back you see that you have very few or no beautiful images of your children in their teens but yet those years are so interesting and equally important to record”.

Suzy, who is married to Andrew, a barrister in Leeds, believes it is vital to encourage her clients to become involved in the photographic process.

“I tell clients to think carefully about how their finished pictures will look; I love art, enjoy visiting galleries and draw inspiration from artwork as well as editorial and magazine photography.

“Whilst endeavouring always to capture my subjects’ personalities, my aim is to combine these natural shots with a degree of artistic interpretation so there is a fine art feel to the finished image and this is the Suzy Mitchell style.

“I feel honoured to be able to capture a family’s story in a way that can be treasured, appreciated and handed down the generations,” she added.

To see her work visit www.suzy-mitchell.com.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Robert Beaumont .