Biography
Helen Burrows has been a freelance photographer and sometime writer for eight years. Her interest in photography blossomed as a teenager after winning a photographic competition at the age of sixteen. She read Politics Philosophy and Economics at New College, Oxford, and took a one year post graduate diploma in photography at Central St Martins College of Art and Design. Her work was published by Time Out whilst still a student at St Martins and she was commissioned by DJ magazine immediately after graduation.
Since 2001 Helen has been commissioned in a wide range of areas, from reportage to music to fashion, increasingly coming to specialise in portraits and art projects. Her work has recently been published by French fashion and style magazine Mixte. She travelled to Sri Lanka in November 2005 to photograph Tsunami projects for Help Age International and Mumbai in April 2006 to photograph Tim Supple's lauded Indian Midsummer Night's Dream. From 2001 - 2004 she was a regular contributor to music magazines M8, DJ, I-DJ and Mixmag, chronicaling the changing 00's London club scene. It was during this time that she began to experiment with shutter speeds and capturing trails of shape in space.
Movement project:
A commission from the Royal Opera House in 2003 to photograph two new Cathy Marston Ballets provided an opportunity to photograph dancers. With dance a long held passion Helen spent as much time in rehearsal as possible, shooting personal images that explored the relationship between movement, shape, space and emotion. These were first shown as part of the Princes Trust Free Range show at the Truman Brewery in 2004. Returning to photograph a further Marston work, Ghosts, in 2005, Helen was invited to show with Christoph Grothgar in a joint exhibition, Don't Move I Move at the Tapestry Gallery, Soho in January 2006.
With great responses and good sales from Don't Move I Move Helen began work on a second series that she'd long imagined. Arts Council funding was approved in early 2007 and this second series debuted as the solo show Skin on Skin in July 2007. Images from the exhibition won trhe series catergory of the Assocation of Photographers Assistant Awards in 2008. Helen is currently researching the third series in this project exploring boxing, that she plans to show in 2010.
Portraiture:
Helen's commissioned work is mainly editorial and commercial portraiture, including business portraits for the media, legal and consultancy sectors. She recently photographed music producer Shux and Lasse from The Rakes. She is working on an ongoing portrait project, 'Box of Dreamers' photographing new and emerging artists in London.
