Biographies
DAVID JAMES www.djphotoinc.com
TERRY O’NEILL www.terryo.co.uk
DAVID SUCHET
JOSE AZEL www.joseazel.com
Born in Birmingham, England, David James moved to a village in Hertfordshire, north of London,
aged 4. An MGM film crew were shooting outside the village school and David (age 9) knew at that
moment that he wanted to be a photographer in the film industry.
At age 16 he joined the Stills Department at MGM Studios (UK) working in the lab as an assistant
to many different photographers. The head portrait photographer, Dave Boulton, became his mentor
and arranged for David to go out to Israel/Cyprus as a printer on Preminger directed Exodus. This
lead to other jobs and once again it was his mentor, Dave Boulton ,who gave him his break into
shooting stills by getting him his first set job, on a Ken Annakin comedy. More films followed quickly
including Bunny Lake Is Missing, reuniting David with director Otto Preminger….of whom he was
initially terrified; the unit publicist sent the first set of David's stills to Preminger and the director
promptly tore them up . A friend of Preminger's on the set persuaded David to resubmit the same
photos in a much larger format, leading the director to put his arm around David and tell him, "these stills will be noticed….it is
all about showmanship." Since that moment David has chosen a limited collection of his personal stills "Selects" on every
project and always presents them in large format prints to the filmmakers.
David went on to cover movies such as Women In Love, Fiddler on the Roof, his first war movie was as aerial stills
photographer on Battle of Britain. The genres of Musicals and War are his favourites and also have resulted in some of his
most well-known work including Dogs of War, Saving Private Ryan, Schindler's List, and the TV mini- series Band of Brothers
and The Pacific. Saving Private Ryan was an opportunity for David to honour the work of his "hero", Robert Capa and to
virtually become a war photographer..without risking his life. The latter 4 films form part of his 10 collaborations with Steven
Spielberg that began with Schindler's List and continues later this year with Spielberg's next project Lincoln. Musicals include
Jesus Christ Superstar, Chicago, Shall We Dance, Hairspray and Nine, Dreamgirls..in which he had his one and only
credited acting role…. as a photographer and Rock of Ages teaming him up again with Tom Cruise.
Most of the films that David worked on in the UK were American productions, and when the British industry contracted and
diminished in the 1980s, he decided to relocate with his wife and 2 daughters, to Southern California. Before leaving the UK
David had an assignment for Special Photography on Ridley Scotts Legend..his first opportunity to work with Tom Cruise.
Since moving Stateside, David has worked with Tom on 6 films including MI-Ghost Protocol. Moving to USA also coincided
with huge changes in still photography and he enthusiastically embraced the challenges of digital photography while continuing
to study the ever evolving and exciting world of movie stills.
David has covered many TV mini-series and TV movies, also for the past 2 years having had the privilege of shooting the
Academy Awards behind the scenes, with exclusive access to the green room.
There are more than a dozen books that feature David's stills photography starting with Jesus Christ Superstar, including
Memoirs of a Geisha, Last Samurai, Superman Returns and the most recent- also the one of which he is most proud - the
book that he both wrote and photographed for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
David's work has featured in several international exhibitions and he has won many awards and accolades, including the
2006 ICG/Publicists Guild Award for Excellence in Still Photography and the SOC Lifetime Achievement Award. His stills have
been published in magazines and newspapers around the globe and are included in the archives of the Academy's Margaret
Herrick Library, and the Professional Photographers of America.
A source of great pride is that both his daughters have followed him and pursued careers in the film industry. (Deya is a senior
publicist at Warner Bros, Chia works for the SVP of Physical Production at Paramount) both have worked with and on projects
involving their father as the stills photographer.
David's other enduring passion, apart from his family and photography is fly-fishing; perhaps 2012 will bring the trifecta of a
fishing trip with his family and his beloved Leica camera.
Terry O'Neill is one of the world's most accomplished and collected photographers whose work
hangs in national galleries and private collections worldwide.
He has produced covers for Time, Newsweek, Stern, Paris Match, The Sunday Times Magazine,
Vanity Fair and many others for over six decades. He has been photographing presidents, prime
ministers, rock stars, Oscar winners and the British Royal Family since he first picked up a camera
in 1958.
His work has delivered iconic movie posters, album covers and fashion plates for the world's top
designers and he has discovered supermodels such as Jodie Kidd.
For more than 50 years his camera has chronicled the frontline of fame, in particular the emerging
rock stars and icons of the 60s. He photographed The Beatles and The Rolling Stones when they were still struggling young
bands seeking a recording contract in London's clubs and pubs. O'Neill worked closely too with Frank Sinatra over 20 years,
being granted access to the chairman back stage and in private.
A former jazz drummer, O'Neill pioneered backstage reportage photography with the likes of Sinatra, Bowie, Elton John, The
Stones, The Who, Eric Clapton, Chuck Berry and many others, capturing the stars up close and personal in the days when
the relationship between photographer and subject was unfettered by image-conscious marketing and brand managers.
O'Neill was with Sharon Tate shopping for baby clothes days before she was murdered by the Manson gang - and narrowly
escaped death himself when, feeling unwell, he excused himself from the party at the Tate mansion just two hours before it
started.
Formerly married to Faye Dunaway, his photograph of her in Beverley Hills, the morning after she won her Best Actress Oscar
for Network, has been nominated as the most iconic Hollywood shot of all time.
Now in his 70s, O'Neill continues to work, most recently completing a week long assignment photographing Nelson Mandela
behind closed doors for an intimate portrait of the statesman. He remains the photographer of choice for many household
names today, such as Simon Cowell, and Gordon Ramsey, and has recently been awarded The Royal Photographic Society's
Centenary medal in recognition of his contribution to the art of photography.
David is an associate artist and governor of the RSC, member of the Fight Directors Association of
Great Britain, Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and of Chichester University and Doctor of Letter
of the University of Kent. He was awarded an CBE for services to drama in the Queen's New Year's
Honours 2011.
Born in Paddington, the son of an eminent Harley Street surgeon and one of three brothers, he
was educated at Wellington School, Somerset, where he was a notable sportsman, representing
the school at tennis, cricket and rugby, the game he later went on to play for Richmond Rugby Club.
At the age of seventeen David joined the National Youth Theatre, was bitten by the acting bug and
was successfully accepted at London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) in 1966. On
leaving LAMDA he played leading roles at Gateway Theatre in Chester including the youngest ever
Shylock in the professional theatre at the age of 24. After Chester his career continued to blossom
at major repertory companies including Liverpool, Worthing, Birmingham, Chester, Exeter and the
Edinburgh Festival.
In 1973 David joined the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) where he remained on and off until 1986. His many celebrated
roles with the RSC include Achilles in Troilus and Cressida, Caliban in The Tempest, Mercurio and Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet,
Orlando in As You Like It, and Iago in Othello. The Guardian said of his extraordinary performance in The Merchant of Venice,
"David Suchet's Shylock is easily the best since Olivier".
Both in TV and Theatre David has won many awards most recently an Olivier Award and Critics' Circle Award for Joe Keller in
All My Sons, an International Award for Robert Maxwell in Maxwell, Royal Television Society for Melmotte in The Way we Live
Now, Variety Club of Great Britain Award for Salieri in Amadeus and Critics' Circle Award for George in Who's Afraid of Virginia
Woolf.
David's great love of the theatre has seen him appear in many West End productions and there is a huge list of his roles. Major
roles are as The Professor in Oleanna, Timon in Timon of Athens, Jo Green in Separation George in Who’s Afraid of Virginia
Woolf, Antonio Salieri in Amadeus, all of which were nominated for Olivier awards. Salieri was to become a huge part of David’s
life for nearly two years, after his triumphant West End opening, as he opened the show in both Los Angles and finally for six
critically acclaimed months at The Music Box Theatre, Broadway where he was delighted to receive a Tony nomination.
Following these in 2004 he played Gregor Antonescu in Terence Rattigan’s Man and Boy. Playing Cardinal Benelli in The Last
Confession by a new author Roger Crane David won Best Actor by the Variety Club of Great Britain. During 2010 he played the
role of Joe Keller in Arthur Miller's play All My Sons at the Apollo Theatre in London's West End. After forty years in the theatre,
David considers this role to be his most enjoyable and best acclaimed role by the critics and public alike. However, in April 2012
David opened in Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night which has once again received amazingly good reviews and
promises to be another of David theatrical triumphs.
In TV, David is known worldwide for his definitive portrayal of Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot. The first story was filmed in 1989
and this year, 2012, will see the last of the Poirot stories being filmed and David is very proud to be completing the canon. His
first major TV role was Edward Teller in the BBC’s Oppenheimer. Since then he has become known for his range of superb
characterisations in the TV leading roles - Freud in The Life of Freud, Blott in Blott on the Landscape, Baron Stockmar in
Victoria and Albert, August Melmotte in The Way We Live Now, Cardinal Wolsey in Henry VIII, Robert Maxwell in Maxwell,
Richter Gilt in the film of Terry Pratchett's novel Going Postal. His most recent TV appearance was as Jaggers in Great
Expectations.
2008 David featured in the popular TV series Who Do You Think You Are where his family history on both sides of the family
were traced. It was an extraordinary programme and it touched so many peoples lives resulting in sackfulls of mail.
David's film career has been incredibly busy starring in Executive Decision with Kurt Russell, A Perfect Murder with Michael
Douglas and notably the independent film Sunday which won the best film award at the Sundance Film Festival. In 2002 in the
United States he made filming Live From Baghdad, The In-Laws (with Michael Douglas) and Foolproof.
Although there is very little spare time, David is spearheading the fundraising campaign to further restore Wilton’s Music Hall
in the East of London which David sees as an extremely worthwhile project to retain the original appearance of this wonderful
old building.
David has a great interest in the Arts and is proud to be associated with many of his former employers. In 2005 he became
a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Other posts held include director member of the Board of LAMDA and Governor of the
Royal Shakespeare Company.
He also enjoys music. He was a jazz drummer in the 60s but now prefers the quieter tones of the clarinet. David is also a
nature lover and a very keen ornithologist.
One of his great loves is the canals and waterways of Great Britain together with a great love of the River Thames. He supports
them and their restoration and he is connected with and holds official titles with many waterways and River Thames
organisations. In 2009 He was given membership of the Lightermen and Watermen's Livery Company after given the honour of
becoming a Freeman of the City of London.
As founder of Aurora Photos and Novus Select, Azel has overseen the start-up and operations of
both ventures. Novus Select does visual commissioned work in the form of photography and
multimedia for corporate clients as well as editorial publications. At it's heart Novus Select tells
stories. Aurora Photos has grown from a staff of one to its present staff of 10, and from three core
photographic contributors to today's 300 plus photographers whose work spans the range of
imagery from photo-documentary to high-end commercial stock photos. Novus Select represents a
core group of photographers for assignments using traditional photography, video or most likely a
mix of media for today's changing media environment. Aurora Photos is based in Portland, Maine
and Novus Select has a staff of 6 divided between Aurora Photos headquarters and a New York
City office. In addition, Azel takes on some photographic work, most recently multimedia production
as the storyteller and director of several projects.
José Azel received a BA from Cornell University in 1976. There he began shooting pictures for the
annual and for the Visual Service Department of the university. After completing his Masters in
Journalism at the University of Missouri, he joined the staff of the Miami Herald, where he worked for four years. From 1981,
until 1997, Azel freelanced as a photographer for international magazines such as, National Geographic, Smithsonian, Life, Time
Magazine, Sports Illustrated, and GEO Magazine, as well as shooting corporate assignments for the outdoor industry. In 1993,
he co-founded Aurora Photos, a stock photography company. Today with the founding of a second company, Aurora Novus the
merger of traditional photography and digital media is complete.
The technology revolution allowed Aurora to establish itself as a company of the future, helping define the interactive, visual
narrative of the digital age. Novus Select new media clients crossed the commercial and editorial boundaries with major projects
for brands such as, LowePro, Eastern Mountain Sports, Apple, Hathaway Shirts, Filemaker, Kodak, the Washington Post Digital
Inc., SI Kids Online, and MSNBC.
Tufts University has invited him to serve as a guest lecturer at a major conference on drugs and he has been a frequent speaker
for photojournalism organizations such as the National Press Photographer's Association Flying Short Course, and Women in
Photojournalism. Photographic workshops including Maine, Santa Fe, Palm Beach and PhotoPlus East and West have been
teaching venues over the years. He has been asked to judge this country's most prestigious photojournalism award, the
University of Missouri's Photographer of the Year Competition, as well as its College Photographer of the Year Competition. As a
speaker on photojournalism and digital media he has addressed audiences at National Press Photographer Association's Digital
'94 Conference and Viacomm West and Apple Computer's New Media Masters. The MIT Media Lab in Cambridge has also
invited him to speak on "The Convergence of Technology and Story Telling." The National Geographic Society has honored him
as a lecturer in its Masters of Photography Series.
As a consultant on photography and multimedia, Azel has worked for Apple Computer, Inc., Scholastic Inc. and Time Inc. Various
substantial online projects have been conceived, negotiated, and lead by Azel throughout the years, including Central Park for
Apple, the 1996 Olympic Games for MSNBC, PhotoVoyages for the Washington Post Newsweek Interactive and Women Speak,
set of photographs with sound by women photographers.
As President of Aurora, Azel has overseen the start-up and operations of the company from a staff of one to its present staff of
10, and from three core photographic contributors to today's 200 plus photographers whose work spans the range of imagery
from photo-documentary to high-end commercial stock photos. The company also represents several of Europe's premier
photography agencies, laif, and Bilderberg Archiv der Fotografen from Germany, ASA from Spain, Pixil.com, a Swiss group of
photographers, and Hemisphere, Sunset and Cosmos, Paris based agency and IML a Greek agency. Aurora's editorial clients
range from magazines such as TIME, Newsweek, Fortune, Smithsonian GEO, Stern and many others comparable publications
worldwide. Corporate clients include Rolex, Apple Computer, LL Bean, Volkswagen and more.
Based on shifting markets and with the supporting knowledge in photography and technology, Azel conceived and lead the
design of the Independent Photography Network (IPN), www.ipnstock.com. This network connects photographic collections of
the highest quality through technology and under a new business model with the intention of providing world-class
photographers and small photo agencies the ability to interconnect their archives and as a group compete against larger
companies. After a successful launch, Azel negotiated the sales of IPN to a Dutch multinational publisher, VNU, parent company
to Adweek, The Hollywood Reporter, Editor & Publisher, PDN and many more trade publications. After the acquisition Aurora
Photos continued to participate as a member of IPN and all of the company's attention turned towards continuing to build a top-
notch photo archive.
Within a complex and shifting photography marketplace that has witnessed the emergence of global stock photography giants,
Azel has guided Aurora Photos towards continued success, including a partnership agreement with Getty Images, the world's
largest photographic business. The past several years have seen solid growth from Aurora's home base
of Portland, Maine.
JIMMY CHIN www.jimmychin.com
Jimmy's passion for exploration, photography and filmmaking has taken him on break-through
expeditions around the planet. Chin has worked with the best adventurers, climbers and skiers in the
world on their most challenging expeditions, climbs and ski descents. Climbing, skiing and often
enduring death defying situations next to some of the best athletes in the industry, Jimmy is most well
known for shouldering the camera equipment and documenting their epic stories.
Some of his projects include trekking unsupported across 300 miles of the largely unexplored
17,000-foot-high Chang Tang Plateau in Tibet while filming for National Geographic, documenting
first ascents of the tallest freestanding sandstone towers in the world, in Mali, and putting up new
routes on highly technical ascents in the Himalayas. In 2003, Chin accompanied Stephen Koch to the
north face of Everest on his quest to snowboard the Seven Summits. Chin hit Everest again in 2004,
climbing to the summit with Ed Viesturs and David Breashears while juggling two assignments -
shooting production stills and video for Universal Films. Viesturs called upon Chin again to
accompany and photograph him on his final and successful expedition to Annapurna, Ed's last summit in his quest to climb all
fourteen 8000 meter peaks. In 2006, Jimmy climbed and skied from the summit of Everest while shooting Kit DesLaurier's
historic ski descent of the mountain. This fall, Jimmy and his team made the first ascent of the Shark's Fin on Mount Meru, one
of the most attempted and coveted lines in the entire Himalaya.
The list of epic journeys goes on. In the last ten years, the Victor, Idaho based Chin has averaged six to eight months a year, on
expeditions and filming / shooting on assignment for National Geographic, The North Face, Outside Magazine, and Rolex just to
name a few of his editorial and commercial clients.
On top of Jimmy's work as a photographer, he is also a director, cinematographer and owns his own production company, Camp
4 Collective. Jimmy's films have received awards from numerous film festivals - including Telluride Mountainfilm, Kendal Film
Festival and Boulder Adventure Film Festival. His work routinely shows up on Vimeo's Staff Picks page.
Jimmy has been profiled in numerous publications including National Geographic Magazine, Outside Magazine, People, Men's
Journal and others. He's received the Rowell Art of Adventure award for his philanthropic work and excellence and breadth in
adventure photography as well as the Lowell Travel Award for his excellence in photo journalism. National Geographic Society
has awarded Jimmy three expedition grants and named him one of their inaugural Emerging Explorers. Jimmy's most recent
photo assignment on Yosemite is featured as the cover story of National Geographic's May 2011 issue. The online photo gallery
from this assignment is now in the top ten most viewed online galleries in National Geographic's history.
Chin hopes that images and films from his expeditions and shoots will help him reach a greater goal. "It's about sharing stories
that inspire people, highlights the infinite human spirit, and opens people's eyes to a different world," Chin explains. "Creating
films and photographs through situations that few others could experience is my life's inspiration."
MADS NISSEN www.madsnissen.com
“I was 19 years old when I realized that I wanted be a photographer. It was in the crowded streets
of Mérida during a nine-month stay in Venezuela. I had bought an old camera from a friend but
found myself not interested in the landscape or sunset. Instead, I was interested in the people, the
poverty and the cracks in the surroundings. I knew then that by taking pictures I was able to combine
my three major interests that I had since early on in my life.Firstly, it was a way to fulfill my ambition
to change the things in today's world and society, which I felt was unjust and needed attention.
Secondly, I was deeply interested in other people's life and the world around me. Taking pictures
became a way for me to open new doors and digest what I saw behind them. Lastly, I had always
had a desire to express myself creatively. Being a photographer allowed me to make my own
interpretation of what I saw; to raise questions and investigate rather than coming up with the exact
answers.Since then my work has mainly focused on contemporary issues and dilemmas such as
overpopulation, poverty, human rights violations and man's often-destructive relationship with nature.
Just after I graduated with a degree in photojournalism from the Danish School of Journalism in 2007 I moved to Shanghai to
document the human and social consequences of China's historical economic rise. After two years in China, I returned to
Denmark where I currently work as staff photographer for the national newspaper Berlingske. At Berlingske, much of my time is
devoted to in-depth feature stories as well as international news. Aside from Berlingske, I have worked on my long-term
personal project from the Amazon since 2006, and I still do assignments for other clients as well (last year alone I photographed
two feature stories for Stern in China and another one for MSF in Colombia).
I'm more of a storyteller than a photographer. From early on I have produced my own stories and projects. Not just doing the
research and the photographs, but writing articles myself ensures me freedom and control of my work. In this spirit I have
embraced the new possibilities of online storytelling and my most recent multimedia has just been awarded as best multimedia
in Denmark's annual Picture of the Year.”
Mads NissenMads is represented by Panos Pictures.
Born 1979.
CHLOE DEWE MATHEWS www.chloedewemathews.com
Chloe Dewe Mathews is a photographer from London.
After a degree in Fine Art at Oxford University, she worked in the film industry for four
years.
Since dedicating herself to photography, her subject matter has been diverse, from
Uzbek gravediggers on the Caspian coast, to Hasidic Jews on holiday in Wales. In
2010 she hitchhiked from China to Britain, which became a recce for a lifetime's work
ahead, informing her way of working both at home and abroad.
Her work has been exhibited internationally and has been given a number of awards including the BJP International
Photography Award and a Flash Forward Emerging Photographer's Award. In recent months she's been named photographer
to watch in PDN's 30, the Observer New Talent Issue and the Telegraph's most promising new artists.
Her clients include magazines such as the The New York Times, the Saturday Telegraph and the Sunday Times.
She is represented by Panos Pictures.
DAN MIHAILESCU www.danmihailescu.ro
Dan was born in 3rd of August 1978 on the shore of the Black Sea in a town called Constantza,
South-East Romania.
"Photography, to me, means a great deal…from being a child I remember how curious I was when I
discovered my father's first film camera - a Zenit E model. I was too young then to understand how a
camera works but I was none-the-less the first real fan of my father's pictures, even if they were just
family images or simple landscapes."
Dan began to take photography seriously from 2004. He has won 15 national prizes and has been
published various times including in: http://www.photomagazine.ro/ where he has a mini-series of
pictures called A Girl And An Umbrella.
Dan says, "Not being a professional photographer and simply loving the art of photography, I am not
under pressure to 'produce' pictures but just to feel them."
Apratim Saha, being a senior executive of a pharmaceutical company in Kolkota, finds very little
time to enjoy his childhood hobby of photojournalism which is now enriched with more than 20 years
of experience in this field of art. This has however not stopped his works from being published in
many magazines, newspapers and websites including online publications of various humanitarian,
educational religious organizations.
Recently he became a member of National Geographic Stock Photography.
APRATIM SAHA www.apratimsaha.com
MAY 2012 BACK ISSUE
Back to
current
issue