5 Minutes with… Kingsland Road Studios!22/02/11
The past decade has seen East-London dramatically transform into one of the most vibrant districts in the city and is now one of the emerging creative hubs of the world.
With so much diversity, creative studios and big money projects sit alongside traditional family businesses and fashion houses in the buzzing and multi-layered borough. One of the newest additions to this budding neighbourhood is the Kingsland Road Studios: a photography studio space “with a difference” says founding member Brendan Olley. See what else he had to say when we met up with him for a chat.
The studio is a new addition to the East London landscape; tell us a bit more about the studio and the ethos it was founded on?
Kingsland road has been a fast growing place in the past 5 years and felt that this was a great place to build our future. Artists and image makers have always struggled financially; we’re in the same boat and sea as the rest, so our studio provides us with an income to stay in London and continue to create work. We more than understand the financial demands of people who want to ‘create’ and that’s why our ethos is to keep the studio as affordable as possible by offering the best prices on the strip.
How do you all know each other/your background and why did you decide to set-up shop?
Christopher Fields is a fashion photographer and I am developing my practice as a fine art photographer, we worked together in our own studio at Holborn Studios but first met at Photo College in Lincolnshire. The old place just wasn’t big enough and we needed more of a varied dynamic in the group to realize our boundaries. Alex is our port of call for business, without his experience we would be a stumbling mess of delinquent art dreamers. Our lifelong friend and photographer Ian Higginson was next to join- he’s our ‘karma police’ if you like, not to mention he has a great eye for photography.
What has been your favourite exhibit so far?
Not long since the white walls had been painted everyone was eager to show off our shiny new castle so we organized a party but then on reflection we didn’t want our studio to become a destination for more underground drink activity. It is about loving what we do, so we scrapped this in favour of our film night. We got lots of sofa’s and cushions and loads of candles and turned the studio into a bohemian abode for the evening.
What makes Kingsland Studios unique?
We’re not just studio managers. We are all practising in the same field. We pool our knowledge together so we have a real depth of understanding when it comes to shooting. We desperately want to share knowledge and often end up helping out on set. We offer a very affordable price and we can provide a flourishing atmosphere to take stage. We are not monotonous in the way which we work- if things don’t work, we do something different, as we change so will our studio.
We wish them great success in their venture and encourage anyone seeking studio space to contact Brendan or Christopher on bookings@kingslandroadstudio.com or 020 7254 9900.
http://kingslandroadstudio.com/