LISA.

ORIGIN STORY ALERT

Born and raised in Northern Ireland – although after spending most of my adult life in sunny Brighton (this is where I’m based still), I’ve pretty much lost the accent. 

I’d always had cameras and I’d always taken photos, but the tech side never really grabbed me. I went down the art college route. But I had a strong gut instinct that I’d need to make real-world contacts and went looking for work experience. I started with my teenage obsession – The Face magazine (still obsessed).

That decision landed me in a studio in East London, assisting stylist Camilla Nickerson on a shoot with a few of her friends. The model was a completely unknown schoolgirl called Kate… as in Moss. And the photographer? Her boyfriend at the time – Mario Sorrenti.

That day was my first real epiphany.

I had absolutely no idea what Camilla was doing. I was wildly out of my depth. But once I’d calmed the F down, I started watching Mario work. And here’s the thing – he wasn’t doing anything I didn’t understand. It suddenly clicked that maybe you didn’t need to be obsessed with the technical side of photography to be good at it.

(Spoiler: I’m still not.)

After a few more twists and turns, I found myself working as a music industry photographer for over a decade. Ten years of incredible experiences – travelling the world, shooting for record labels and magazines, and seeing behind the curtain of more than a few famous faces.

It was fast, chaotic, creative – and it taught me how to work instinctively, confidently, and under pressure. Skills I still rely on every single time I pick up a camera.