Familiar faces across the group
Over the past few years, I’ve been photographing people across the Watches of Switzerland Group for its annual reports. These assignments take me from the head office in Leicestershire to showrooms around the UK, photographing colleagues in the places where they work.
I’ve worked with the group for many years, so there’s often someone to catch up with when I arrive. Being a familiar face in showrooms around the country is something I really enjoy.
There’s plenty of freedom in these shoots, too. Each location offers different backgrounds, light and opportunities, and I enjoy finding ways to photograph people that make use of their surroundings.
People in their working surroundings
At head office, the photographs move between desks, meeting spaces and informal seating areas. A conversation over a laptop gives a different view of someone from a portrait looking straight at the camera. Both have a place in the collection.
The surroundings add useful detail: the watch displays behind a showroom colleague, the monitors on a desk or the tools and materials at a workbench. Together, they show something of the working environment as well as the person.
Photographing while the showrooms stay open
The main challenge is that the showrooms are open for business while I’m photographing. Customers need the team’s attention, and the shoot has to fit around that.
To keep things manageable, I use one light with a large 120cm softbox. It gives me soft light for the portraits while keeping the equipment straightforward to reposition as I move around the showroom.
Whenever a potential customer walks in, I’m ready to pause and step aside. I don’t want to get in the way of a sale. Knowing when to take the photograph and when to give people some space is an important part of working in an open showroom.
Photographs for the annual report and beyond
Although the annual report is the reason for these assignments, the photographs also appear across the group’s website and employee portal. That wider use makes the variety worthwhile: individual portraits sit alongside conversations, colleagues working together and details of their working day.
It’s a part of my commercial photography work that I particularly enjoy. Returning to a business over several years brings a familiarity that makes the visits rewarding, while different people and locations keep the photography interesting.
Please get in touch if you’re planning an annual report or need photographs of your team at work.
