In the words of Leslie Caddy writing for Westside Magazine:
Shakespeare is to photography what Dior is to dressmaking… Simon Shakespeare, that is. He has taken the craft of portraiture and turned it into haute couture, in a way that marks him out as a pioneer in his field.
This is the designer approach to photography. it’s fresh, it’s contemporary, and it’s now available in Brandon in the form of ‘Shakespeare Photography’.
It’s all about imagery and Simon knows exactly the image he wants his work to project: “Very punchy, very clear and very good quality,” he says. “Getting away from the production line and offering the kind of service and value that will make people want to come back again and again.”
Simon is certainly not the stereotypical photographer. He may be artistic, but he lacks the narcissistic temperament that so often goes with it. He may be at the top of his field – sought out by society and aristocracy – but he’s as down-to-earth as the guy next door. Simon started out as a wedding photographer. Well, actually he started out as a vintage car enthusiast who ran a wedding car hire business. Then he got the photography bug and the rest as they say is history.
He built up a successful business – and a reputation for the kind of candid shots that stand out from the ubiquitous line-up of beaming brides and their doting relatives.
He became secretary of the Master Photographers’ Association of Yorkshire, England and spent six years working from premises near his Rotherham home, building up his portfolio and traveling the world at the expense of high-end clients.
But Simon’s ambition was to set up a cutting-edge studio which would attract the kind of people he wanted to work for:
“We want to give people an experience”
people who appreciate a photograph as a piece of art, rather than a desktop snapshot, as he puts it. And when he spotted the empty unit on Oakfield Drive Brandon, West coast Florida, he knew he had found what he was looking for.
His next step was to recruit staff – studio manager and photographer Nicola proved a lucky find and between them they auditioned dozens of would-be photographers, receptionists and graphic artists until they had completed their team.
Approach is the key ingredient, says Simon. “We want to provide people with something really different, so our photographers are young and vibrant and understand what we’re doing; even the receptionists are people who will buy into the whole concept.
“We want to give people an experience, some good service and, at the end, a fantastic product,” he says.