Ben Heasman Photography

Name: Ben Heasman Photography
Address: Hampton Court Road, London, KT89, GB
Telephone: +447752674652
Price range: £££

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Ben Heasman Photography

Real family photographer, showing the life you recognise around you and feel inside. Chat with me ab

16/11/2021

Pippa went to the centre with her husband and kid. We were happy to go with her because she is fun and cool.

08/11/2021

The clarity and insight and love that exists in this person blows my mind.
Hello to you all.

11/06/2021

Inpouring.

18/04/2021

Picture (im)Perfect is open at the Florida Museum of Photographic Arts!

The exhibition, running until 31st May, features a diverse range of artists from across the globe, and explores the beautiful, imperfect complexities of family life.

It's a total honour to have two images of mine in this show - and amongst such incredible photographic company as this.

Below are some words by myself on what matters so much about this genre and on trying to find where the love really lives.

Also, a book to accompany the show is available to pre-order. So if you're interested, excited, or just curious, please check it out here:

https://linktr.ee/picture_im_perfect

09/04/2021

If you haven’t already, you can check out the beautiful documentary family exhibition ‘Transforming Perspectives’ at www.dfp-gallery.com - which runs until 30th April.

I’m incredibly grateful to have a photo chosen by New York Times editor Tiffanie Graham to sit in the virtual company of some amazing work by some amazing photographers.

I want to share with you a snippet of my bio for it. I really love the exhibition theme, and I found myself trying to chip away at those words a little more:

‘Documentary family photography is, for Ben (that’s me, in the 3rd person…), an opportunity to find an expansive and layered view of family. Where memory and geography are alive in each moment. And where the outside is let in and drawn close.’

I’m fascinated by this thing called ‘far away’, coming into the perspective of everyday family life. And into the perspective of right now.

As if there’s some kind of capacity in your present life to conjure up that look you made, at two years of age, when you saw your family’s new house for the first time. Or perhaps, the taste of that tea from a Russian samovar, that lingers on your mother’s lips as she travels to Moscow.

And all of this, now, whilst you are pouring a glass of water, or concentrating so hard on your kid’s latest performance, or reaching for a word to say…

I suppose it’s anyone’s guess as to how ‘transformed’ your life might be by all these layers of… well, love.

So why can’t photography, and a family photograph, try to find out? Why the hell not?

26/03/2021

This may have been another lockdown birthday, but it was his lockdown birthday for sure.

Flying effortlessly into a brand new year. And finding - no, creating - new viewpoints from within these same four walls, as a young person who is becoming so much older.

Leo’s previous birthday was two days into lockdown 1. And now, a year later, we’re thinking about what will come to pass next as lockdown starts to ease. And all the frontiers and thresholds that may be crossed as we all find our way into the world again.

But how sure can you be that you’ll recognise such a thing as a ‘threshold’ out in the wide world? I can’t say if I have the eyes and ears to spot them. Or if I know the right combination of steps to go through them.

I have been worrying about this. It all seems a bit of a foreign language if I’m honest. Progress, growth, expansion.

But then, I’ve just witnessed more growth in the last year than I ever would have thought possible inside our own four walls. There was some sort of flourishing. I can’t really put words to it, but it sparks gratitude nonetheless. And some other kind of nameless, positive, feeling too. Related to seeing what a family just becomes. Love that is formative.

I’m sure the words will come eventually that will help describe the times we’re living through. But I already know that the words that will really matter to me will be home-spun, and may sound strange at first.

But that’s okay right?

And I don’t know about you, but I don’t like the idea of ‘relearning’ old versions of words like progress, growth, expansion.

I want to ‘conjure’ them afresh like we did this past year. Like we’ve always done.

And I want this to be absolutely central in photographing the lives of families. I want to show how you do this strange, beautiful, new-sounding thing - which is your own real living.

And I want you to see your own special way of dancing through doors together, and smashing frontiers of all shapes and sizes. For fun. For beakfast. And lunch and dinner.

More to come okay.

ps.
Image 1: Leo after his birthday this year
Image 2: Last year with Leo’s mind exploding onto all walls around him
Image 3: Pippa after Leo’s birthday last year

24/02/2021

Partly covered 4-year-old generation alpha child with panda.

13/02/2021

Leo’s school-from-home has reached half term. And we are proud of him.

Today he asked for the first time when he’d be going back.

The question felt full to the brim with positivity, boredom, and appetite for living.

Looking forward. Seen from beside him. Gratefully.

17/11/2020

Do you know what this is?

This is ‘middle inclusivity’.

Do you know what ‘middle inclusivity’ is?

Well, I just thought of it, so don’t sweat it.

But I bet you’re all over it, in any case…

Because it’s when you are doing something that’s normal and ‘everyday’ to you, but you are also making your kid feel at the very middle of things.

Here is one such moment between Diana and her son. One of many natural moments that the Hagues family would make together - seemingly out of nothing but the Autumn air around them - during a magical family session outside.

I’m sure there are millions of different kinds of moments of ‘middle inclusivity’. Popping up all over the place throughout your own day together (and strangely, always in the middle of things). And I’m also convinced that they are all spectacularly beautiful in their own unique way.

If you are interested in seeing this real side (middle) of your family’s time together, DM me here or on my website: https://benheasman.com to find out how.

12/11/2020

I don’t know about you but I’m feeling better about the future right now...

And I want to show you a little something (a very meaningful something imho) worth celebrating.

This is Diana, with her kind husband busy with the crisps, and with her two sons around her - both content in their own different and shared ways.

This is from a half-day session exploring the woods with the Hagues family. A day of freedom and togetherness and learning in nature, and a textbook evasion of security rangers. Almost like they’ve done this kind of thing before…

This moment during lunch just seems to me to say something of the unspoken contentment within a group. And the way that little communal tasks are performed, like the hand cleaning Diana has just finished (tissues-still-in-hand). And the way that people are really quite good at taking care of each other. And, all the while, still having the freedom to lose yourself in thought. With people you love around you.

Diana and her family are really special. And I think that simple acts of taking care of each other are a special thing. Worth celebrating. And I’m sure that, whatever ‘everyday form’ this takes for you, it will look like something real and recognisable. Your togetherness - lost, or not lost, in thought.

I’m taking bookings for outside sessions, post lockdown-2.0-thru-Spring and beyond. And inside when possible again. If you’re interested in photos of your family’s real and unique togetherness, DM me here, or from my website: https://benheasman.com

Let’s get this party started!

31/07/2020

Leo hid so hard in our hide and seek game that he turned himself into another person.

This person claimed he could help me find Leo. And then very successfully sort of divined it from the ground with his stick. And then fell asleep.

For more advice on successful child sleeping habits - visit my website: https://benheasman.com
..There might be some new and interesting family photography there too.

29/07/2020

I’d love to say that I’m the best person to document your family memories, but I don’t think this would quite be true…

In my opinion the best keepers of your memories are... your very own walls and ceilings.

You see, their angles and proportions are just so perfectly attuned to catch hold of everything you know and love, and to keep it all there - in the paint, or the plaster, or the fingerprints...

It’s like one of those unavoidable laws that god determined right at the beginning: ‘Right, you’re a wall, and your job will be to hold stuff up... Oh, and one other thing... you’ve got to hold onto memories too.’
Wall says: ‘okay I can do no. 1, but no. 2? Really? Wtf?’

I’ll tell you a secret about myself: For a certain amount of time every week, I stare at walls. (Well, certainly over lockdown I have…)

I stare at them when I suddenly forget why I’m in a particular room - and hope the walls will remind me. I stare at them too because I’ve always thought walls are simply quite beautiful.

But I also stare at them because I think that they really did figure it out - no. 2 that is - and that they really do hold those things called memories rather well.

The only problem, of course, is that those walls don’t speak very loudly, if at all. And as much as they want to tell you about the life that you love, in the space that you’ve shared for so long... they struggle.

Well, don’t be deterred dear reader/family member/wall conferrer. I will be sensitive and appreciative to everything your walls have to offer. I’m a good wall-listener.

Here are my latest attempts.

Address

Hampton Court Road
London
KT89

Telephone

+447752674652

Website

https://benheasman.com/

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