About Me

Finding the perfect creative outlet, meeting and making connections with people from all walks of life, always having something new to learn, wanting to get up in the morning to go to work - I discovered all this 10 years ago in photography.

Since 2002 when I qualified in Professional Photographic Practice at the London College of Printing, and set up Anna McCarthy Photography, I have pretty much lived and breathed this craft, capturing or working on images daily. My work is almost exclusively people related and in any given week I am either photographing a family, a wedding day, a social, pr or publicity event, or providing portraiture for a company or individual.

For me the measure of a good portrait, or any photograph involving people, lies not just in its surface aesthetics, any honed technique with the camera, or new way of observing or capturing, but crucially in the faithfulness and depth of the emotion portrayed. All these things are at the forefront of my mind when I’m observing people and I am happiest when they all come together in an image.

Below are some observations from others about the art of photographing people that resonate with me, and what I strive to do when I have my camera in my hand:

'The most important thing... It's not clicking the shutter, it's clicking with the subject'

   - Alfred Eisenstaedt

‘If your photographs aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough’

   - Robert Capa

'Photographers deal in things which are continually vanishing, and when they have vanished, there is no contrivance on earth that can make them come back again'

   - Henri Cartier-Bresson

'The Chinese say that for a work of art you need three things – the hands, the eye and the heart'

   - David Hockney

To get a sense of my style and approach, please browse the galleries and stories in this site. You will also find lots of other practical information within these pages that I hope will be helpful.

Get in touch through my contacts page: contact me or email me at anna@annamccarthy.com or on 07811 242266.

Keep abreast of my latest work by visiting my Photoblog

I hope to hear from you.