Photographer swaps celebrities for countryside
The Heywood, Norfolk. Celebrity photographer Sylvaine Poitau with local band Twisted Piglet who've just sign to a record label and are having the album pictures taken for.
A photographer who has captured the likes of Dame Judi Dench, Dustin Hoffman and Angelina Jolie has set up her own studio in the south Norfolk countryside to work with local people and businesses.
Sylvaine Poitau was the official photographer at the BAFTA awards for six years and after leaving London 17 years ago, set up her home and then her studio in The Heywood to the north of Diss.
Miss Poitau was born in the south of France and studied for a MA in photography at the Villa Arson school of arts in Nice. She moved to Paris and spent two years working as an art teacher before moving to London where she studied for a City and Guilds in photography to help her learn English. Miss Poitau then took a job as a photographer’s assistant in London and before she knew it was on her way to the red carpet. “I worked with the photographer in the studio and managed to learn everything you don’t learn in school,” she said. “That is where I met people from the BBC. They would come in the studio. I was in the right place at the right time.”
Miss Poitau got her big break when the editor of the Radio Times was looking for a photographer to attend the BAFTAs and her name was put forward. She said: “I did the first BAFTAs completely freaked out and after that the National Television Awards. It was a very good gig for me to start my portfolio.
“Because the French culture cinema wise is very different I had heard of these people but they were not my icons. If I was photographing a French actor I would have frozen with fear. But I was able to be very natural with them and I think that is why it worked.”
Miss Poitau has travelled all over the world with her work and as well as working for national papers like The Guardian, has done the website for The Tudor Bakehouse, and this week photographed south Norfolk band Twisted Piglet, who have just been signed to a record label. Her studio La Shed has been running for two years and Miss Poitau’s passion is now to work with local people and businesses to offer professional photographs at reasonable prices. Visit www.poitau.com or www.la-shed.com for more information about her work.
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Weather for Diss
Wednesday 22 May 2013
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