For this month’s Quick Study, I caught up with my long-time collaborator and dear friend, British photographer Rich Stapleton. Since co-founding Cereal magazine with his partner Rosa Park in 2011, Rich has worked with eminent designers, brands, and architects around the world, establishing himself as a go-to name for elevated, timeless images.
Over the years, we’ve collaborated closely on shoots for clients as disparate as Zara Home and Courteney Cox. His ability to capture calm, serene moments in interiors, portraiture, and the natural world using dramatic light and shadow never ceases to amaze and inspire me. Here, we reminisce about some of our favorite moments on set together, unpack his obsession with tiny objects, and dig into the inspiration behind his latest book, Penumbra.
Hi Rich! This is the first one of my Quick Study interviews I’ve done with someone I know, so I hope you have some anecdotes about all our fun times together.
So many treasured memories.
For those who don’t know you so well, let's go back to the beginning. When and how did you first get into photography?
It’s been part of my life since as long as I can remember, especially throughout my later school years and when traveling. When I finished university in the U.K. in 2009, I took the first step into the professional world. My granddad was very into photography. Actually, a few years ago, I inherited his Leica from the ’60s, which I just got restored in London. He sadly passed away before I was born, and my dad never fully took on that passion. But my parents always took a lot of pictures growing up, and a big part of our holidays were the family albums. Do you remember those underwater disposable cameras? I have memories of being 11 or 12, and my parents getting me those to take in the pool when we were in France or Turkey, then getting the developed film back later in one of those big envelopes.
How has your career progressed over time? What are some of the ideas that have shaped your mindset when it comes to taking a picture?
During the time when Rosa [Park] and I were fully engaged with Cereal magazine, we traveled so much to meet artists, designers, architects, and people from all walks of life for stories. Your perspective changes gradually through interacting with those people while you're interviewing them, and trying to capture their essence or learn about their world. It's also been interesting to track the types of things I photographed. I started very much within the travel sphere, because it felt the most natural for me. And then I became much more focused on design and interiors. And now it's shifting again, to portraiture and a human-centric approach.]
What makes an image intriguing to you, and which subjects do you tend to gravitate towards? For instance, there's a tortoise on the cover of your latest book, Penumbra.
Which is probably quite surprising for a lot of people! Most associate my photography with interiors and landscapes—these calm moments. But nature is a big recurring theme in my work. No matter what I'm shooting, if there's a natural element—whether it's the colors or the textures, or just the general feeling—I always go back to it in some way. And I really felt that with the tortoise. It was the first time I met a Galápagos tortoise, and they're amazing creatures: their shells, their necks, their colors. At first I was like, "Why am I going to put this on the cover?" But then I thought, You know what? This feels right. Sometimes you have to go with that gut instinct.
You're one of the only photographers I work with that doesn't do a lot of post-production, and you use light and shadow in a very particular way, which I've always really connected to and try to bring into my own work as well. How does lighting impact your work?
Lighting is everything. It's almost like light itself is an object, and without it, you don't have much. That counterplay between light and darkness can completely change an image. And you’re right, I don't do a lot of post-production, which is why using mood boards is so integral to me. I'm trying to get everything right in the moment as much as possible. If I can get things dialed-in to the state where they don't need to be corrected in post, that's the ideal. I hate the "fix it in post" approach, because for me it's about creating an image that is as natural as possible. Using A.I. to fix this, take that out, put this back in, you might as well not take the photograph and just start with a blank slate.
We've worked together on many projects. Are there any that stand out as favorites? What made them special?
The first project we worked on, we immediately clicked on set. It was a challenging shoot in many ways, for Zara Home in London, but I think we created some beautiful images. We realized very quickly that we saw things in a similar way, which is probably why we ended up working together a lot after that. The next most memorable for me was working on the Architectural Digest shoot for your home, and it ended up being two shoots in one, because we also photographed your book, and we got some really nice portraits of you. There have been so many fun ones.
For me, shooting Courteney Cox with you was fun.
I think that was the first time we shot together where interiors were secondary. There was a big human element in the story, and Courteney is obviously a big personality, so that was a new way of working. I loved the whole thing. We worked with Courteney together twice.
The second time was really nice because we knew her better and it just felt more free. And like you said, the subject was her.
The tennis court was one of my favorite moments during both those shoots, because that was the thing she was most hesitant about. Those ended up being my favorite images. Even though there was a big interior element, everything was channeled through Courteney.
A lot of people are curious about what goes on behind the scenes of a typical shoot. How do you collaborate with designers, stylists, assistants, and others?
The word collaboration is key. If I'm working directly with a stylist, it's important that both people can get involved with the other's job. We’re both not afraid to jump in and change things, and step on each other’s toes in a positive way. I really value building close relationships with assistants and using those same assistants on different projects. I'll always ask my assistants what they think of certain frames, and how we can change the light and setups to improve things. I ask them to look through the camera and tell me what they think, so that they can learn how the lighting or the equipment affects the image.
I’m curious to hear how your work has informed your collecting. Are you drawn to objects that photograph well? Is there a specific material or textural quality that you're obsessed with?
Rosa jokes that I will always buy the tiniest objects possible when I’m traveling, maybe because they're easy to transport. Over the years, I've amassed a huge collection of tiny objects. At our flat in Bath, the cupboards are packed with lots of little rocks, stones, ceramics, or things that emulate nature in some way. They hold such a personal attachment for me to the locations I've visited. It's hard to get rid of them. It's actually easier for me to get rid of big stuff, like chairs or clothes or things like that, but those small objects I struggle to get rid of and they just build up. Am I a hoarder?
You’re a very chic, minimal hoarder.
That's what I've just discovered during this interview! Over the years, those objects have been super helpful. When I'm traveling somewhere for work, I'll pack a handful of these objects in my suitcase, and then they end up making their way into the images on location.
I'll never forget your ginkgo leaves. And you brought some nuts to set once that you were holding on to.
Oh yeah, those beautiful conkers from the horse chestnut tree. I’ve had those for years, because they get better with age.
What’s now and next for you, both personally and professionally?
The Penumbra book is a marker in time for me. It was six years spent on a very specific aspect of my work: black-and-white photography. I'm working a lot with the JB Blunk Foundation. Mariah Nielson [Blunk’s daughter and the foundation curator] is someone that I really like and admire. I'm also the architectural photographer for the Bath Preservation Trust, trying to keep a record of the architecture and design in the city.
You moved to Los Angeles three years ago. Do you feel like the city is home?
Yeah. We went to the U.K. this summer between July and August, and when we came back, it really felt like we were coming home for the first time. We finally have a community here, both on the creative and work side, and on the personal side. Another big part of what I want to do going forward is explore California and understand the state better, and then venture beyond. There are still so many places in the U.S. I haven't been.
