Portraits of an artist

A SWARTHY Yorkshire farmer with hands like spades gently strokes a lamb he is holding tenderly under his arm. Surrounded by bales of hay, he has the sort of natural, easy smile and twinkle in the eye that makes you wonder if he might just be about to step out of the canvas and talk to you.

This is just one of the “Men of Character”

portraits taken by celebrated photographer Javan Liam. In these days of manipulative, artificial photoshopping, what makes Javan’s portraits stand out is that they feel so real.

Whether it’s race-goers in their tweeds, a rugged gamekeeper out on the misty moors or drinkers enjoying a pint, Javan admits that, chameleon-like, he enjoys blending in and mixing with people from all walks of life, in order to capture their essence.

He certainly has the personality to bring out someone’s character and the knack of zooming deep down into someone’s soul and capturing it through his lens.

One of the top portrait photographers in the North, Javan has worked for glossy magazines, such as House and Garden, as well as on big, international marketing and advertising campaigns.

His work has taken him all over the world, photographing beautiful homes in Germany, France and Italy and producing coffee table books on Cuba, New York and Paris.

He has captured the Queen, Lady Diana, top politicians and media stars in his lens. But with a true artist’s eye for his work, the glamour of celebrity means little to him.

Javan says he is just as happy mixing with local characters and enjoying the banter at a Northern wedding, where the reception is in the front room of the village pub. Of course, he covers most of the grand society weddings too, in the elegant settings of stately homes and castles.

But for Javan, it is all about the people.

One huge framed photograph on his Harrogate gallery wall shows a bride, resplendent in her flowing white gown, riding hell-for-leather through the waves of Redcar beach on her horse. This was taken the day after the wedding, when the horse-loving bride was happy to trash her dress for the sheer joy of it.

There are plenty of beautiful, breathtakingly romantic shots too, but Javan isn’t one for arranging people into stiff groups in artificial settings. He excels at capturing special moments as they unfold – people laughing, animated conversations, the bride and groom stealing a quiet moment together in the corner of the room.

One of seven children, born into a well-off family that enjoyed the luxury of inherited wealth outside Leeds, he attributes his unusual name to his mother’s yearning to be different.

He affectionately describes her as a “bit of a fruitcake”. All his siblings also have unusual names. His father, an engineer, enjoyed collecting luxury cars while his mother was a talented artist.

“She could draw amazingly well, charcoal and pencil drawings and caricatures.”

The children were tutored at home. “Mum always wanted us to do something creative, she fostered my artistic temperament,” he says.

After leaving school at 16, Javan went to train to be a cabinet maker in Leeds. “I wanted to do something creative, but after six months I realised I was never going to be able to work for anybody else.”

Having discovered a natural flair for photography, he opened a shop in Wetherby. “I was 18, I didn’t know what I was doing. I put some pictures I had taken in the window and never looked back.”

Since his first wedding assignment in the late 1970s, Javan has covered nearly 2,000 ceremonies and receptions. Alongside this and portraiture work, he also takes landscape, food and fashion pictures.

Commercial photography, like every other business, has been hit by the recession. “It has made people more cost-conscious. With digital cameras, more people are trying to do it for themselves, but they’re missing out on so much,” he says.

It has forced him to offer more competitivelypriced wedding packages and to diversify into other areas, such as increasingly popular dog and horse portraits.

“I steer clear of white backgrounds and don’t over-manipulate pictures. When you start with a great picture, you don’t have to manipulate it, there is an honesty to it. One of the reasons I have survived is I have been through the test of time and never wavered from what I believe,” he says.

The passage of time has also encouraged Javan, who is in his 50s and lives with his partner Julie and three dogs in a converted barn, to slow down and take stock.

“All my life, I have been in business hurtling along at a million miles an hour. And then, one day, about ten years ago, driving along North Yorkshire lanes, I saw this amazing scene. It was a summer’s evening, the sun was going down behind a Dutch barn, there were some hay bales, mist in the valley, it was a beautiful picture. I just stopped and spent about three quarters of an hour looking at it.

“I realised I had been missing places because I was so busy. I decided I was going to have to stop and photograph moments like this if I was ever going to be able to show people what I can do. I slowed down and think about things a lot more now.”

Another favourite spot is Redcar beach and he particularly loves the South Gare peninsula. “I’m also just a stone’s throw from the Dales. We are blessed to live in this area. It’s such a vibrant and full of itself sort of place. Mile for mile and corner for corner, there’s nowhere like it.”

Javan Liam Photography, Strawberry Dale, Harrogate, North Yorkshire HG1 5EA.

Call 01423-500357, visit javanliam.co.uk or email photography@javanliam.co.uk