‘I really didn’t want to fit in so I just rebelled against everything’

She adds: “Because I am young, it seems a lot of the enquiries I get are based on clients believing I’ll be cheap. It can be tempting to take a job purely because it’s work. But I have a fee structure and I stick to it. I have discovered that you can’t be too nice in this world, or you’ll get walked all over.”

Larawas bullied at school. “I dyedmy hair dark froma young age, wore dark make-up and oversized clothes. I really didn’t want to fit in so I just rebelled against everything. My photography became my escape from reality.” She first started experimenting with a camera at fifteen, and two years later, while still at college, started her own

12 www.bowens.co.uk

business. “Initially I was just shooting local bands and headshots that I could tie in with my college projects. But after doing a bit of research on other photographers in my native west Midlands, I found that they all offered the same dull, vanilla photography, at a ‘rip off’ price. I believed I could offer something more Something different.”

interesting.

She admits: “I’ve always been a dreamer. Photography enablesme to capture the world how, as a child, I dreamed it would be. I realised that through that viewfinder I could capture anything - photography was going to be my gateway to many things.”

Lara, who last year won a ‘public choice’ award fromthe AOP, attacked the necessary steep photo-learning curve with vigour and determination. She started working with small clients, learning about shooting styles and business acumen in tandemwith an obsessive desire to produce new, exciting work. And she

is the youngest

photographer ever to shoot at London’s famous Spring Studios.

“I’d photograph my clients using my own original themes and styles, to satisfy my creative hunger, while offering the models an alternative to the humdrum headshots being offered around at the time.” She says. Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36