I’m writing this after leaving RAF Benson today, and I’m still trying to process the day.
I wanted to reach out before too much time passed, because I think when commissions end there’s a risk that what they actually meant gets lost in the gap between one thing and the next.
This project has meant more to me than I’ve probably said out loud. Not just as a commission, though it has been extraordinary work, but as something I’ll carry for a long time. To have been trusted with this, to have had the access, the time, the relationship with you both to do it properly, that’s rare. And I haven’t taken a moment of it for granted.
The engineers I’ve had the privilege of photographing are some of the most remarkable people I’ve ever encountered. Doing relentless, world-shifting work, and doing it so quietly, so modestly. Their stories deserve to be told. The world needs the kind of hope that lives inside those stories. And young girls and boys need to see themselves in these portraits, to understand how big, how expansive, how genuinely exciting engineering is as a life.
Every time I came away from a shoot I was standing in awe of what these people do. That feeling never got ordinary. It’s been one of the great honours of my career.
Today felt like a full stop in the best and hardest sense. Standing in that hangar, inside that aircraft, I was aware I was somewhere most people never get to be. That’s because of you, and the trust you placed in me.
Thank you. Genuinely. For the commission, for your support throughout, and for being the kind of collaborators who made the work better every day, such a joyful and positive thing!
I know it doesn’t end here, but I wanted just to write this to you whilst I felt it..