I have been obsessed with photography since I was six and saw my first issue of National Geographic magazine. When I asked my dad how they got the photos for the magazine he replied that photographers do it. I knew then that I wanted to be one. A photographer.
Photography has been my passion ever since. (When I was twelve, he caved-in and gave me his AE-1 camera that I had been “borrowing”, secretly, from his room).
Photography is an extraordinarily creative outlet – it has taught me how to truly see and experience the world; to not just pass through, busy and distracted, on my way to somewhere else, but to learn to pause and notice the beauty of light in our everyday surroundings.
As a young child growing up in Maine the forest was my back garden. I would leave my house early in the morning and wander the forest all day. For me the natural world is a second life, a fantasy land of purity and calm.
I feel an attachment to the artistic tradition of reverence for natural beauty and reverence for the technical skill of the artist. For me, finding the beauty in everything is what inspires me – and of course it’s not just what we think of as beautiful, but making the mundane, the strange and the intriguing deeply compelling to look at.
The lives of artists are often precarious and strange – we are driven to create regardless of what happens with what we have created.
We are driven to share moments of life we have captured. We desire to create something with colour and light and people and energy. Artists create because they have to create. We have no choice.
I believe as Henry Moore did: “To be an artist is to believe in life.”
It’s a strange, hard-to-explain force within us, to feel compelled to make something from nothing.
I was born in Athens, Greece to a Greek mother and Black American father. I grew up in Maine and then California. I have been a photographer for 30 years. After moving to London twenty years ago I spent almost two decades shooting cities at dawn, exploring the contrast of the urban landscape and empty streets of morning, in the ethereal and sometimes melancholic light of dawn.
I have published three books of my photo projects – including London at Dawn. I have exhibited for the most part in my adopted home city of London where I lived for 20 years.
I moved to a small beach town in Andalucia in Spain with my family six years ago. This landscape has awakened my love of shooting landscapes and nature. It’s also been an extraordinary personal experience of connecting again to a landscape like my childhood of California.
It has been a cathartic and loving reawakening connection with myself.
I have ongoing projects here – including on capturing the different landscapes of the region under the full moon, a finished project on the moods and colours of the sea, captured from the same spot over a year.
I have received extensive press for my projects and have also been teaching photo workshops all over the world for the past decade (including here in Spain). I teach occasionally for Guardian Masterclasses and give talks about creativity.
Anthony Epes
anthonyepes.com / +34 651 093 686 / mail@anthonyepes.com
CV
Born 1968 Athens, Greece. Currently resides in Andalucia, Spain
Education
1992-96 Brooks Institute of Photography, Santa Barbara, California
Awards
2009 Urban Photographer of the Year Award, 0700, CBRE
Publications
2003 London at Dawn, John Blake Publishing
2003 London at Dawn, 2nd edition hardback, John Blake Publishing
2013 London at Dawn revisited with Stephen Fry, John Bird,self published
2013 Paris at Dawn book hardback, self published
2017 East London at Dawn hardback, published by Lehman Locke Partners
Selected Bibliography
2001-03 Photo editor, The Big Issue, Los Angeles
2006 Feature in Amateur Photographer magazine
2007 Feature in Professional Photographer magazine
2012 Judge for the Urban Photographer of the Year award
2011-2012 Judge for The Environmental Photographer of the Year Award, CIWEM
2016-17 Judge for the Urban Photographer of the Year Award
Solo Exhibitions
2017 East London at Dawn book launch, Lehman Locke Hotels, London
2017 Istanbul, East End Film Festival, London
2014 Homeless World Cup portraits, Gallery at Leo Burnett, London
2014 Homeless World Cup portraits, East End film festival, London
2014 Homeless World Cup portraits, Downstairs at Mother London, London
2013 Paris and London at Dawn, Foyles Gallery, London
2013 Paris and London at Dawn book launch, St. Pancras International concourse, London
2010 London at Dawn, Mayor’s office for the Story of London festival, London
2010 Paris at Dawn, Popup Gallery, London
2009 London at Dawn, C46 Gallery, London
2009 Arboreal Dreams,The Gallery at Redchurch Street, London
2008 Arboreal Dreams, Popup gallery Barnes, Barnes, UK
2007 Arboreal Dreams, Capital Culture gallery, London (group show)
2004 London at Dawn, Arts & Crafts Guild, London
2003 London at Dawn book launch, Stoney Street Gallery, London
1996 Accelerated Colour,The Brewery Art Walk, Los Angeles
1996 Roasted Cafe, Los Angeles, Dreaming Animals
1996 Graduating Class, Big and Beautiful print competition. Won best of class.
1996 Graduation show, Brooks Institute of Photography, Santa Barbara, California
1987 Group show VAFB, won best of show.
Group Exhibitions
2017 IEPA,Niigata Prefectural, Civic Center, Japan
2006 Arts Angel group show, Royal College of Art, London
2005 Affordable Art fair, White Wall partners
2004 Portraits, Affordable Art fair, Capital Culture Gallery, London
2003 Works of Colour with Becky Taber, Maritime Gallery, London
1997 Vague love: a family forgotten (distance by choice),The Brewery art walk, Los Angeles
Selected Collections
Barnes Physio, UK
Niigata Science Museum, Japan
Hahn Collections, New York
Media and Press
2003 An interview on BBC London TV by Brenda Emmanus,
2003 An accompanying piece on the BBC London website
2003 French Photo magazine – two feature/news pieces
2003-2010 Various Features in The Big Issue UK
2014 Interview on CNN photography
2016 BBC London Radio interview with Robert Elms
2016 The Guardian: weekend supplement and Observer Magazine
2016 Evening Standard highlight
2017 The East End FIlm Festival
Online video press links
BBC
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/entertainment-arts-26307226
The Guardian Masterclasses
https://www.theguardian.com/guardian-masterclasses/2023/mar/30/beyond-the-snapshot-a-masterclass-in-travel-photography-with-anthony-epes
The Homeless World Cup
https://hyperallergic.com/132064/portraits-of-the-homeless-world-cup/
The Albumen Gallery
https://albumen-gallery.com/anthony-epes/