Early learning portraiture · Sydney
Portraiture,
made to be kept.
We photograph children at a small number of Sydney early learning services each year. Not many. Enough that we can still do it properly.
The practice
Two photographers.
Twenty-two years.
Marlow & Bell has never been a large business and was never intended to be one. Since 2004 the practice has consisted of two photographers, one of whom is present at every session we undertake.
That constraint decides everything else about how we work. We accept a limited number of services each year because the alternative — contractors, rotating staff, a quota to fill — produces a different kind of photograph, and not one we would want to put our name to.
How a session runs
We visit first
Before any photography is scheduled we come to the service, walk the rooms and find where the light is good at the hour we would be working. This visit is not chargeable and carries no obligation.
We work slowly
Children come in twos and threes rather than in a queue. A child who is not ready is simply brought back later in the morning. We have never yet failed to photograph a child who was present on the day.
We edit by hand
Every frame that reaches a family has been individually corrected for colour and density. Nothing is batch processed. This is the slowest part of what we do and the part we would least like to give up.
Materials
Made to survive being handled.
Prints are made on cotton rag stock and delivered in a cloth-bound box. Families receive full-resolution digital files at the same time, without a separate charge and without a licence restricting what they do with them.
We are aware this is an unusual way to price the work. We have simply never been comfortable selling a family their own child's photograph twice.
“They came out to Balmoral three times before the first shoot, just to look at the rooms. I had never had a photographer do that.”
Director · Early learning service, Mosman · With us since 2016
“What I noticed was that our shy children were photographed properly. Not quickly — properly. That has never happened before.”
Nominated supervisor · Lane Cove · With us since 2021
We are taking a small number of
services for the 2027 season.
If you would like us to visit, write to us and we will arrange a time to come and look at your rooms.
Arrange a visit