Portrait of Scott Sears, the youngest person to reach the South Pole solo who raised £33,500 for the Gurkha Welfare Trust to help rebuild schools in Gorkha, Nepal, which was destroyed in the 2015 earthquake. At the time Scott was a lieutenant in the First Battalion Royal Gurkha Rifles, an infantry battalion in the British Army, and pulled a sled laden with supplies for 38 days through 150mph winds in temperatures of -50c. His 702-mile trek ended at the South Pole on Christmas Day, more than 12 days sooner than he had anticipated. Scott is also the brother of British former professional tennis player and coach Sir Andrew Murray’s wife, Kim. Hailing from a family of tennis players, Scott played the sport on the international circuit until the age of 19 before joining the Army several years later.
I took Scott’s portrait on behalf of British brand Shackleton, a UK luxury adventure clothing brand, that supplied clothing to the expedition. The aim of the image was to photograph Scott, prior to his departure, in a setting which included iconic and historical elements; thus this image on Millennium Bridge with London’s cityscape and St Paul’s Cathedral in the background. The plan involved arriving at the bridge while it was still dark, at 0630 hours, in preparation for dawn. The biggest challenge was taking the portrait with the appearance that Scott was alone on the bridge as even at that time in the morning there was regular football across it; on more than one occasion I hid people crossing the bridge behind him.
In total we were on location for 35 minutes and 137 frames; it seems I was a tad snap happy. In order to achieve the portrait in such low light, I used the quickest lens I have, which is my 50mm, at the widest setting. The details of this image are; ISO 800, f/1.4 at 1/80 shutter speed. There was also the added complication that the brand were not happy with the badges on the jacket. It had been decided at late notice to sew velcro patches onto the outerwear but Shackleton were not satisfied as to how they looked. I recall giving Scott Sears direction in regards to body position, direction to look at etc.. but there was no need to say anything as to facial expression. His expression was consistent throughout the portrait session; one of (understandable) apprehension at the task ahead.
