Reg Wilkins

Reg Wilkins FCSD Independent award winning photographer working worldwide in the fashion, advertising and editorial sectors since 1964. Born in Brockley, London in 1942, Reg assisted the acclaimed fashion and portrait photographer David Montgomery for seven years in the 1960's. Concurrent with this Reg also assisted the legendary photographer Richard Avedon and the famous celebrity photographer Terry O'Neill. Whilst Assistant Photographer to David Montgomery, Reg was invited to be Photographic Advisor to the iconic film Director, Michalangelo Antonioni on the enigmatic classic Carlo Ponti film Blow-Up (1966). Reg also appeared in the film as a London fashion photographer's assistant. Hailed as a masterpiece, the film won the coveted Palme d'Or award at Cannes, was nominated for an Oscar and today has a worldwide cult following. The star-studded cast included David Hemmings as the photographer, Vanessa Redgrave, Sarah Miles, John Castle, Jane Birkin, Gillian Hills, Peter Bowles, a host of the world's top fashion models and brief appearances by The Yardbirds, Michael Palin and Janet Street-Porter. In the 1970's Reg was asked to be Staff Photographer for Management Today magazine well known for its free, creative style - Her Majesty's Misgovernment, Rolls Silver Solid (Rolls Royce), Mrs Thatcher's Tory Troubles, American Management's Watergate, and Regenerating British Government were among the many articles Reg illustrated with his photographs for the magazine. During this period Reg was also carrying out freelance commissions for numerous other magazines, advertising agencies and corporate clients both at home and overseas in addition to his personal photographic projects. Reg's portraits include numerous celebrities from the world of politics, business and entertainment such as Baron Michael Heseltine CH, PC - Former Conservative Party Deputy Prime Minister and Founder of Haymarket Publishing, Dame Catherine Cookson DBE - Novelist, Baron Richard Beeching - Former Chairman of the Royal Commission and Chairman of British Railways, Kenny Everett - Comedian, Baron John Diamond PC - Former Chief Secretary to the Treasury and Leader in the House of Lords. David Hemmings - Film Actor, Producer and Director, David Berglas - Psychological Illusionist, Mentalist and Former President of The Magic Circle, Sir Richard Rodney Bennett CBE - Musician, Composer and Former International Chair of Composition at the Royal Academy of Music, Alan and Suzanne Osmond and the Osmond Brothers Second Generation - Family Music Group, and Baron Hartley Shawcross GBE, PC, KC - Former Lead British Prosecutor at the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal and Attorney General for England and Wales, among a vast list of others. Leading magazines have published Reg's documentary, reportage and portrait photographs including Art and Antiques, Fortune, Management Today, Nova, Radio Times, Sunday Observer, Sunday Telegraph, Sunday Times and Vogue. Reg has also photographed major advertising campaigns including Central Television, Jaguar Cars, and Legal and General. As well as photographing many of the world's most prominent industrialists, he has shot campaigns for Chemical Bank, Digital International, IBM, Massey Ferguson, Merril Lynch, Shell and Wang, to name but a few. Nominations and awards for Reg's work have come from the most internationally respected creative awards for the design and advertising industries such as the London Designers and Art Directors Association Awards and the New York Art Directors Club Awards. His photographs have been exhibited in prestigious art spaces such as the Medici Gallery, the Association of Photographers' Gallery, the New Kodak Gallery and many others including national touring exhibitions. In recognition of his sense of design in photography, Reg was made a Fellow of the Chartered Society of Designers (FCSD) in 1983. The society is the world's largest and only Royal chartered body of professional designers and it's Patron HRH The Duke of Edinburgh. Reg has also been a member of the highly esteemed Association of Photographers (AOP) since 1981. Following a serious head injury whilst on an extensive shoot for a multi-national company taking him to thirty-five countries, Reg had to greatly simplify his working practices and gradually reduce the photographic commissions he accepted. Thereafter he concentrated on personal projects and making available photographic prints of his life's work to collectors. The Reg Wilkins Archives, comprising the complete collection of personal and commercial materials relating to his career, are currently held by Timothy Prus at the Archive of Modern Conflict in London. Samples of some of Reg's photographs can be viewed online at regwilkins, facebook: RegWilkins.Photographer and camerapress. http://www.the-aop.org