Stephen W Bates: Photography and Film for the public sector and motor sport sectors

BIOG

1988, Dartmoor with my Panasonic M10 full size VHS camcorder which I still have, as I do the shirt. Cool, eh? OK, perhaps not.

So, if you're interested, I was born in Norwich, raised in Upminster and now live in rural mid Essex. I studied graphic design and typography at St Martin's School of Art and Design in London and spent the first third of my career working in commercial advertising (creative). Studied for the CIM Diploma in Marketing and then flipped to the client side, working as Marketing Manager at Barnardo's.

Back to the agency side in the late 90s as director of Design Aspect. Sold that. New agency focusing on waste communications and then founding Mobius in 2019, a brand new agency using visual communications to stimulate behaviour change.

Photo and film has been part of my life for close to 40 years; art directing, filming or photographing. Some of it I even got paid for!

Beginnings

I got my first camera (a Kodak 77x Instamatic) for Christmas when I was eight or nine, the same year I received a toy Lotus 72 F1 car. It stood to reason that the first thing I took a photo of was of that toy and so began my passion for Photography and Motor Sports.

Development

Recognising my interest in Photography wasn't subsiding, for my 14th birthday, Mum and Dad got me this Yashica Minister Rangefinder camera and thus giving me the opportunity to learn about F-stops, ISO, shutter speeds and the like.

Getting serious

Two years later, I got my first SLR camera; a Yashica FXD Quartz. All manner of lenses and accessories were to follow and below are some of my earliest shots all taken in the late 80s and early 90s.