brendan in his studio

When I was passing through Hong Kong last autumn I spent an afternoon in my old friend Brendan Fitzpatrick’s studio. Brendan is a self-described “oil man” - a painter of incredible portraits that hang around his studio and many other places besides. He did a an hour-long study of me while the shadows lengthened, and I did a watercolour postcard of the cemetery his studio looks out over.

Brendan and I have lived oceans apart for the most of the time we’ve known each other, but it never feels like that when we do meet up. He is an excellent host, a curious conversationalist and an immensely relaxing presence; all qualities that bring the best out of whoever you’re making a portrait of, whether in paint or on film.

I shot these pictures on a roll of Ilford Colour, whose cold tones suited Hong Kong’s November sun much less than London’s greys where I finished it off.