Hugh Stewart
Hugh Stewart was living in a notorious London squat in the early 1980s when he first picked up a camera and started taking portraits of his friends. After a few years of travel, he found himself in Sydney in need of a job so put together a portfolio and received his first assignment for Australian Vogue. This led to further commissions for magazines and advertising agencies which encouraged him to head back overseas resulting in a couple of decades working as a professional photographer in London and NYC.
Particularly well known for his celebrity portraits Hugh has photographed Johnny Cash, Michael Caine, Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, Paul Newman, Ed Harris, Kenneth Branagh, Naomi Watts, George Clooney, Matt Damon, Tom Hanks, Catherine Deneuve, Clint Eastwood, Julian Schnabel, Rod Stewart, Sir John Mills, Sir Ian Mckellen, John Updike, Leonardo Dicaprio, Bill Nighy, David Hare, Geoffrey Rush, Cate Blanchett, Robert Redford, Emma Thompson, the Duchess of Devonshire and five Australian prime ministers.
His portraits have been exhibited internationally including in the national portrait galleries of London and Canberra. In 2020 he was highly commended in the national photographic portrait prize in Australia. View portraits here
Another of Hugh’s specialties is shooting on-set portraiture and stills for movies, having worked extensively with director Baz Luhrmann on films like Romeo and Juliet, Moulin Rouge and his forthcoming film about Elvis Presley.
He also directs tv commercials and short films and has recently completed work for clients such as RM Williams. Glenfiddich Whisky, ACON, The Commonwealth Bank and Bill Granger. View films here
Commercial clients include Sony, Microsoft, Levis, J.Crew, Singapore Airlines, Emirates Airlines, Australian Tourism, RM Williams, HBO, Netflix, Warner Bros, Sydney Theatre Company, Mastercard as well as two campaigns for Chanel No.5.
The Maverick soul is a book co-created by Hugh and Miv Watts. Published by Hardy Grant in the UK and available worldwide.
Hugh lives in Sydney with his wife and three children and continues to work between Australia, the US and Europe.
Connect with Hugh:
Website – https://www.hughstewart.com/
Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/hughstewart_/?hl=en
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ELVIS- On Set Photography
"I love the whole process of shooting movies" Hugh Stewart has spent a carear shooting Hollywood and UK acting Royalty for US and UK VOGUE. He has also formed a strong carear long working relationship with Aussie Director Baz Lurhmann. Hugh tells us how he photographed the movie Elvis. He also ex...
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Leonardo Di Caprio
"You can always make things happen if you don't make a massive fuss". Hugh tells us how he solved the problem of making a time to capture photos of the busy cast during the making of Baz Luhrmann's film "The Great Gatsby".
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Clint Eastwood & Paul Newman
HUGH goes on a road trip to photograph two of Hollywood's most famous 'leading men' actors, Clint Eastwood and Paul Newman and a celebrity chef. During the story Hugh compares how the expectations around the approach to the shoot between the old school Hollywood and new school celebrity.
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The BAFTAS for VOGUE UK
Benicio del Toro at the BAFTAS party at 3am in the morning. As part of a commission for VOGUE UK to get portraits of actors nominated for BAFTAS for VOGUE UK.
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Bill Nighy & LL CoolJ
Bill Nighy in the street 'fluffing" around for the photo and not caring, despite a crowd of on lookers, on a busy street in the middle of London for UK VOGUE.
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Lord Snowden
Lord Snowden was a very famous photographer for the UK in the swing 60's. A bit of an Austin Powers type figure. Hugh recounts a very funny story about photographing Lord Snowden and the long lunch that followed.
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Sir Michale Caine
Hugh recounts a story about how cool actor Michael Caine was when he photographed him on the set of the film "The quiet American", directed in Vietnam by Director Phillip Noyce.
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Sir Ian McKellan
"Gandalf, Ian McKellan, he's a funny man, photographed him a couple of times." First time for Vanity Fair on the set of Lord of The Rings. Then another time for UK VOGUE in Regents Park.
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Cathy Freeman
Hugh Stewart tells us about the shoot he did with Australian icon, “Our Cathy Freeman” @cathyfreeman for @instylemagazine Australia. The photographs were taken in the Australian outback, near Broken Hill on the salt pans.
