Rule 01
Arrive before the light does.
The best hour on any location is the one before anyone else gets there.
40 min early, always
Frame 03 · About
I photograph people when they stop performing.
- Working since
- 2014
- Based
- Worldwide
- Usual kit
- Full frame, 35mm and 85mm primes
- Lights
- One, most days
The job, mostly
Most of my job is waiting. For the light to turn, for the wind to drop, for someone to forget that I am holding a camera. When it happens I have about a second. Everything else is making sure I am ready for it.
How I work
I am Leon Vale, a portrait, fashion and editorial photographer. I grew up in a house with a darkroom under the stairs and printed my first roll at eleven. I have been photographing for a living since 2014, and I still take a light meter to every job.
My work moves between commissions for magazines and labels and long personal series made slowly over months. The method is the same for both: arrive early, talk a lot, use as little light as the picture needs, and wait for the moment someone forgets the camera is there.
I am based wherever the next job is. Most years that means Paris, Berlin, Prishtina and the south of France, with a few longer trips in between.
see you on set, Leon
- Years behind the camera
- Rolls developed by hand
- Countries photographed in
- Clients who come back
A roll of years
How I got here, one frame at a time.
Drag the roll, or use the arrows. Every year has one frame that stuck.
▸ 01A2009
The first roll
Printed under the stairs at eleven, with my father timing the developer on a kitchen clock.
▸ 02A2014
First paid job
A wedding I had no business shooting. I learned more that day than in three years of school.
- ▸ 03A
2016
Assistant in Berlin
Two years carrying lights for other photographers, and learning when not to switch them on.
▸ 04A2018
First cover
Kader Magazine. A portrait made in eleven minutes at the end of a hotel corridor.
- ▸ 05A
2021
Concrete Psalms
A series about walls and the shadows that cross them. Atelier Review ran twelve pages.
- ▸ 06A
2023
Open Field
Three windy weeks in Provence and a printed edition of 40 that sold out in a fortnight.
▸ 07A2024
Lightfall
Four prints, each 120 cm tall, in a group show at Galerie Neun in Berlin.
- ▸ 08A
2026
Now
Still taking a light meter to every job. Booking for spring.
Rules on the darkroom wall
Four things I try never to forget.
Rule 02
One light, moved a little.
Most problems are solved by moving a lamp or a person a step, not by adding more.
two if it rains
Rule 03
Talk more than you shoot.
The first twenty minutes are a conversation. The camera stays on the table.
no camera, first 20 min
Rule 04
Print everything you keep.
A picture is not finished until it holds up on paper, at size, on a wall.
the print decides
A day on set
The call sheet, more or less.
Most shoot days look something like this. The light decides the rest.
Call sheet
Shoot day · Location to be confirmed
Sunrise 07:12 · Sunset 18:41
- 07:30Coffee and a walk through the location, before anyone unpacks.
- 08:15Light readings in every corner we might use. Notes in pencil.
- 09:00Hair and makeup. We talk, I don't shoot.
- 10:00First frames. Usually the warm-up becomes the picture.
- 13:00Lunch, away from the set and away from the screens.
- 14:30The second look, wherever the light has moved to.
- 17:45Golden hour, if the day gives us one.
- 19:00Wrap, and a first look at the selects before everyone leaves.
Crew: photographer, assistant, hair and makeupApproved
He never asks you to smile. He waits until you forget he is there, and then the picture is simply you.
Clients and publications
- Kader Magazine
- Maison Ilse
- Nine Rooms Records
- Atelier Review
- Halde Knitwear
- Folio Nord
- The Slow Issue
- Common Thread Journal
Shows and recognition
- 2025Portrait of Humanity, shortlist
- 2024Lightfall, group show at Galerie Neun, Berlin
- 2023Open Field, printed edition of 40
- 2021Concrete Psalms, featured in Atelier Review
