Email in from Ireland’s Homes Interiors & living magazine to say:
Hi Ashley
I am sure you know we are approaching our 20th birthday and we are planning on dedicating a page to our contributors over the years, we would like to include you in this page, would you be able to supply me with a headshot of yourself and 50 words or so on working with the magazine. Could you also ask Marie to do the same? If you could send this in in the next couple of weeks that would be great.
So I replied by saying:
Time to call up David Bailey or Annie Leibovitz, and ask them for a wee favour then 🙂
Hard to believe it’s been 20 years, as it really doesn’t seem that long ago – as I do still remember those early days like it was only yesterday.
Anyway, no problems – I have plenty of shots of Marie – so I’ll let her pick.
Pictures of me – those are few and far between – but I’m sure I’ll find something that makes me look 20 years younger 🙂
A selfie is a self-portrait photograph, typically taken with a hand-held digital camera – and since David & Annie were both currently unavailable for obvious reasons, then I reckoned it was, therefore, going to be a selfie.
So out with the Canon, a 50mm lens attached and with the aid of a reflector, I started to snap.
Looking old…

.. but they do say the camera never lies 
Ah well, so I guess is how I now look 20 years on – after having produce thousands of memorable images of people and their homes.
Included this one…

.. which was actually one of the last homes I shot on film, before buying my first digital system almost 15 years ago.
Remember thinking at the time, this girl has worked hard – and so wasn’t surprised that Ireland’s Homes Interiors & living magazine liked it too – and so ran with this home on the cover of their February 2000 issue…

.. which was actually around the time they changed their name, to become an all Ireland magazine as well.
So what was so memorable about this one you ask !!
Well for one, we shot it again in 2004…

.. and then in it again in 2005 for some Ulster Carpet ads…

.. which were a lot of fun and the begining of a whole new look…

.. so we shot it again in 2006…

.. and again in 2007…

.. this time with the homeowner in it – looking rather please with herself 
And at the end of 2008, after may other shoots in it for various company’s ads etc, I shot it for the last time…

.. to help them sell it – and so this became by far the most photographed home in the country I reckon – and probably the most featured home in the UK too, as I think we managed to get this one featured in almost every publication there is.
But I guess the main reason for this one being so memorable – if you haven’t already guessed – is this is where I first met Marie, as this was her home.
So I’ve seen lots of changes over the years, including both the style of Marie’s work and my own, since we first met via this magazine – and then I take another look at that picture of myself and think “ah well, I guess I’ve changed too”
Now just need to think of 50 words or so on working with the magazine, to sum all of this up and the doors of opportunity they opened, which really I guess has been the big thing, which I’d like to thank them for.
Cheers,
Ashley
www.ashleymorrison.com