About

Hi! I’m Charlie and I photograph people. Get in touch by emailing charlie@moorlightstudio.uk.

I grew up in a visual culture, lipreading and using sign language, and that’s given me a love of photographing faces, body language and connections between people.

I love taking portraits, capturing community projects, and photographing creative people.

I recently opened Moorlight Studio, a base for my portrait and headshot work, which can also be used by other photographers and videographers. Find out more about it here!

My sign name is ‘C take photo.’ Sign names are given by other deaf people and mine was given to me back in 2005, when I was rarely without a camera in hand!

I’ve recently worked with:

Theatre: The Royal Court, Leeds Playhouse, Tobacco Factory, HOME, Triple C, Fuse Theatre, Shakespeare’s Globe, Graeae, Ilkley Playhouse, This Girl Did

Music: Opera North, No Limits, Brudenell Piano Sessions, Piano City Milan, Leeds Piano Festival, Pianodrome, London Jazz Festival, Belle Chen, Sign Festival Bristol, Brudenell Piano Sessions, Leeds Piano Trail

TV/Film: Apple TV (Foundations), Wall to Wall / RopeLadder (Waterloo Road, BBC1), Lumo TV, Retreat (feature film), Creative Cities Convention, A Hand Rises (feature film), Deaf and Disabled People in TV

Arts: Wellcome Collection, Studio Spectroscope, Science Gallery, Dada Fest, Deaffest, Deaf Identity, Signlight Film Festival (Los Angeles), Design Museum

Comedy: Silky and Friends, Deaf Comedy Extravaganza

Community: Ilkley and District Good Neighbours, Ilkley Art School, Community Cutlery, Friends of Ilkley Pool and Lido

After having a successful career as a writer, director and Executive Producer, winning BAFTA and RTS awards, creating my own comedy, drama and documentary series, and writing for some of the UK’s most popular shows such as Waterloo Road and Casualty, I decided to start a new journey in photography in early 2024.

I invested in the Nikon Z range of mirrorless cameras and lenses and took every opportunity to take photos and learn. Since then I’ve travelled across the UK and internationally to LA, Milan and Prague, making this my new career.

My photography has been published in the Guardian, BBC Online, Yorkshire Post and elsewhere. See my latest photos on Instagram @CharlieSwin_Photos here.

If you’d like to make an enquiry or book me for a shoot, just drop me an email: charlie@eyewitnessmedia.co.uk

If you’d like to find out about my film and TV writing and directing work just click here. I’m also the editor of the Limping Chicken blog, which I’ve run since 2012.