Hi, I’m Charlie Swinbourne and I’m a people photographer focused on portraits, performance and documentary.

My photography is influenced by being partially deaf and growing up in a deaf family. I’ve spent my life communicating visually through lipreading and using sign language, and that’s given me a fascination with faces, expressions and gestures.

In March 2026 I opened a portrait studio in my dream location, the Corn Exchange in the centre of Leeds and I’m now expanding my work.

If you’d like to know more about my journey from being a scriptwriter to a photographer scroll to the end of this page. Before that…

Exhibitions

Faces of Bradford 2025 – online exhibition of twenty portraits of key artists, volunteers, teachers, organisers, performers and community champions who took part in Bradford City of Cul

Lifted (2025) – twelve portraits of elderly people and the volunteers who support them via the charity Ilkley and District Good Neighbours. Shown at Clarke Foley Centre, Photo Ilkley, Ilkley Playhouse and Ilkley Library.

Clients

Theatre: Royal Court, Leeds Playhouse, Tobacco Factory, HOME, Fuse Theatre, Shakespeare’s Globe, Graeae, Ilkley Playhouse

Music: Opera North, No Limits, Brudenell Piano Sessions, Leeds International Piano Competition, Pianodrome, London Jazz Festival, Belle Chen, Brudenell Piano Sessions, Leeds Piano Trail

Arts: Wellcome Collection, Studio Spectroscope, Science Gallery, Bradford City of Culture 2025, Dada Fest, Deaf Identity, Design Museum

TV/Film: Foundations (Apple TV), Waterloo Road (BBC1), Lumo TV, Retreat (feature film), A Hand Rises (feature film)

Community: Ilkley and District Good Neighbours – Lifted exhibition 2025, Ilkley Art School, Community Cutlery, Friends of Ilkley Pool and Lido, Ilkley Stroke Group

Events: Creative Cities Convention, Flarewave Festival, Deaffest, Sign Festival Bristol, BDA Conference, Fintech North, DeafEXPO, Signlight Film Festival (Los Angeles), Piano City Milan

Commercial: Liverpool FC/Carlsberg, Forestry England

Going from scriptwriting to photography

I’ve taken a bit of a long route to being a photographer.

Twenty years ago, I worked with a group of amazing young deaf people on a TV programme, some of whom became friends for life, and they gave me something very special: my sign name.

A sign name is a visual nickname, as well as being a marker of being known and accepted by other deaf people. It’s usually linked to something about the person, for example that they ‘waffle’ a lot, used to play the ‘piano’, or are a ‘dancer’ (these are all real sign names of friends of mine!).

Mine is ‘Charlie camera,’ or ‘Charlie taking a photo.’ It was given to me because I always had a camera in hand, capturing our office and our shoots.

I maintained my interest in photography for a few years, often photographing family events and holidays and even a wedding or two as a favour for friends, but as I became a dad to two beautiful children, and my writing career developed my camera got put to one side.

There followed well over a decade where I’d tell deaf people my sign name was ‘Charlie camera’ but I’d follow that by saying ‘because I used to take a lot of photos.’

Cut to January 2024. I’d made my own comedy and documentary series, and written for major BBC shows, winning BAFTA and RTS awards. I was at the height of my writing career, at least on paper. But I wanted to get out of being in a room typing away all the time. I decided to pick up my camera again and get out into the world, engage with people, see theatre and music.

Initially, I volunteered in my local community, and in the wider deaf community, getting as much experience as I could, at plays, events, and groups. I watched a lot of online photography tutorials and spent a bit too much time researching new equipment that I couldn’t afford to buy.

After six months I quit my job and went full-time. I spent around a year travelling across England photographing theatre, music, comedy and events, learning with every job I did. I then developed my portrait work and in March 2026, opened a studio in my dream location, the Corn Exchange in the centre of Leeds.

I’ve loved every second of my new journey.

And my sign name feels like me again now. 🙂

Charlie’s other work