Made by Madeleine Mason for her Photography GCSE blogspot page: http://maddiemasongcsephotography2013.blogspot.co.uk/

1. Perou
By Maddie Mason 10BI
Sprowston Community High School

2. Perou - Basic Information
Early Life
●
Perou was born in Newick, a small village in East Sussex, England.
●
Perou has stated that he, ‘had a very happy, carefree childhood growing up in the countryside’.
●
He went to primary school at Newark Church of England school and completed secondary school at
Chailey and Haywards Heath Sixth form.
●
When Perou finished his Religious Studies and Design A levels he considered a career as a longdistance lorry driver or as a missionary. But perou states that he ‘saw the dark’ after a short stint as
a butler he completed a BTEC OND in design Photography at North East Surrey College of Technology.
●
Between 1991-1994 Perou studied for a BA honours degree in Photography, Film and Video Arts at
the university of westminster

3. Perou - Basic Information
Professional Career
●
After graduating in 1994 Perou worked at Click Studios in London as a studio manager where he met many of the
world leading photographers.
●
It was his time spent at Click Studios that Perou learned photography professionally. He started shooting editorial
clients like ‘time out, skin two’ and ‘dazed & confused’ magazines. He also started shooting bands, following work
that he did with his friends who were in the band ELKA.
●
In 1995 Perou moves to the first floor of a converted fire station in Old Street, London. Shortly after, ‘Dazed &
Confused’ relocated to the first ground floor of the same building and Perou started working on the picture desk
with the photographic director, Phil Poynter. Perou continued to shoot for magazines and record companies and left
‘Dazed & Confused’ around 1997
●
Perou was initially known for as a ‘fetish photographer’ through his early work ‘skin two’ magazine and after being
featured in the book Fetish: Masters of Erotic Fantasy Photography.

4. Perou - Basic Information
Professional Career
● In 2000, Perou opened up his own photographic studio and named it the ‘Perou
Factory’ In Hackney Wick.
● In 2006 the London Development Agency ‘compulsory purchased’ the Perou
Factory as part of redevelopments for the 2012 Olympics. Perou now lives with
his family on an old farm in East Kent.
● In 2012, Perou with a team of supportive volunteers, started renovating a
dilapidated warehouse in Bow, East London. In 2013 it was launched as 'Bow
Bunker', which is a flexible place for photography, film and very special events.

5. Perou - TV facts
Chronological Order of Television
● He directed Marilyn Manson rockumentary ‘God is in the TV’ in 1999
● He was the co-director with Chris Turner for Black Box Recorder ‘the art of driving’ in 2001
● He was the co-director with Bill Yukich for Eighties Matchbox B-line disaster ‘Mister Mental’ in
2004
● He directed Kt Tunstall's music video ‘hold on’ in 2007
● 2003 Season 5 Absolutely Fabulous (cameo) in episode ‘Exploitin’ with Jean-Paul Gaultier
● 2004 BBC Picture of Africa.
● 2005 Channel 5 Make Me A Super Model UK Season 1 judge.
● 2006 Channel 5 Make Me A Super Model UK Season 2 judge and mentor.
● 2008 Celebrity Weakest Link ‘Body Beautiful’ episode..
● 2008 Bravo TV (America) Make Me A Super Model Season 2 judge.
● 2011 Channel 4 "Dirty Sexy Things"

6. Perou
- some of his photography

8. - Fashion (dirty sexy things)

9. Personal section of his website

10. Fashion section of this website

11. Music section of this website

12. Perou
These next 2 slides will be of my
favourite photographs and the
reasons why

13. This is one of my favourite photographs by Perou. I
print screened this photo from his ‘Personal’ section of
his website, i have mentioned before that it’s my
favourite part of his website. I had to print screen this
because theres no option for me to save it due to
copyright.
The reason i love this photo is because it genuinely
makes me laugh, he’s taken a photo of something that
is quite impossible to follow. The ‘Ignore this text’ is the
focal point of the picture, of course people are going to
read the text, where else are they going to look or know
what the photo is about. It’s so simple but still stands
out as a quirky photo. I love it.
It looks as if there was graffiti behind it at first because
the white paint looks like it’s covering something.
The lighting of this photo is also nice, it looks quite
vignette and musky like a lot of his personal photos.
Sometimes i think they look like they’ve been taken on
the back of a car park wall or somewhere ‘skanky’
because of the effect on them and the surroundings.

15. This is my second favourite photo because when i look it my heart sinks a little. It instantly makes
me think of poor parts of Africa, India, China etc. Wherever it is it’s definitely a third world country.
People actually live there? They have to live in those conditions every single day with disease and
hundreds of people around them in, what should be, their personal space. This photo was also
screen shotted from Perou’s ‘Personal’ section of the website.
There are so many things to think about when I look at Perou’s photo, the fact he doesn’t leave any
information or the story behind his photos makes it even better because you can think what you
want about what’s going on in them and it’s not right or wrong.
You can tell that more than 10 families live in the part of that photograph. There are more than 5
washing lines and hundreds of clothes hanging on them. I don’t think i’ve ever seen a slum much
worse than this, it really breaks my heart knowing that real human beings just like me live in
conditions like this. They haven’t done anything wrong to deserve living there, they were just born in
the wrong country at the wrong time, and that’s really sad to know.
The lighting and the focal point on this photo really makes it stand out. Perou has also used
composition really well and used the technique of the 6 boxes, having something going on in each
square of the six. It’s weird because the people living here might actually be happy, we just think it’s
really sad because of what we have right now, we couldn’t picture ourselves living here and if we
did we’d be extremely depressed. They might be happy that they actually have access to some
water and to shelter, and they have all their family with them or near the,. It’s an astonishing way of
capturing their sort of lives in a photograph