The photographer’s role is intriguing, to capture an image at a single moment in time, yet through that image tell a story to be read by the viewer.
The story to catapult Lorenzo Agius’s career also heralded a new chapter in popular culture, the iconic film Trainspotting where Ewan McGregor, Jonny Lee Miller and Robert Carlyle shot to fame along with the photographer who took the film's iconic black-and-white publicity shots.
In a way, the film’s underlying theme, juxtaposing urban squalor with an image of a culturally rich and affluent part of the world, epitomises what photography is often all about, to reveal an inner, often hidden truth about the subject. Lorenzo Agius, with his charming and relaxed approach to his work, is one of those photographers who have a gift for finding that truth.
I have been privileged to work with Lorenzo on a few occasions, as well as styling celebrities’ shoots, we have worked on several fashion editorials. Although different from portraits, they share a quality that feeds from Lorenzo’s spontaneity and quick minded humour or put in his own words ‘the best shots are those which are spontaneous, because they happen so rarely.’ His ability to make the model or actor feel at ease and relaxed contributes to the quality of his photographs catching the inner self without being intrusive.