Biography

Julian Antony Cottrell was born on the 3rd of June 1946 at 3.06 am in Edgbaston, Birmingham, England. By the age of nine he knew that his calling was to be a Photographer. It all happened when he was sent away to a Quaker prep boarding school in Colwall, Worcestershire. His father was a keen amateur photographer with a Leica. At school in the classroom block there was a long corridor off which there was a room that seemed to have it’s door constantly ajar. There was never any light emitting from it and always a strange smell coming out. Finally, curiosity won over and into the beautiful world of Photography stepped Julian. That was it; hooked for ever! After attending a rather bad public school he went to London to study fine art at the Royal College of Art. That lasted barely a year before moving on to a west London technical college. There he luckily befriended a same minded student who showed him the light! The great American school of professional photographers in the real world of top end advertising photography. Lester Bookbinder, Irving Penn, Hiro, Bill King and Richard Avedon. All of whom he was lucky enough to eventually work for. Of them all Irving Penn being the most influential. After finishing assisting, Julian went on to open a large three floor studio in the west end of London. It became known all over the world as “The West End Clinic”. The studio employed seven full time staff and many free lance people when needed. There was a fully equipt darkroom which could output both colour, black and white processing and printing needs. Everything was done and finished in-house. Julian became successful in both the editorial and advertising fields, winning many awards in the following years. There was a break in still photography for about sixteen years when advertising commercials were shot for all the major clients and countries worldwide. Coming back to pure photography in 2001 was like coming home.

The present time sees Julian as active as ever; taking photographs, silver printing, colour, platinum / palladium and digital archival printing. There are many on going projects in the pipe line.