Barrie Spence
Recognised as one of Scotland’s leading studio photographers, Barrie specialises in dance & ballet, headshots, commercial and fine-art photography. Barrie is also well known for his award-wining dog portaits.
Barrie’s work is often immediately recognisable for his clean and subtle use of light and a simple, elegant, uncomplicated style. While Barrie, of course, has an Instagram presence (@barriespence), Barrie’s work is not a product of the filters and presets common to so many Instagram photographers.
As a change of career (or mid-life crisis), Barrie opened his studio in the East Pavilion of Blackburn House (Seafield, West Lothian) in the summer of 2011.
Barrie is a director of The British Institute of Professional Photography and chair of the Scottish Region of the BIPP.
Barrie doesn’t enjoy writing about himself in the third-person, but accepts that it does read better in a biography section.
Qualifications
Few clients care about our qualifications, which is a shame because we work hard to achieve them. Unlike awards where we are competing against other images, a qualification is a straight assessment against a standard. Winning an award is just a matter of being judged as having the best image(s) in that competition – failing a qualification is like failing an exam.
But, as a client, you’re here to see if we can deliver eye-candy that you want on your wall – the work we do to achieve a qualification just makes us better.
Qualified Associate – ABIPP
So new and shiny I haven’t had time to write something here.
Qualified European Photographer – QEP
The Federation of European Professional Photographers (FEP) awarded Barrie the status of Qualified European Photographer in the category of “portrait” in October 2019.
The QEP distinction is the second level of the FEP’s three qualification tiers and recognises and rewards excellence in European Professional Photographers.
The Qualified European Photographer (QEP) distinction aims to recognise and reward excellence in European Professional Photographers. Designed to complement national awards systems, it has created a Europe-wide network of over 500 certified experts who share a passion and talent for professional photography.
To reach this level, a photographer must have excellent technical and artistic skills and the panel must have, besides technical talent, a certain wow-factor that sets them apart from others. The QEP application requires a panel of 12 printed and mounted images, all representing the candidates’ chosen field of specialization. Panels are judged by a jury of 5 experienced international judges.
QEP is not an easy qualification to achieve – Barrie is only the second photographer in Scotland to be awarded QEP status – and for the November 2019 judging, only 18 of 35 applicants were successful.
Qualified Member of the Guild of Professional Photographers
Qualified status is the entry level qualification with The Guild, demonstrating “competence”… as a new member, it’s a stepping stone to their higher level qualifications.
Awards
In Print
It’s nice to go into a shop and pick up a magazine using showing your work, but the return for the time invested is limited so we have not chosen to focus on this area of our portfolio (that’s not to say that we won’t do it again).
To Have and to Hold Scotland – Jul/Aug 2014
To Have and to Hold Scotland – Sep/Oct 2014
To Have and to Hold Scotland – Nov/Dec 2014
To Have and to Hold Scotland - Jan/Feb 2015 (feature 1)
To Have and to Hold Scotland - Jan/Feb 2015 (feature 2)
