BACKGROUND

Chris Fairclough grew up in Farnham, Surrey and is now based in Headley in Hampshire where he has his studio.  Educated at Weydon Secondary School and later at Farnham Boys Grammar, he hitchhiked around the world in the early 70s before returning to the UK in 1973 and attending  Guildford School of Photography and Film. In 1974 this course had moved to Farnham and become the West Surrey College or Art and Design. Its now known as University College for the Creative Arts.

Graduating with a distinction in 1975 he immediately set up in business as a photo-journalist and begun working on children’s non-fiction information books and magazines.  Within a few years he had a studio in Cranleigh and employed five people.  The late 80s saw the formation of a very successful stock photo library based on the photographs from his extensive world travels. This library is now wholly digital, run from Ludlow in Shropshire and trades under the name of www.cfwimages.com

Whilst based in his Cranleigh studio Chris began to take a growing interest in studio product photography and set up an offshoot company known as Packshot. This soon led to a thriving business in advertising and commercial work ( see photography - Advertising page ) that still forms an extensive part of his business.

In 1997 Chris moved his studio to Headley where he still produces top quality product photographs as well as continuing to undertake book publishing commissions  ( see Photography - Publishing page ) that take him all over the world. To date he has just over 1000 book titles on the shelf.

During the past two years Chris has branched out into HD Video production, Royalty Free CDs and  Teacher Resource Packs, primarily for inclusion in whiteboard educational programs for schools.  Always interested in the moving image, Chris intends to grow this branch of the business over the next few years to include royalty free video clips, family memory DVD capture and school prospectus production.

As a direct offshoot of his extensive educational book illustration over the past 33 years Chris has often been asked to talk with school children about his experiences and travels.  To this end he now gives talks ( see Booktalks page ) about the importance and the production of books in education to Key Stage 2 pupils all over Great Britain and Northern Ireland.