I was commissioned by marketing and communications agency Carswell Gould to photograph the launch of Brain Tumour Research’s 2026 Wear A Hat Day campaign, held at Lock & Co. Hatters in St James’s, London.
It was a great brief for event photography: a historic London location, a strong campaign identity and a mixture of celebrity supporters, charity ambassadors, media and guests.
My job was to document the event naturally while making sure Carswell Gould and Brain Tumour Research came away with a varied set of photographs that could continue to work across PR, social media and wider campaign communications.
Candid photography from the launch of Brain Tumour Research’s 2026 Wear A Hat Day campaign at Lock & Co. Hatters in St James’s, London.
Photographing a PR event for an agency
Working for an agency on an event like this means thinking beyond a straightforward record of who attended.
Carswell Gould had brought together the charity, venue, campaign and guests, so the photography needed to show all of those elements. I photographed the campaign branding, celebrity supporters and key moments, but also concentrated on candid conversations, reactions and the atmosphere as the event unfolded.
Those less staged photographs are often some of the most useful afterwards. They give an agency a much broader library of imagery to work with across press coverage, social media, websites and future communications.
Wear A Hat Day campaign branding inside Lock & Co. Hatters for the 2026 Brain Tumour Research launch.
Guests gathering at Lock & Co. Hatters for the Wear A Hat Day launch, photographed for marketing and communications agency Carswell Gould.
Celebrity and candid event photography
The event brought together a mixture of recognisable guests, charity supporters and media, which meant moving between more formal PR photographs and completely unscripted moments.
Among the guests were Alfie Boe OBE, Clare Grogan, Debbie McGee, Vicki Michelle and Danny Clarke.
The more formal photographs are important for PR and press use, but I also look for the interactions happening around them — people trying on hats, conversations between guests and the spontaneous reactions that give a set of event photographs some life.
Debbie McGee and Vicki Michelle photographed at the Brain Tumour Research Wear A Hat Day launch at Lock & Co. Hatters.
Alfie Boe OBE and Clare Grogan during the Wear A Hat Day launch at Lock & Co. Hatters in London.
Danny Clarke with guests at the Brain Tumour Research Wear A Hat Day launch in St James’s, London.
For PR and marketing teams, having both the key names and campaign branding and genuine candid moments makes the finished photography considerably more versatile.
A candid moment during the Wear A Hat Day launch, part of the wider event photography created for Carswell Gould and Brain Tumour Research.
Capturing the venue as part of the story
The location was an important part of this event.
Lock & Co. has been making hats in St James’s since 1676, and the character and history of the shop gave the event a setting that was worth documenting in its own right.
Rather than concentrating only on the main event, I photographed details around the shop and behind the scenes as well.
A member of the Lock & Co. team amongst the shop’s traditional hat boxes — part of the wider venue and behind-the-scenes photography from the event.
One photograph shows a member of the Lock & Co. team returning a hat to the shelves amongst rows of traditional hat boxes. It’s a simple observational image, but it immediately establishes where the event is taking place and gives the wider set a sense of the character and history of the venue.
Environmental portrait of a Lock & Co. craftsman in the workshop during the Wear A Hat Day event.
I also made an environmental portrait of one of Lock & Co.’s craftsmen in the workshop, surrounded by the wooden hat blocks, tools and materials he works with.
That photograph wasn’t part of a separate commission from Lock & Co.; I saw the opportunity while covering the event and made the portrait as part of the wider story.
Lock & Co. subsequently used the photograph on its own social media.
For me, that’s an important part of photographing commercial events: looking beyond the obvious shot list and recognising opportunities to create useful images while I’m there.
More than a record of the event
A good event gallery shouldn’t consist of dozens of variations of essentially the same photograph.
For this project the final photography covered the people, campaign branding, venue, celebrity supporters, media activity, candid interactions, group photographs, speeches, details and behind-the-scenes craftsmanship.
A speaker addressing guests during the Brain Tumour Research Wear A Hat Day launch at Lock & Co. Hatters.
Guests trying on hats created plenty of natural moments to photograph alongside the more formal PR and campaign coverage.
Guests photographed with Wear A Hat Day campaign branding during the Brain Tumour Research launch in London.
That breadth matters when the photographs are going to be used by different teams and across different channels. The image required for a press story isn’t necessarily the one that works on Instagram, a campaign page or an agency case study.
My background in advertising art direction probably influences the way I approach this. I’m documenting what’s happening, but I’m also continually thinking about how an image might actually be used afterwards.
Event photography for brands, agencies and organisations
I photograph corporate events, PR events, brand activations, experiential events, conferences and product launches for agencies, brands and businesses in London and across the UK.
For agency commissions in particular, the photography needs to do more than show that an event happened. It needs to give the client a useful body of imagery that can continue working across PR, marketing, social and digital channels after the event itself is over.
A spontaneous moment during the Wear A Hat Day launch, capturing the reactions and atmosphere that sit alongside the more formal PR photography.
Guests trying on hats and photographing each other at Lock & Co. Hatters — a natural moment that captures the atmosphere of the Brain Tumour Research Wear A Hat Day event.
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