- Client
- Anthropic
- Venue
- Northumbria University, Newcastle
- Dates
- Delivered
- 68 hero frames
A three-day hackathon at Northumbria University, sponsored by Anthropic and built around Claude. The brief was coverage that could do three jobs at once: carry the organiser’s recap, make the sponsor’s case for the next one, and stand as the record participants would actually want to keep.
The treatment is deliberately dark. Black grounds, restrained colour, available light left where it fell. Anthropic’s branding - the Claude wordmark on the backdrop, the stage colour, the signage moving people through the building - was used as the compositional anchor rather than a logo dropped into a corner. The brand reads in the frame because it was built into the frame.
Three days, three registers. The focus of teams heads-down in their work. The floor between sessions, where most of the actual event happens. The formal moments on stage, shot to hold up in a deck and on a wall. Sixty-eight hero frames went to Anthropic and the organisers as a tight edit, sequenced as a story rather than handed over as a dump of everything that moved.
Selected frames
The photos exceeded expectations from the speakers, partner organisations and most importantly Anthropic.
James was very flexible and easy-going, came very early and was committed to staying all day for three days with full professionalism, taking non-stop pictures and capturing every opportunity - especially vital given we were hosting an official Anthropic hackathon at the scale of students and organisations attending the event. The final images look professional and extraordinary, especially given the calibre of speakers and organisations we had from the North East. The photos exceeded expectations from the speakers, partner organisations and most importantly Anthropic. The companies, speakers, and builders were all very keen to receive the pictures, and the turnaround was amazing - high-quality images delivered with strong professionalism, which the builders and organisations were really happy with.
It's the connection and professionalism that sets James apart. Some photographers don't give 100 percent, and others have personalities that are off-putting or unpleasant to work with, but James made it so much fun. His soft skills, professionalism, flexibility and adaptability were amazing, and he gave 100 percent to the photos. This was crucial given the calibre of the event.
I'd recommend him for any kind of work, because as a photographer you need to be creative and adapt based on theme and mood. At the hackathon, the tone had to be professional for the speakers' corporate shots, while the student side was more casual and relaxed, capturing builders enjoying themselves while building with Claude. It was an amazing experience working with him. Without his photos, the hackathon at Northumbria University with all the speakers, organisations and builders in attendance wouldn't have shown the same success. I highly recommend checking him out.