An unconventional beginning

Frederic Aranda’s works have been exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery, Royal Photographic Society as well as being published in Vogue, Vanity Fair, GQ, Esquire, The Sunday Times, and Harper’s Bazaar. The Swiss-born portrait photographer taught himself photography while studying Japanese Studies at the University of Oxford, before later working as an interpreter at the Kabuki-za theatre in Tokyo.

Over the years, Aranda’s lens has captured some of the world’s most recognisable figures, among them Anna Wintour, Vivienne Westwood, Tom Ford, Ian McKellen, and Margaret Thatcher. What began as an interest pursued between classes and through commissions of his fellow students later led to a career spanning two decades. Although without formal training, decades of immersion in other passions – Japan, visual arts, theatre, architecture, travel – gave Aranda an unusual entry point into his career in photography. 'I grew up influenced by many different cultures,' he reflects, 'which created fertile ground for my photography. That was the best photography education, and it never stops.'

Across Aranda’s diverse range of work, each demanding a very different relationship with his subjects, his philosophy remains constant: portrait photography, for him, is a collaborative process in which the photographer and the subject work together toward something neither could achieve alone.

Dina Asher Smith By Frederic Aranda

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Collaborating with ZHA

Frederic Aranda’s recent collaboration with ZHA, for which he photographed 260 individual staff portraits for the new website, as well as the directors’ group portrait, began with a friendship and a portrait session with ZHA director Melodie Leung. Aranda had photographed Melodie a few years ago, with one portrait of her from this shoot included in her project for The Dalmore's Luminary No. 2 2024 Edition.

Aranda and the team considered two ZHA-designed spaces in London for the directors' group portrait, The Winton Gallery at the Science Museum and The Magazine at Serpentine North, before settling on the latter for its sculptural, fluid form and natural lighting which made it an ideal canvas for a group of 24 people. 'I love that with architects you have the possibility of photographing people in a space they designed, a building that was once inside their heads.'

ZHA Directors by Frederic Aranda

Vogue House By Frederic Aranda

Vanity Fair By Frederic Aranda

Watchmakers For Vanity Fair By Frederic Aranda

Harper's Bazaar China By Frederic Aranda

Photographing ZHA staff

For the new ZHA website, Aranda photographed 260 staff across locations in Europe and Asia, using ZHA’s London office and Beijing office as a studio. Aranda had never previously documented this many people for one project. ‘It doesn’t matter if you’ve shot for Vogue or won awards. If you can’t complete a simple but precise project under pressure, then maybe there are areas you need to strengthen.’ Aranda also saw it as a great test of the photographer's ability to access creativity and inspiration instantly with each person, within a tight timeframe.

Curious about every person he photographed, Aranda found himself moved by what he encountered: exacting standards, creativity, and an enduring connection to Dame Zaha Hadid herself among people who had worked alongside her over nearly 40 years. The number of different cultures and languages represented in one place stayed with him above all else. 'ZHA is by far the most diverse company I've ever seen.' In Beijing, the ZHA team in China welcomed him warmly after the final shoot in London.

The process, Aranda reflects, is about the ability to translate one’s instinct about a person into a portrait without overthinking and to be fully present in the moment through the medium of photography while letting his tools become second nature.

‘I think when you repeat something hundreds of times, you eventually reach some sort of clarity that stays with you. This was one of those defining moments.’ Aranda sees it as a gift for a photographer, one which has now become part of the lifelong training that will shape his future work.