#pentax67

Mark Powell, 📍 D’Arblay Street, Soho — May 1995. 📷 Pentax 6x7 • Tri-X.

Saturday. Brighton to Soho.

I drove up in my little red Yugo, boot loaded with a Pentax 6x7, Tri-X, tripod — and a huge HMI light that had no business being squeezed into a tailor’s office.

Soho was its usual puzzle. Tight streets, slow turns — until, somehow, I parked right outside.

Mark Powell.

Already a presence in the men’s fashion pages — Esquire, Arena, GQ — right at the centre of that Soho world where tailoring met attitude. His office on D’Arblay Street was legendary. People passed through constantly — Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, editors, stylists, musicians. If you cared about clothes, you ended up there.

We worked fast.

Tripod down. Pentax loaded. Tri-X ready.

I shot wide open. The HMI pushed as high as that tight little room would allow — hard light, straight in.

No overthinking. A few minutes and it was done.

That was the rhythm then.

Turn up. Set up. Take the picture.

And if you got it right, you knew immediately.

Outside, it was tipping down.

So I gave him a lift home. A very merry ride it was.

A great day.

The photograph went on to make the front page of The Times as an “article inside” image.

Soho, 1995. A man in his element. No performance — just presence.