Poignant moment: Kate Middleton, her cancer diagnosis public, caught the eye of photographer Phil Lewis just before he took this photograph in 2024, one of his exhibits at the Clocktower this month. Photo: Phil Lewis
GIANELLA A BASILE meets photographer Phil Lewis to find out about his career and the first public exhibition of his work – ‘Lens and Life’
Proud moment: Phil Lewis speaking at the opening of his exhibition at the Croydon Clocktower
South Croydon’s Phil Lewis is a world-renowned photographer, whose work has been published all over the world. But this month, at the Croydon Clocktower café, is the first time a collection of his works has been placed on exhibition.
Lewis’s images include Donald Trump and Kamala Harris – he was on assignment at the American Presidential election campaign in 2024 – of royalty and Hollywood stars, and of “Free Palestine” protests.
All of Lewis’s photos are beautifully shot and framed.
Having had a coffee in the café, I can verify that looking at the photos is a much better way of passing the time than doomscrolling. “It would be nice for the people where I live to see what I do,” Lewis says when asked why he had chosen to stage his first exhibition in Croydon.
Lewis says that he became interested in photography when only seven or eight years old. “My father was into cinematography and my uncle photography – it was my uncle that had a SLR and dark room and showed me how to process images that I’d taken.”
Not everything went smoothly for Lewis when he started his career. “My first celebrity picture was meant to be the actor Paul Newman,” he says, “but I forgot to put film in the camera.”
Creating moments of history: photojournalist Phil Lewis has travelled the world capturing images of the great and the good
Lewis left London to live and work in the United States for a while. He had to learn, and learn quickly. “One of my first Jobs – 1989 – didn’t turn out very well as I was shooting a boxing match in Madison Square Garden, in New York. I had never photographed boxing and my camera settings were too slow.”
He is often given briefs from his agent with little time to reflect on the images he has taken before he has to move on to the next job.
You cannot help but feel Lewis’s sense of pride as he talked me through the pictures and the various stories behind them.
The photographs are an array of moments and people. By the entrance to the café is Lewis’s favourite within the collection. It shows three holy men in Varanasi, the Hindu pilgrimage site on the Ganges in India, clad in orange from head to toe, captured in a moment where they’re just hanging about.
The exhibition mixes colour and black and white photography, with quite a range of moods between them. One image taken of Kate Middleton shows her looking sombre. It was taken at an official royal engagement just after her cancer diagnosis was revealed to the public. Lewis says that they made eye contact just before he clicked the shutter on his camera. He was moved by the experience.
Already there has been controversy over one of Lewis’s photographs – a rather large image of Trump is on display in the corner of the café. This wasn’t where Lewis wanted it displayed originally.
The exhibition opened at the start of the month, and he said the initial feedback towards the photo had been largely negative. So someone in the café had it moved to the corner.
I asked some of the people in the café what they thought, and did not encounter any negativity.
Palestine protest: ‘The idea is I’ve got to get those pictures and I’ve got to show what’s going on’ Phil Lewis says of his work
Most people seemed intrigued by the photos around them. One said, “I’ve been around twice to look at them now. Every time I see them, I notice something I hadn’t before.”
I asked Lewis why so many of the pictures had an underlying political theme. It wasn’t intentional, he said, but he felt it was appropriate to show what was happening in various areas of the world.
His powerful photos of riots in America and of the Free Palestine marches just last year capture our turbulent times effortlessly. Seeing such an array of different people at the Palestine protest, all joined together to protest peacefully against something that they wholeheartedly believe is wrong, moved something in me.
“Whether it’s a war zone or a protest, the idea is I’ve got to get those pictures and I’ve got to show what’s going on,” Lewis says.
“I hope it inspires conversation, good and bad.”
The Clocktower Café is open from Monday to Saturday, 9am to 4pm. Phil Lewis’s exhibition, “Lens and Life”, continues to the end of January.
If you’re ever inclined to visit, it really does do great coffee and if you pop in on a Thursday lunchtime, there’s a live jazz band. Admission for the exhibition is free. Though I recommend you try their coffee.
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