Myles Morgan Bailey

Building a career in photography doesn’t happen overnight, something photographer and lighting assistant Myles Morgan Bailey knows only too well. Building a community of fellow photographers and mentors has served him well along the way, via exhibitions, residencies and support when times have been tough. Below, Myles talks candidly about building confidence, getting too much in your head, and learning as you go, with the ultimate belief that “investing time in personal work will most likely serve you best”.

What I do

My creative practice
I’m mostly a photo & lighting assistant: rigging lights, loading film, recently digital operating on stills shoots of all kinds, and occasionally lighting for moving image shoots too.

Influences and inspiration
I’ve been very blessed with a group of incredibly generous friends who I get to work with closely; photo collective Figure.8 (Max Ferguson, Lewis Khan, Rhiannon Bowden, Khatun, Billy Baraclough, Sadie Catt and Abena Appiah); my studio mates Jack Orton, Bella Galliano-Hale, Lina Ivanova, Evie Milsom; my big brothers Ibby Azab and Josh Mosely; collaborator Hayleigh Longman; the crew from Shaftesbury Avenue and the ever wonderful Toms Woodroffe and Beck to name a few.

In terms of what inspires me in my city, small, intimate scenes. I’ll often make notes of conversations I hear that could be read as fiction. That and whenever I walk past a big Caribbean group playing music, eating and getting together. Life is happening and people are spending time together, and that’s nice.

‘Dad in our hotel room’ (2025)

My training
With regards to my art practice, I owe so much to Arts Uni Bournemouth, who gave me what I was looking for when I was younger: understanding photography on a conceptual and technical basis. I spent most of my time in the darkroom and learned how best to communicate emotions through images. I have my lecturers and technicians and friends mentioned in the previous answer and others to thank for that.

Assisting-wise, after I graduated, one of my best friends and DOP, Kiefer Passey, really took me under his wing in a way that was beyond what was necessary. He sat me down and talked me through invoicing, taxes and lighting. He really gave me a start, bringing me onto set as a spark at least once a month for about a year. In between this and installing exhibitions with Ibby and Josh, I slowly started assisting more on stills shoots.

I also had some full-time work in between graduating and assisting. I worked at Snappy Snaps for a year and learned a lot of people skills, how to become comfortable with making mistakes, which I did a lot, and how to deal with difficult situations. As someone who feels things deeply, not taking things personally and looking at situations objectively will help you move forwards. After that, I was a studio assistant at the now-closed GAS Studios in Tottenham. As much as I loathed cleaning toilets, the wonderful Ben taught me about power and kit.

It took a long time for things to sink in and to understand how it all works. I’ve been freelance for three years now and am still learning on every job.

Favourite recent project
My friend Sia Thomas recently shot a table football tournament event with Carhartt WIP. Those images have been on my mind a lot. They’re just really fun and the light is so nice.

Of my own? I’m enjoying the stuff I made during a residency I was on last summer, the Sicily Photo Masterclass. A devastating earthquake hit Sicily in 1968, leaving much of the island in ruin; since then, there’s been little to no regeneration in several areas. We were tasked with adding to the ongoing project documenting the fallout of this natural disaster. I’m still printing it, slowly (printing and paper are expensive), but I relearned something I’d lost for a long time while being there – how to really engage with an area and its people and to look past the visual elements. What we were photographing was not fallen-down buildings, but systemic neglect.

A day in the life
Waking up probably later than I should, heading to the studio, doing outreach for assisting jobs, working on personal projects – with one or two variations of biscuits to keep me going throughout the day.

A starter pack for my job:
Lucozade Original and Bourbons. They’ll save your life.

How I got here

Starting my creative journey
I still don’t think I’ve really found my feet. There’s been some really great things I’ve been blessed with over the years and I can confidently say I’m a photographic artist now, which I struggled with for a long time. But I’d say I’m still ‘starting out’ – it's mostly been an uphill battle. 2025 was good, I had some big jobs come through, but that cash all went on a new laptop and moving house.

I went freelance almost exactly three years ago, and I’m only just getting to a point where I’m confident in my ability to light a set, put together a kit list, ask for a solid day rate, etc., but a lot of that depends on the social element of the job. I’m someone who spends a lot of time in my head, often overthinking. Perhaps I could’ve gotten further if I’d just calmed down a bit.

Landing my first few jobs, clients and/or commissions
With assisting, it's been reaching out to photographers whose work I like. Adama Jalloh was someone I reached out to in my first year of assisting. We’d met once before when she came to give a talk at AUB; she’s also an ex-student from there, so perhaps there was some kinship in that. I looked up to her work for a long time, so I’ve been very grateful to have worked with her for a few years now.

Shooting-wise, I’m still figuring it out. My first and only editorial piece was with my friend Tice Cin, an astounding author, for French Fries Magazine. It was an essay on what we dubbed ‘unplaces’, “looking at the imbalance in how different parts of society get to access and inhabit space”. Tice told me a lot about Tottenham, where she grew up and now resides again. We tried to build this space of in-betweenness and confusion while looking at it.

The work I've done with DEPT Agency and eBay UK came at the right time. The team had been following what I’d been doing and reached out – they’re all so lovely. This year, I’ve been doing more tests in the hopes of getting more brand work. A producer once told me that’s the way to get work: shoot a brand/product in situ and show them. Supposedly, clients want to see the work before you’ve made it.

Biggest challenges along the way
Finding work is probably the biggest thing, assisting-wise and more so, shooting. I’m really trying to push the latter this year, learning how to pitch and make a proper deck, etc., so fingers crossed. Embarrassingly, I'm still learning about Photoshop and Lightroom. I got to a point where I thought I’d learnt everything I would need and just stuck with that way of working – not the best way, really. But I’m picking up new things at the moment.

Promoting my work I think I can do well, although it’d be great to learn how to start conversations with platforms so that when I’ve got a project ready to go, it gets disseminated somewhere that isn’t just Instagram or my website.

My social media and self-promotion vibe is…
Honest and silly. If times are tough, I’m very open about it, but I try to come across as approachable and fun too. I got a replica Spider-Man mask last summer and often wear it when doing call-outs for assisting work – it gets a lot of laughs.

Three things I've found useful in my career:

Courses, programmes, initiatives, access schemes or job boards I've found helpful
AOP (Association of Photographers) was something I used when I was first starting. It’s got a great directory of photographers, production companies and agencies.

Before I went freelance, myself and artists Martha Gray and Christian Jago were chosen for a year’s mentorship with Revolv Collective. It was the first proper award/accolade I had. The collective catered the programme to us and what we would find helpful: workshops in new ways of thinking, artist meetings, practice-based techniques, as well as regular crit sessions. It was the first time I felt properly worthy in the art space. I’d mostly given up on submitting to awards, so it was sweet to have something so caring and genuine come through.

‘Zebra City’ (2023)

My greatest learnings when it comes to making money and supporting myself as a creative:
Sometimes doing the jobs you’d really rather not do, or the ones that aren’t necessarily related. I was working in a cafe for a bit before Christmas; that got me through a tough spot and kept me fed.

My advice

My most useful career tips
Try hard and be honest and kind. Read and say hello to people.

What I'd say to someone looking to get into a similar role
Research lighting: just as we all geeked out about film cameras on YouTube, do the same with lighting. Familiarise yourself so you're not so stressed when you get on set for the first time.