Childhood dream comes true

Former @BarkingCollege college student now counts top brands including Superdrug and Revolution Beauty as clients.

Katie Howey sat in a school maths lesson, fiddling with a pot of pens on the windowsill next to her, seeing how the light casted differing shadows as she moved the pencils around.

She was fascinated at an early age about sunlight and how objects looked in it at different times of day.

Her art teachers, however, were dismissive of her interest in still objects, urging her to look at going into portraits or landscapes, as these were the things ‘people are interested in’.

Katie explains: “That really disheartened me, making me feel like my interests were somehow wrong.”

Her experience at Barking & Dagenham College was totally different: “I vividly remember one of classes during the first term at college. We were asked what area of photography we enjoyed and, if we wanted to pursue a career in photography after the course, what genre we’d like to work in. I said still life/product photography, though I was conditioned from years prior to expect to be told I was wrong for liking that.

“What I heard back couldn’t have been more different. I received excitement, curiosity, words of encouragement, and genuine interest. That meant so much to me. I felt understood.”

Katie completed her HND at the college in 2009 and soon after graduating was offered a full-time job at a photography studio in Hackney, which solely focused on product photography for various brands and businesses.

Eight years ago she started Katie Howey Studio providing photography, art direction, producing, styling, retouching, and product videos. Her client list now includes top brands including Polo Ralph Lauren,  Umberto Giannini and Revolution Beauty as clients.

Katie looks back on her time at college very fondly, remembering that she received “nothing but encouragement throughout the two years I was there,” she says, “All of the staff and teachers were absolutely brilliant. They were highly knowledgeable, encouraged discussions, debates, experimentation, and creativity. It was almost alien to me compared to my previous education, but it was so refreshing to have that constant support. They encouraged us to use the darkrooms, printing and scanning resources and the photo studio as much as we wanted.”

One of her tutors David Bennett, still works at the College, he says: “I am so pleased to hear of Katie’s success. She was a great student.”