Charlie Swinbourne: From scriptwriting to photography – what I’ve learned on my new journey (BSL)

Explore Charlie’s photography or book a session at: http://charliesportraits.com

As I write this, I’m sitting in my portrait studio – called Charlie’s Portraits – in the centre of Leeds, in a beautiful, historic building called the Corn Exchange, full of independent shops.

Watch Charlie signing his video below or scroll down to continue reading:

It’s amazing to be here. I now work full-time as a photographer, taking portraits here in the studio and live photos outside the studio for theatre, music and events. So why did I decide to change my career?

Working in TV

Some of you will know that alongside editing this site, I worked in TV as a scriptwriter and director for the best part of two decades.

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Working in TV really changed my life. My first job in TV was in 2005 for the Channel 4 deaf magazine series Vee-TV, and although I had a deaf family, because I had gone to mainstream school, that job was the first time I made deaf friends who were my own age.

Here’s a very grainy photo taken of the Vee-TV team circa 2006:

It was like an awakening for me, and as well as making some friends for life, they became collaborators too, we made work together.

‘Charlie Camera’

It was while I was at Vee-TV that I was given my sign name – which linked to photography. It was ‘Charlie Camera.’

You make it by making a ‘C’ shape with your hand then clicking it, like clicking a camera shutter.

This was given to me because I always had a camera in hand, taking photos behind the scenes on our shoots.

After someone made me laugh after work in the pub and beer dribbled down my chin, I nearly got a much worse sign name, but that’s another story!

Over the next few years, alongside work, I took photos at every opportunity, including for a documentary following a deaf dancer to the Rio Carnival in Brazil, while there we also visited a deaf school. Here’s some photos from our time in Rio, twenty years ago in 2006:

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When my two daughters were born, I took as many photos of them as I could, but eventually, there came a point when my children got a bit older and started telling me to put my camera away!

At the same time,  my scriptwriting and filmmaking work got busier and busier, so the camera got used less and less. It’d tend to stay in a drawer and come out on a family holiday or at Christmas, and that was about it.

I always felt a bit sad when people asked me my sign name – I would tell them it was ‘Charlie Camera’ followed by ‘but I don’t take photos any more.’

Although my writing was going well, there was something I struggled with, all the way through. And that was working alone.

I felt lucky to be a writer, but there were times I really missed the human connection, and when it felt like something was missing from my life.

Sometimes daughters know us best

One day, in the summer of 2022, my elder daughter said something to me. I’d made a comment about enjoying my work and she replied: ‘I don’t think you do enjoy it.’

Her comment made me question myself. Was I happy? I definitely enjoyed aspects of the work, and having had success, I felt I should be grateful. But that day, I realised that my daughter, who knew me best, could see that things weren’t quite right.

Cut to Christmas 2023. I’d finished a major script project alongside a demanding job I had which also involved working from home. I’d hardly socialised for around six months in order to get everything done, working weekends and evenings.

The script had gone really well, everyone was excited about it. Now that it was behind me, I was all set for my next writing opportunity, at a script conference in the new year. But I had this strong feeling that I didn’t want to go to the script conference. I wanted things to change.

First steps

First, I took an online course to learn more about photography and remember what I’d forgotten! I started research cameras and lenses and I bought a new camera and lens in March 2024, which was incredibly exciting. I felt like a kid again.

I started volunteering to take photos at my local theatre and Lido, and for community events, including deaf festivals. I travelled to Milan to photograph a pianist I was a fan of.

Here’s a few photos from that time:

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Having built up experience and started getting a bit of paid work, I decided to take the leap, and gave up my day job in July 2024.

The leap

I had no bookings or paid work, but I decided I’d make myself busy, volunteering, and luckily, doing that led to paid bookings steadily increasing.

What I’m really interested in, with photography, is people, their faces, expressions, body language, and interactions with one another. A sense of catching something true about them, that feels like it’s really them. Here are some photos that I felt achieved that:

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I think being deaf feeds into how I see photography. I find I’m often looking for ‘deaf’ elements even when I’m photographing hearing people. I recently photographed an event with hearing people and realised I’d photographed all the hearing people using gestures with their hands and arms!

Here’s some of them, from Creative Cities Convention 2026:

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Another leap… into a studio

After a year of photographing people in live situations, I started my first portrait studio, in Ilkley where I live, in September 2025.

It felt like the natural next step for my work, and I loved learning how to use studio lighting, shadows, and backgrounds and working one-to-one with people who came in. Here’s a few studio portraits I’ve taken:

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After six months, I then took another leap and moved here to the Corn Exchange in March this year. I’m surrounded by independent traders in a beautiful landmark building in the centre of Leeds. Here’s some pics:

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I wanted to put myself in the centre of the city, where people could reach me, in a vibrant, creative building full of independent creative shops, which is also accessible.

Since moving here, I’ve taken portraits and headshots of people like actors, musicians, business people, people from all walks of life. I still work regularly in theatre, music, events, on community projects and I’ve had several exhibitions as well.

I’m very thankful for the support I’ve had from the deaf community. One deaf actor drove from two hours away for a session. Two deaf performers from London came for the day, travelling by train!

But the person who holds the record is Jennifer Manning, a deaf Canadian performer who travelled all the way from the south of France! To be honest it amazed me that people would travel from so far away, and I felt really moved that deaf people would make that kind of effort to support my studio. So I tried even harder to do the best I could with their photos!

Here’s some photos from Jennifer’s shoot:

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When I first began taking photos, I’d sometimes be at deaf events and some people I knew would say: ‘you’ll go back to writing, won’t you,’ and I would reply that I was focusing on my new career now.

In all honesty, I think I will write again, I hope so, but I also know that I could only start this new journey by fully committing to it. I hope that at some point, I’ll write or create something new for the screen or stage, maybe a documentary using my own cameras, or a comedy film.

Thanks for reading, and do come and visit my studio if you are in Leeds, it’d be nice to see you! You can find out more information at the links below.

If you’re interested in a portrait session at Leeds Corn Exchange, or booking Charlie for photography, then visit http://charliesportraits.com or drop him an email: charlie@charliesportraits.com