7 minute read
ANOTHER WORLD
Alastair Laidlaw and Christine Marsden’s world-renowned publication, Dreams of Diamonds, featured the priceless Millennium Star and the $89 million Pink Star. They have recently launched a stunning new e-book, Magical Landscapes Secret Places
The creative duo behind a giant super-book, Dreams of Diamonds, acknowledged as one of the most spectacular diamond publications of all time, have released a new e-book inspired by the beauty and wonder of the Highlands of Scotland.
Before their move to the Ribble Valley four years ago, Alastair Laidlaw and Christine Marsden, co-founders of the House of Laidlaw Marsden, lived on the shores of Loch Ness, where they were able to capture on camera the extraordinary natural landscape.
The couple originally met in London back in the 1980’s where Alastair was a professional photographer and Christine was working for fashion giant Mulberry.
The pair instantly hit it off, as Alastair recalls: “We were from very different backgrounds. I was the son of a doctor and nurse, while Christine was one of six siblings from Mill Hill in Blackburn. But we had a lot in common in terms of creativity. When we met, we were both working in central London – it was a crazy time, a golden era.”
Having trained as a ‘traditional’ photographer at Central St Martin’s and Bournemouth, Alastair began working as an assistant to an American photographer, who had a studio in Kensington: “One of the first big jobs we did was in Egypt shooting the pyramids for a Benson and Hedges advertisement. It was a famous campaign that really set a trend, so we were right in the mix.”
Alastair went on to set up his own freelance photography business while Christine moved into a career styling stilllife advertisements for the luxury goods market including watches and diamonds.
“It was a natural progression to eventually work together,” recalls Christine.
Under the House of Laidlaw Marsden, the duo became hugely respected for their exceptional work which featured in the likes of Vogue, Tatler, Vanity Fair, Elle and The Times. They became well known for their jewellery photography and their work is now in private and public collections throughout the world including the Royal Academy and the Royal Photographic Society.
In 2008, during London Fashion Week, iconic designer Vivienne Westwood launched her renowned Opus book featuring 97 largeformat Polaroid images of international celebrities including Kate Moss, Bob Geldof and Helena Bonham Carter. It was one of the largest fashion books ever published.
“The book gave us the idea to produce something in large format,” says Alastair.
By coincidence Alastair and Christine’s studio space was next to De Beers and the Diamond Trading Company (DTC) in central London.
With their sights set on producing a large-format book, they chose to focus on some of the world’s most dazzling diamonds: “We got sponsors from the diamond industry and De Beers said we could use their headquarters, which was amazing as they already had security in place. We could never have done it without them – it was the safest place in London!
“Diamond traders felt very confident bringing their diamonds to us from a security point of view.”
Over three years Alastair and Christine used the space to shoot some of the world’s most valuable gems – and at the same time they had a mock-up of their super-size book with blank pages in order to show potential sponsors.
They had a phenomenal response from diamond houses all over the globe and were able to shoot the $200 million Millennium Star, a flawless 200 carat diamond, the $89 million 59.6 carat Pink Star, which is the largest flawless vivid pink diamond and the tiara belonging to Princess Grace of Monaco.
“We were photographing immensely precious and rare blue, orange and red diamonds,” adds Christine.
When Dreams of Diamonds was published with a 500-print run, it was distributed to the best diamond houses, institutes and museums around the world. The Gemological Institute of America, located in California, was so inspired by the book, they put on one of their largest exhibitions ever, calling it Dreams of Diamonds.
Dreams of Diamonds copy No 60, which was presented to the late Queen Elizabeth to mark her Diamond Jubilee, sparked other commissions for the House of Laidlaw Marsden and Alastair and Christine went on to publish a book for one of the most wellknown diamond suppliers, Diacore: “That was fun – we wanted to shoot a rare pink diamond but to bring it to London was going to be a nightmare in terms of security so they flew us to Geneva to photograph it.
“We have been invited to some amazing places and met some extraordinary people,” says Christine.
While Alastair and Christine enjoyed working in central London, they had spent many holidays in Scotland and with the digital age well and truly established, they made the decision to move to the Highlands of Scotland and commute to London: “We had found the transition to digital liberating. It meant we could work from anywhere.
“I am Scottish by blood and nature,” says Alastair. “The move meant we could release our studio in Clerkenwell and simply hire a studio when we needed to work in London. We could shoot in London and do all postprint production in Scotland. We had also spent 13 years in our tiny Chelsea flat so that went too.”
The couple bought a large house in Fort Augustus, where they created a studio and where they lived for 18 years, during which time they captured the extraordinary beauty of the changing landscape: “We had so many years shooting in Scotland we had thousands of photographs. In 2015 we started collating an archive.
“We then started thinking about another book featuring landscapes that would tie the imagery to history and magical folklore. Something wildly creative.”
Magical Landscapes Secret Places was recently published as a 375-page e-book featuring fabulous images that include stunning photography. There are images of feather ice, vibrant red-capped mushrooms, crashing waterfalls and clear blue skies, storm clouds and huge, harvest moons. The true to life images are punctuated with other-worldly photographs that are digitally enhanced to give a hint of fantasy and mystery accompanied by thought-provoking text by writers Roberta Edwards and James A Whittaker.
For all the natural majesty of the Highland landscape over the centuries, over the last two decades there have been huge changes within the communities. Development has arrived and the landscape has shifted. Produced over almost 20 years, Magical Landscapes Secret Places has inadvertently captured these changes, reflecting how the landscape has evolved.
Christine explains: “We began to see deforestation and political changes – things we didn’t necessarily agree with.”
The duo decided to move to the Ribble Valley where they have now settled: “We miss Scotland but we have found world class scenery here too,” say Alastair and Christine, who have plans to produce posters and artwork from their new book.
“There’s no doubt that Dreams of Diamonds gave us our pedigree. The pressure was on to create something beautiful, which we were able to do. We have now moved on and we hope that people will enjoy Magical Landscapes Secret Places which we consider to be a visual time capsule of our years spent in the Highlands.”
Magical Landscapes Secret Places is available from online retailers including Amazon, Kobo and Apple. RRP £9.99 thehouseoflaidlawmarsden.com
