By Mariya Harley · London · updated August 2026

Trends in photography are usually described as if they were about equipment. They are not — they are about what an audience has stopped believing. After a decade of perfectly lit, heavily finished images, polish itself became the signal that something was an advertisement. Everything below follows from that.

In

• Unposed, documentary-looking frames. Caught rather than composed — the dominant register of the year.
• Direct on-camera flash. Hard shadow, flat face, party-photo energy, used deliberately.
• Motion and blur. A trailing hand or moving hair, with the eyes still sharp.
• Film texture. Grain, blooming highlights, colour that leans rather than sits neutral.
• Vertical framing. Shot for the format people actually view in, not cropped into it afterwards.
• Minimal styling. Less makeup, fewer props, clothing that looks worn rather than presented.
• Imperfect backgrounds. The room as it was, clutter included.

Out

• The held pose. Hand on hip, elbow out, weight on one leg, hold, smile.
• Uniformly soft light. Everything evenly lit with no shadow anywhere.
• Heavy skin retouching. Texture removed until the face reads as rendered.
• The tidied set. Backgrounds cleared of every human trace.
• Horizontal-first shooting. Composing wide and cropping to vertical later.
• The reveal. Product or face saved for the end of a clip — a television habit that does not survive a scroll.

What this means if you are booking a shoot

Choose examples from the fashion portfolio and explain what you need the photographs to do. A movement-led editorial, a garment-by-garment catalogue and an agency submission need different shot lists; a trend is not a substitute for that brief.

For a visual story, discuss editorial photography. If the priority is showing each garment consistently, start with lookbook photography. For agency submissions or a personal book, read the model portfolio guide and send the agency's requirements before booking.

Photography with Mariya costs £300 per shooting hour. The standard shoot includes 10 retouched photographs in total, delivered within two weeks; studio, optional supplied wardrobe and applicable travel are separate. Select the hours and extras in the calculator, then send your references and brief.