London Photography Award Nomination Simon Annand: '.. has been granted unprecedented access to actors' dressing rooms during this sacrosanct period; the result is a series of portraits that catch the moment in which the daily self is shed and the actor slides their way into a role... As a piece of theatre history, The Half is astonishingly rich.'

The Guardian: “Simon Annand has been granted unprecedented access to actors' dressing rooms during this sacrosanct period; the result is a series of portraits that catch the moment in which the daily self is shed and the actor slides their way into a role... As a piece of theatre history, The Half is astonishingly rich. But its real value is to reveal the agonising, magical process of transition an actor must undergo; to show, as William Hazlitt had it, the 'studied madness' of becoming, daily, someone new.”

Half an hour before curtain up in prestigious venues across the UK, Simon Annand has snapped the likes of Dame Judi, Jeremy Irons and Jude Law, resulting in his much-cherished collection The Half. He has been courting the famous birdie for around 30 years now, and holds a unique trust from his metamorphosing subjects. However, if you haven’t already seen or bought his glorious archive of thespian royalty, you’ll have a chance to see those, and even more in a new exhibition this spring at the Idea Generation Gallery in London. New images centre on our multi-colour, all-cylinders-firing panto and musical industry, featuring Amanda Holden in Shrek, and Kelly Brook in Calendar Girls.