Ralph John Perou (born May 1970), known professionally as Perou, is a British fashion, portrait and music photographer who has also appeared as a judge on Make Me a Supermodel UK and on season 2 of Bravo TV's American Make Me a Supermodel. He is part of a new series called "Dirty Sexy Things" on the British network E4
Contents |
Perou was born in Newick, a small village in East Sussex, England. Perou has stated that he, ‘had a very happy, carefree childhood growing up in the countryside. It's where I discovered my love of English cider’[1] He went to primary school at Newick Church of England school and completed secondary school at Chailey and Haywards Heath Sixth form. When Perou finished his Religious Studies and Design A levels he considered a career as a long-distance lorry driver or as a missionary. But Perou states that he ‘saw the dark’[2] and after a short stint as a butler he completed a BTEC OND in Design Photography at North East Surrey College of Technology.
Between 1991-1994 Perou studied for a BA Hons degree in Photography, Film and Video Arts at the University of Westminster.[3]
After graduating in 1994 Perou worked at Click Studios in London as a studio manager where he met many of the world’s leading photographers of the time, other assistants and the people behind Dazed & Confused magazine.
It was during his time at Click Studios that Perou learned photograph professionally. He started shooting for editorial clients like Time Out, Skin Two and Dazed & Confused magazines. He also started shooting bands, following work that he did with his friends who were in the band Elcka.
In 1995, Perou moved to the first floor of a converted fire station in Old Street, London. Shortly after, Dazed & Confused relocated to the ground floor of the same building and Perou started working on the picture desk with the photographic director, Phil Poynter. Perou continued to shoot for magazines and record companies and left Dazed & Confused around 1997.
Perou was initially known as a ‘fetish photographer’ through his early work for Skin Two magazine and after being featured in the book Fetish: Masters of Erotic Fantasy Photography.
In 2000, Perou opened the photographic studio, the ‘Perou Factory’ in Hackney Wick (an industrial estate in the east of London). In 2006 the London Development Agency ‘compulsory purchased’ the Perou Factory as part of redevelopments for the 2012 Olympics.
Perou now lives with his family on an old farm in East Kent.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jU18GM9QcDo