About /

In 1990, he was featured in the BBC documentary A Style of One’s Own, produced for the national Standard Grade Art & Design programme.

➤ Watch the Film via the Educational Recording Agency
(Note: Access may be limited to UK educational institutions.)

That same year, he was Artist in Residence at the Glasgow School of Art, where he also taught photography and darkroom techniques. He exhibited as part of Glasgow’s European City of Culture celebrations and began receiving commercial commissions — including his first album cover and a portrait series in American Vogue.

After relocating to London in 1992, he became known for his portraiture, photographing figures such as Justin Timberlake, Billy Connolly, Dame Vera Lynn, Belinda Carlisle, Helen Sharman, and Orlando Bloom. His commercial clients have included EMI, Polydor, BBC, Barclays, Slaughter & May, Vidal Sassoon, and editorial titles such as GQ, Arena, Q Magazine, and The Sunday Times Magazine.

Phillips-McLaren has received multiple Honourable Mentions from the International Photography Awards and recognition from the International Colour Awards. In 2024, he was the only UK artist selected for Top 20: Gum Bichromate Photographers Worldwide, a curated exhibition at the Daniel Miller Gallery in Los Angeles.

Personal Work and Fine Art Practice

In 2016, Phillips-McLaren began a major shift toward fine art, launching In the Mist, a meditative landscape series made in Hatfield Forest. This was followed by still life studies and extensive work in historical printing methods, including gum bichromate. His print Gwen, “Did I Want To Be Here”? — developed over seven months using a gridded gum bichromate technique — was created specifically for the Royal Photographic Society’s Squaring the Circle exhibition. The piece marked a turning point, blending technical mastery with emotional depth and process-based experimentation.

After more than 30 years in commercial photography, he completed an MA in Fine Art at Cambridge School of Art, where he expanded into sculpture, sound, and multimedia installation. His recent work explores memory, mortality, and identity — often through a Jungian lens. Themes of the shadow, archetypes, and symbolic transformation run throughout his ongoing series A Moment’s Existence.

Teaching and Mentorship

Alongside his studio practice, Phillips-McLaren teaches photography and fine art at the School of Art, Architecture and Design (London Metropolitan University) and Cambridge School of Art. He also offers tailored one-to-one mentoring and small group workshops in analogue photography, historical processes, and hybrid media.

→ Learn more about Mentoring
→ View upcoming Workshops
👉 Read selected testimonials from artists, curators, and press
→ Voices on Ian’s Work

Education

MA Fine Art, Cambridge School of Art, ARU University, Cambridge.