Meet Mathias Falcone, a professional photographer and film director who has built an exciting career over many years date. 

Born in Italy and based in London, Mathias creates ‘event photostories’ for corporate, entertainment, tech, luxury, and private clients. Photostories are a series of photographs used to narrate a story. Clients use them to give people a clear insight into events or campaigns that they run.

Abroad, Mathias is active as a travel photographer, building visual rebrands for popular and niche destinations. Tradition, culture, heritage, crafts, and ever-lasting natural dreamscapes form the core of his still image production. 

In this piece, we highlight how a strong work ethic, a constant hunger to learn and positive relationships with his clients, have enabled Mathias to develop a career that he’s rightly proud of.

Finding his feet and gaining experience

Like all freelance creatives, Mathias spent the early years of his career gaining experience and skills on a variety of sets. 

“I started freelancing as a behind-the-scenes photographer for independent film and music video productions all around London, back in 2012.”

Interestingly, when starting out on his freelance journey, Mathias’ main area of interest was in film making and it wasn’t until he began working on sets and gaining experience in the industry, that he began to explore his interests in photography. 

“I had just moved to the city after six fantastic months in Bristol, filmmaking was my exclusive focus and photography a sort of 'serious hobby.'”

“It turned out to be a key part of my life only years afterward, when personal creative interests shaped up, revealing that the still image was the right medium for my travel and documentary projects.”

Today, aside from being a passionate filmmaker, Mathias captures photography content for a range of clients. He uses every possible job and opportunity to build on his photography knowledge and skills - something we love to see from our members. 

“I enjoy events because they come with a variety of situations which make jobs fun, and have forced me to improve my photography skills very fast. That has proven priceless when facing extreme situations on travel assignments.”

Working in amazing places 

Being a freelancer means that you sometimes find yourself working abroad in places you never thought you’d otherwise find yourself visiting.

In Mathias’ case, working in St Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean has been a career highlight that’s been hard to beat. He was hired by a local authority to carry out a photographic rebrand of the island.

“I am always going to have a soft spot for St. Helena, the most remote place I’ve been to date.”

“Two days to get there via Johannesburg, only one flight a week to get back. Plenty of natural beauty all around, amazing scenery, diversity, and so much history within a few square miles. The island has a limited hosting capacity, which is partially an obstacle to its development, but also what’s going to save it from mass tourism in the long run. I feel I’ll be back there one day…”.

Creative Projects with Clients 

Like many freelancers, Mathias knows that positive and creative projects with clients can lead to really amazing, unique work, repeat and maybe even regular work for a client. 

He therefore goes out of his way to ensure that his client-freelancer communication is second to none. 

“I like to see my client-freelancer communication process as two friends planning a short holiday: every detail needs to be figured out in advance, otherwise keep asking until you know what you have to do. In the end, you’re both working towards the same purpose - a great photoshoot.” 

Super insights and sage advice right there. 

A recent example of a project that worked out really well thanks to meticulous planning and communication was for a client named Shaun O’Neill. 

“The job was pretty straight forward: Shaun had gotten married abroad a few weeks back, with a limited attendance due to COVID restrictions, and was hosting a family party for the loved ones who couldn’t attend the ceremony.”

But as Mathias explains, he approached this job more as a wedding than a party.

“I treated the party like a wedding - although I don’t normally shoot them! - making sure that every single person was captured, and that fun, laughter and hugs were consistent throughout my final selection, along with speeches, key moments and some creative shots.“

A super approach indeed that incorporated a joyous theme based on Mathias’ final selection of images

Communication is Key

The best client-freelancer projects happen when both parties are patient, communicative and organised from the outset and that’s exactly why Mathias and Shaun’s partnership worked out so well. 

As Mathias explains:

“Shaun was the easiest and best person to work with: he knows what he wants, how to communicate it, and treats everyone as a friend.”

“Around him, a photographer never feels someone hired on a job but a guest. It’s the type of client that makes you want to go the extra mile to ensure they are amazed beyond expectations when you deliver.”

When you care about your client, you really care about your work and the quality of your output. Simple as.

Saying all that, it’s up to the client to make sure that they are organised and clearly communicate what it is they’d like the creative to achieve from the outset, as this helps a freelancer to get a project off to a clear and effective start. Mathias says that Shaun did exactly this when he first reached out to them.

“What made the result a success was the clear communication between the two of us since Shaun first contacted me. I understood how the party was so important despite it not being on the wedding day.”

“Sometimes, photographers don’t get clear briefs and end up having to figure things out on the spot - or worse, finding out important details afterwards when the moment has passed, which is frustrating. Shaun's party was the opposite case."

“Effective teamwork begins and ends with communication” - Mike Krzyzewski 

We really couldn’t have said it better ourselves.

If you take one thing from Mathias and Shaun's project above, it’s the learning that a client- freelancer relationship is made up of two distinct parts that need to be invested equally. 

If both parties don’t adequately engage and communicate before, throughout and after a job, the creative output may well fall short of it’s true potential - and what a shame that would be. 

About to start a new job for a client? Take a leaf out of Mathias and Shaun's book above - it’s safe to say that they know how to pull off successful client-freelancer project.

If you’ve been googling ‘event photographers london’, ‘event photography london’ ‘conference photography London’ etc. we hope you’ve found what you're looking for in Mathias Falcone! 

Check out Mathias' profile and contact him here with any queries about event photography London or conference photography London.

Check out our full range of portrait photographers, product photographers, , affordable wedding photographer London, conference photography London and event photographers London here. Read our latest article: RACHEL VOGELEISEN: USING HER PHOTOGRAPHY SKILLS TO EMPOWER WOMEN.