Big Rocket’s Trim project is one of the Best in Book winners in Creative Review’s Photography Annnual, published with the October issue of CR, out this week

Big Rocket (aka James and Will) shot Trim, a charming series of before-and-after portraits, at a barber shop in Soho, London. “We are interested in the idea of how a person’s image changes through the process of a simple haircut,” say the duo. “We chose a £6 barber in Soho and set up a small studio area inside the shop, where we photographed the customers before and after their haircut. We wanted the two images to be shown side by side as one image, to highlight the change. We stayed in the barber’s for a day and photographed literally anyone that agreed to do it – we are very used to working with the public through other projects, such as previous series on trainspotters, skaters and prison officers, so we managed to photograph a broad selection of customers.”

James and Will formed Big Rocket four years ago, and they specialise in portraiture, with a previous series, A-Z, exploring the characters that advertise in Yellow Pages. The Trim project is ongoing, with James and Will looking to extend it to incorporate other scenarios where personal appearance can change through a simple process.

Big Rocket’s Trim project is one of the Best in Book winners in Creative Review’s Photography Annnual, published with the October issue of CR, out this week and featuring 80 pages of great images shot over the past year