Pret a manger

In 1986 Julian Metcalfe and Sinclair Beecham opened their first shop and called it Pret A Manger. Their mission was to sell only freshly made sandwiches with the best ingredients and a service second to none. With that formula, they have gone from 1 to now more than 450 stores in 9 countries.

I started photographing Pret 15 years ago and like their food they only wanted photos to show honest images of their incredible staff. Nothing is staged, all I do is record the service their staff give each and every day.

There are certainly challenges when capturing these images, their shops can be packed at peak time and the last thing the staff and customers want is a photographer getting in the way. So the key is picking your moment, visualising what is going to happen before it does and then wait for the image to come in to focus through the camera viewfinder.

Having photographed many of their shops around the world I’ve got to know the brand very well and am able to always come up with a set of images that capture the feel, spirit, passion, and drive that makes Pret one go the UK’s leading brands.