The Story Behind The Shot - Family Matters

From the windswept Scottish coastal town of Peterhead to the salt-dipped Cornish coastal village of Lelant, the road travelled by Tempest Photography has spanned the length of Britain…well, almost.

Peterhead played as the birthplace for company founder, Horace Tempest, all the way back in 1902. Nottingham witnessed the birth of Tempest Photography in 1942 and served as home for 16 years, before the family and company arrived in the quaint surroundings of deepest southwest Cornwall, and the village of Lelant.

The snapshot in time you see here echoes back to those first few years settling into the ebb and flow of life on the Cornish coast. It features an assorted cast of characters whose days would have been spent working out of Trevethoe House, and whose nights are now purely speculations lost to the passage of time.

However, this particular photograph does have a couple of notable features. Firstly, this was the very first Tempest team photo taken following the relocation to Cornwall. This smiling crew were the brains, the engine room, the talent, and the push that fuelled Tempest’s rise as a world-renowned photography company. Horace and Rose Tempest sit front and centre. And then, on closer inspection, we notice the children seated on the grass before them, somewhat echoing the school class photography that the Tempest name grew upon.

This gentle little moment in time is a reminder of how family has long been at the core of the company. Some of the youngest members to carry the Tempest surname already a part of the fabric of the future. And some would go on to become key Tempest employees, while others would tackle different adventures, but this vein of belonging and of family still resonates throughout the company to this day.

Horace and Rose cultivated the idea and allowed it to blossom into something truly special. It’s easy to forget the cogs that turn behind the corporate face of a company. Too easy to stop at the logo and the message, whilst missing the faces and stories that truly make a company thrive. But images such as this one are timely reminders that Tempest Photography was built by one family, for so many families and that same spirit lives on today.