Michelle Chaplow Hotel Photographer

Michelle Chaplow is a highly accomplished, award-winning hotel photographer, who has worked for the last 25 years in the field of luxury travel and hotel photography on all five continents.

In 2010 Michelle established Hotel Essence Photography, and for the last seven years she has worked exclusively on capturing the very essence of luxury hotels and resorts.  As a luxury hotel photographer, many of her photography commissions have been for heritage hotels and high-end resorts – her expert knowledge is this field is a major advantage for effectively capturing the unique ambience of landmark historic hotels. A hotel is a place to relax, dream and create memories, so photographing every aspect has to be done with the highest professional standards, capturing the lavish care and attention-to-detail experience of staying in a five-star hotel.

Michelle is an approved hotel photographer for Historic Hotels Worldwide™, The Historic Hotels of America™ and The Most Famous Hotels in the World® and is also a member of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain.

Michelle is British by birth and between assignments is based between England and her photographic studio in Andalucía, Spain. Michelle is also director of two IT companies, so she knows how important it is to deliver a hotel photography assignment on time and within budget.  She is highly IT-savvy, which helps when it comes to web design, as she understands the importance of online visuals and their repercussions for social media. Michelle’s work has appeared both on and offline in glossy magazines, books and newspapers worldwide.

Behind every good hotel photographer you will find a crew, which will vary from photography assignment to assignment and according to the geographical location of the hotel. The hotel photography shoot team includes assistant photographers, lighting specialists, stylists, and production and postproduction experts.

Michelle´s team can create every type of visual: from architectural photography hero shots to those all-important, close-up experience details; spas, resort “take me there” photos, mouth-watering food images, and portraits – all of these can be incorporated into a tailor-made assignment, whether for a major new opening, refurbishment or professionally-created photos details for a hotel’s Instagram channel. 

Her work has been published worldwide by such prestigious institutions and publications as the Library of Congress, BBC Books, National Geographic Guide Books, The Daily Telegraph, The Times, Harper’s Bazaar and Conde Nast Traveller. Hotel Essence Photography has been commissioned and published by highly prestigious hotel groups such as Mandarin Oriental, Paradores de España, Kempinski, Oberoi, and numerous independently-owned hotels.

Whether you’re a small boutique hotel or an internationally-renowned landmark establishment, your photographic needs can be catered for. Quality hotel photography is the key to increased revenue. As a keynote speaker, Michelle has explained this point a number of times in her keynotes.

Outside of the commercial world, Michelle Chaplow also dedicates a proportion of her time to contemporary art photography, which she has studied at Seville University and the Contemporary Art Museum in Malaga.

On this website Michelle not only provides the reader with a showcase of her own imagery, but also has up-to-date reports on her latest hotel photography projects. So if you are curious to find out what this hotel photographer is working on now, please refer to the News section, which outlines her monthly assignments stretching back over the last decade. You can contact Michelle here.