Hide the Shark donate photography equipment to KWMC
We’re delighted to have received a generous donation of photographic equipment from the Bristol-based branding and design agency Hide the Shark.
The studio photography kit, worth more than £4k, includes a range of flash bulbs, stands, lighting umbrellas, reflectors, and back-drops. Hide the Shark have also provided a telescopic boom arm which will enable photographers to position lights directly above their models.
Based in the heart of Bristol, Hide the Shark specialises in strategic brand development that gives companies ‘the killer edge’. Its team of brand engineers, digital designers and creatives are passionate about ‘building powerful brands and creating cutting edge campaigns for people to identify with, trust and love’.
Toby Farrow, owner of Hide the Shark, said: “During a recent equipment update we decided to donate, rather than sell, some of our excess studio kit. When looking around for suitable candidates, Knowle West Media Centre ticked all of our boxes. It’s innovative, welcoming to all, forward thinking and acts both as a social hub and also as a potential commercial gateway to other forward-thinking Bristol companies for the people of Knowle West and beyond.
“Now more than ever places like KWMC need our support. It gives me great pleasure to think that this kit is going to be of use in helping to train up the next generation of Bristol photographers and that it will also be used to help document some of the incredibly creative work that is coming out of KWMC’s manufacturing space The Factory.”
Photography has a special place in KWMC’s history: the roots of our organisation can be traced back to a project run by our founder and director Carolyn Hassan in 1996, where Knowle West residents learned photographic techniques and renovated the local darkroom.

1st November 2002: Photography training with one of our first trainees
Hide the Shark’s donation will expand both the amount and the variety of photographic equipment available at KWMC – and will allow more people to use studio kit at any one time.
In the coming months we hope to offer more training sessions in studio photography, and make the equipment available to the makers and creatives who use the manufacturing facilities at our making space KWMC: The Factory, so they can take professional-quality photographs of their products.
If you have a business and would like to find out more about supporting KWMC please visit the Support page. You can also donate online via the link below.
