The existence of Copeland Park as a creative hub, home to a diverse community of artists, dates all the way back to the late 1990s. It wasn’t until 2013, however, that a more direct approach was taken in forming a ‘small business and arts incubator’ in the heart of Peckham. Over the next few years, the Copeland community grew and many of the businesses that have become staples of the local area moved in. Now in 2025, many of these stalwarts of our site are celebrating anniversary milestones, and over the coming months we will be highlighting these achievements with retrospectives on some of our longest standing residents. Capping off the series is Copeland Park’s premiere photography studio, Sunset Studios with founder Alex Rimmer giving us a run-through of his favourite moments and shoots from over the past decade.
A collaboration between former Holdrons Arcade residents Wavey Garms and Nike for Air Max Day. It’s always nice to work with local talent and the influential duo of Andres and Rhiannon are no exception. Pioneers of the UK vintage and streetwear scene, here they are collaborating with a household name in Nike to celebrate the 2016 iteration of Air Max Day.
Vicky Grout is a photographer who at the start of her career was well known for her intimate portraits of grime artists and is now making moves in the wider music scene too. She was one of the first established photographers to regularly shoot with us and really helped put us on the map with her large following. Her work often used natural light which highlighted the unique quality of the daylight that the Bussey Building has to offer. Here is one of her early test shoots from 2017.
It was always obvious that Jack Bridgland would go on to do great things from some of the brilliant work he shot at Sunset Studios when he was based in London. I have selected several of his shoots for this list as there were just too many to choose from. Featured here is the iconic British R&B star Jorja Smith, being shot for Paper Magazine in 2017.
This has to be my favourite shoot to have taken place at the studios. Arlo Parks being shot in late 2020 for her fantastic album ‘Collapsed in Sunbeams’ in the newly opened Studio 1. The album would go on to win the 2021 Mercury Prize and be nominated for a Grammy. It’s awesome to see Studio 1 recognisable and immortalised on the cover of such an acclaimed British record. Long time Bussey Building resident Matt De Jong was the creative director of the shoot as well as the designer of the album artwork.
This was actually the first shoot to take place in Studio 1, which we expanded into at the end of 2019. LEJ is a British menswear brand and the new studio happened to be perfect for the rustic, sun drenched aesthetic they were looking for. Even though we didn’t see the finished images for a while, it was clear that the new space had been worth the gamble just from seeing digitals on the day. Direct sunlight from the low autumn sun spilling onto the newly installed plaster wall through the south facing windows. The Bussey Building looking more beautiful than ever.
Another shoot from Jack Bridgland – this time Little Simz. The London born rapper and actress being shot for a 2018 issue of Crack Magazine in possibly the first cover shoot to take place at the studios. This was fun to see as I’ve always enjoyed reading Crack as the free magazine is regularly distributed around Copeland Park and always features exciting established and emerging photographic talent.
Mo Gilligan is a Camberwell native and a regular visitor for his shoots. Running the studios has been an eye opening experience to the depth of creative talent in South East London. It has been a tremendous pleasure to have provided SE artists with accessible places to shoot, as opposed to the traditional options in West and East London. Shot here in 2023, Mo is a stand up comedian and an increasingly present figure on British TV screens.
Former Peckham resident Olivia Colman shot by Amelia Troubridge for the cover of the Guardian’s Saturday Magazine in 2021. Not much more to say here, a generational actor and Oscar winner photographed in the Bussey Building.
As someone who loves dance music, having a DJ Mag cover shot in the studios was definitely on the studio bucket list. Here, the talented Northern Irish DJ Or:la features on the January 2022 issue, with amazing photography from Vivek Vadoliya.
While running Sunset Studios has usually come first over the years, every now and then I manage to shoot some work myself. Here is the Mercury Prize and Mobo nominated grime prodigy, Novelist. The Lewisham local is another regular visitor to the studios and in 2021 I briefly shot these photos while we were working on another project.
The last 10 years have been an amazing experience growing the studios from a single studio tucked away on the 4th floor, to three studios covering 4,500 square feet in the middle of the building, all made possible by an amazing team of staff. Hopefully the coming years will offer more chances to develop my own practice in these unique studios we have created.
You can find Sunset Studios across units B2.1, B2.2 and B2.3 in the Bussey Building. Head to their website to enquire about studio bookings and follow them on Instagram here.
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