During the day I am a audio engineer and Creative Director of Squeak e Clean Studios and in my spare time I love taking photos and riding motorbikes, am also a contracted photographer and filmographer for Unicef. I am married with three wonderful children, from New Zealand I now live in Sydney Australia, and each year I travel on adventurous journeys into areas where tourist’s don’t normally venture to. I love exploring the untouched World, meeting people from different walks of life, and to capture what there is left of this ever amazing shrinking planet.
Simon is a highly respected veteran of the advertising and film industry, having worked with some of the advertising world’s top directors and creatives in his 34 years in the business. He heads up as joint Creative Director for Squeak e Clean Studios, a music and sound company that has an international presence, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Melbourne and Sydney. Squeak e Clean Studios is a frontrunner in creating soundtracks for global brand advertising campaigns, documentaries and feature films.
A selection of the work Squeak e Clean Studios has produced is accessible on their website:
http://www.squeakeclean.com
Despite, or perhaps as a product of his extensive experience in the advertising and film industry, Simon has discovered a great passion for capturing and sharing stories that are entirely unique from his own experience of life in his home countries of Australia and New Zealand. He does so through his masterful work in photography and film. For the past 13 years, Simon’s passion has taken him to some of the most remarkable and fascinating places in the world. He has captured breathtaking photographs and film in a vast range of countries including India, Morocco, Myanmar, PNG, Thailand, Bangladesh, Mozambique, Tanzania, South Africa, Laos, Baja, Mongolia, extensive Europe and North America and of late Kyrgyzstan, Vietnam, Ethiopia, Lebanon and Mexico.
Upon touching down, much of Simon’s exploration occurs on the back of a motorbike. Travelling this way allows him a rare opportunity to access areas, experiences and cultures not often visited by travellers. He gains first-hand insight into the mysteries and wonders of the human experience, sharing the untold stories of the people of our fascinating world.
These travels have been entirely self-funded, without sponsorship or partners; they have been pilgrimages of passion, fuelled by a pure heartfelt love and earnest desire to share all that he has witnessed and experienced.
Simon has seen first-hand how moving and humbling the human spirit can be, and acknowledges the power in communicating it through visual storytelling. He wants others around the world to be as moved as he is, by human life and the world in which we live.
As such, UNICEF has taken a keen interest in Simon’s work. Like Simon, they recognise not only the uniqueness and joy in the footage and photographs he captures, but also their significance and capacity to elicit change across a global platform.
In June of 2016 Unicef contracted Simon to be their brand photographer and filmographer to help create a library for their 193 offices to use across all platforms and also direct and produce their brand commercial which will be played globally in multiple regions around the world. The commercial is 90 seconds long and features the incredible voice of Liam Neeson, and for the other regions, voices Jackie Chan, Shakira and other Unicef ambassadors.
The brand launch was released at Unicef’s 70th anniversary at the United Nations on the 12th of December 2016.
In 2018 Simon has been featured in the Netflix documentary series ‘Tales by Light’ which tells the stories of photographers around the world. Simon’s story is about child workers in Bangladesh and Bolivia and he is partnered with Unicef and special quest Orlando Bloom, together they share stories of children in some of the world’s harshest environments.
In 2020 Simon was Creative Director for the United Nations 75th Anniversary film that played in the General Assembly in New York city, it was played in the opening of the event to world leaders and representatives of the world's nation's.
Simon’s first-hand experience of humanity in all environments, along with his depth of knowledge of the film industry, means that he can bring an entirely new and unique visual experience to UNICEF with his photographs, film and 360VR experiences. He can capture, edit, create soundtracks and produce all deliverables across all mediums.
Hear my story on iTunes Podcast by Joel Coleman
Tour giudes used and recommend
Bolivia :http://www.bolivia4x4.com
Mongolia: http://www.motorcyclemongolia.com/
India: http://ventureonwheels.in/
Morocco: http://www.bikershome.net/home/
Baja Mexico: http://www.letsatv.com/
Bangladesh: https://www.facebook.com/FixerinBangladesh/?fref=ts
Vietnam: http://www.offroadvietnam.com/
Myanmar: http://www.luminousjourneys.net/
contact: simon@squeakeclean.com
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