“To photograph people is to violate them, by seeing them as they never see themselves, by having knowledge of them that they can never have; it turns people into objects that can be symbolically possessed.” – Susan Sontag, On Photography (1977)

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London based director Lallie Doyle creates a narrative that demonstrates micro-aggressions on set, within a male dominated industry. One that so many young trainee women can understand. In this film, a trainee photographic assistant, Billie Simon, tries to capture the attention of a severe, emotionless photographer during a chaotic fashion shoot in London. Billie is a driven, wide-eyed 22-year-old who has landed the opportunity to assist the infamous photographer Henry Blake. However, set in a soulless photography studio in London, His Assistant soon explores the barriers in her way as she tries to impress, and the psychology of being a woman both in front and behind the camera.

This is a story of how one photographer manipulates the feelings of his assistant through a viewfinder. And how the final image that is shaped, moulded, and angled conceals the reality of that flash moment, more than it exposes.
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Lallie Doyle 'There was something quite wonderful and deeply chaotic about making a film about being clueless on set, whilst being completely clueless on set.'