I am a freelance travel writer and photographer. Recent projects include updating the Rough Guide to Scotland, taking photos of Cuban casas and their owners, writing a new guide to budget accommodation in Britain and writing about and photographing central Italy for a new series of family guides.
I wrote the Rough Guide to Walks in London & Southeast England, and I’m the author and commissioned photographer of Dorling Kindersley’s Top Ten guide to the Lake District. 
My b&w images of Cuba have been exhibited at the Rich Mix arts centre in Bethnal Green and at Floradita in Soho. I’ve been around the world taking travel pictures for Rough Guides, Time Out, Alastair Sawday, Lonely Planet and Dorling Kindersley.
A sideline is taking photos of film-related events, for the British Film Institute and the Edinburgh Film Festival. My series of fantastical film stills, created when I was a student at Central Saint Martins, has been shown at the Curzon Soho in London and at the Edinburgh Filmhouse.
I was brought up near Stirling in Scotland, and in Malawi. I wrote a 1000-word autobiography about living in Malawi which won Vogue’s annual writing contest. I also won the Independent on Sunday travel writing competition.
Contact me at mail@helenasmith.co.uk
