Hi — I’m Jean-Luc Benazet. I have been based in Cambridge for over 27 years, and I have spent most of that time with a camera.

I am a professional photographer and a local guide — which means that when you walk Cambridge with me, you get both. The stories behind the streets, the colleges, the hidden lanes, and the people who have shaped this city for 800 years. And if you want, the photographs to prove you were there. I am also French. A native speaker. Which makes Cambridge Tours the only operation in this city offering genuinely bilingual private guided tours — not a translated script read by someone who learned the language at school, but an actual French person who has lived in an English city for nearly three decades and finds both cultures equally absurd and equally wonderful.

The Story — How a French Photographer Ended Up Guiding Tours of Cambridge

I arrived in Cambridge the way many people do — for what was supposed to be a short visit. Twenty-seven years later I am still here, which tells you something either about the city or about my decision-making.

Cambridge does something to people. It is a small city with an enormous sense of itself — eight centuries of accumulated brilliance concentrated into a few square kilometres of medieval streets, riverside meadows, and stone buildings that have been standing long enough to develop opinions. I fell for it completely, and I have never quite recovered.

Photography was always the way I paid attention. I started shooting Cambridge seriously in the late 1990s — the colleges at dawn before anyone was about, the River Cam in winter fog, the streets at dusk when the light hits the stone from the west and the whole city turns gold. I still shoot it the same way. Twenty-seven years in, I still find new angles.

Before Cambridge Tours — Red Carpets, Concert Pits, and No Second Takes

Between 2001 and 2013 I worked through a London agency called Famous, covering film premieres and live music events — the kind of work where you learn quickly or you miss the shot entirely. There are no second takes at a concert or a film premiere. You anticipate, you position, you shoot fast, and you either have it or you don’t.

That period took me to the V Festival in 2001, the Cannes Film Festival in 2002, the London Film Festival in 2005/2006 and Glastonbury Festival in 2008. It put me in the same room as people whose work I had grown up admiring — and taught me to photograph them without showing it.

💡  Some of the artists and figures from that period: Amy Winehouse, Jay-Z, Kings of Leon, Blur, Thom Yorke, Depeche Mode, The Streets, Kasabian, Paloma Faith, Pete Doherty, Placebo, Corinne Bailey Rae, and Katie Melua. Film: George Lucas, Kate Winslet, Ben Affleck, Sharon Stone, Eva Green, Terry Gilliam, and Peter Greenaway. These are listed here for context — they are not featured on this page, but they are evidence of the career behind the camera.

From 2015 to 2024, I covered the Cambridge Film Festival — which brought the same skills into a closer, more intimate context and sharpened my ability to photograph people and atmosphere without interrupting either.

All of that experience — the speed, the anticipation, the ability to work confidently in difficult light, the instinct for the decisive moment — shows up every time I lead a photography tour of Cambridge. It is not background. It is the whole point.

Cambridge Photographers — The Full Photography Practice

Cambridge Tours is one part of what I do. My full professional photography practice operates under Cambridge Photographers (cambridgephotographers.co.uk) — covering portraits, graduation photography, weddings, corporate headshots, events, and family photography.

In 2025 alone that meant 120 shoots: 31 events, 30 portraits, 14 weddings, 7 corporate headshot sessions, 6 corporate shoots, 2 commercial commissions, and 30 other commissioned projects. I have over 130 five-star Google reviews and have been rated one of the three best photographers in Cambridge for eleven consecutive years.

The two operations are related but distinct. Cambridge Photographers is where you come if you need a professional photographer for a specific occasion. Cambridge Tours is where you come if you want to explore this city with a professional photographer who has spent 27 years learning every lane, every light angle, and every story it has to tell.

→ Visit Cambridge Photographers: cambridgephotographers.co.uk

Why Private Tours — and Why Public Routes

Every tour I lead is private. Just your group and me. No strangers, no fixed pace, no compromise on what we cover or how long we spend anywhere. Cambridge is a city that rewards curiosity — and curiosity needs space, not a schedule.

All my tours follow public routes. We never go inside the colleges. This is deliberate, not a limitation. After 27 years photographing Cambridge professionally, I can tell you with confidence that the best views of every college in this city are from the street outside it. The scale, the relationship with the surrounding space, the way the light hits the stone — all of it is better from the public pavement than from a courtyard you paid £12 to enter. And when you are on a public route, there are no photography restrictions. No rules about tripods. No time limits. No closing times.

I also think that Cambridge’s real character — the city that has been arguing, drinking, rioting, and occasionally discovering the structure of life itself for 800 years — is more legible from its streets than from behind a college gate. The story of this place is in its lanes, its pubs, its river, and its people. That is where I take you.

At a Glance

• 27+ years as a professional photographer based in Cambridge
• Native French speaker — all tours available entirely in French
• 130+ five-star Google reviews
• One of the three best-rated photographers in Cambridge — eleventh consecutive year
• 2001–2013: London agency Famous — film premieres, live music, Cannes, Glastonbury
• 2015–2024: Official photographer, Cambridge Film Festival
• Founder: cambridge.tours and Cambridge Photographers
• Based in South Cambridgeshire with wife Liza and son Zach

Ready to Explore Cambridge?

There are seven guided walking tours and six photography tours to choose from — from a 90-minute highlights walk to a three-hour Friday evening pub crawl, a family treasure hunt built around dinosaurs and Dinky Doors, and an atmospheric ghost walk through Cambridge after dark.

All tours are private. All available in English and French. All from £160 per group.

• Browse the guided walking tours →
• Browse the photography tours →
• Contact Jean-Luc directly →