in his feature film work, english has said that he thinks about the style and context of any film he works on, and how to replicate this in his pictures. he has said that when it comes to his work he finds ‘painters more influential – the surrealists, for example. he has mentioned francis bacon as an influence on his work on nil by mouth and the work of irving penn on his work on tinker tailor soldier spy. other photographers english admires include paul graham, chris killip, german visual artist gerhardt richter, saul leiter and ralph gibson.