26.06.09
Nick Paul - Contract Magazine Art Director, Archant Dialogue
The right advice and inside track on how to get commissioned
Throughout your career of nearly thirty years now you’ve specialized in art directing within the contract magazine sector, how have you seen it change over that time ?
Magazine design and production has just got better and better over the years. But that’s not to say that there weren’t great magazines in the '80s. I remember going for an interview at Redwood Publishing in about 83 or 84 for a job as art editor on 'Expressions', the American Express mag, and one of the first proper contract publishing titles – what attracted me was the strong typography and dynamic photography.
How do you feel that photography and photographers and budgets have changed?
Years ago I worked on Campaign Magazine, the advertising industry trade paper that had a reputation for using strong black and white portraits – typically photos that were shot on a fire escape with a wide angle lens pointing up someone’s nose. We used to pay about £120 a time and we’d commission maybe 5 or 10 of those pictures a week. I guess we must have had a decent picture budget. My, how times have changed.
And how do you feel about the publishing industry’s attitide to photography, particularly with reference to newspapers and magazines?
Here at Archant Dialogue we have always recognised the role that great photography can play within the pages of the magazines that we produce whether it be a commissioned portrait or a photo sourced from a picture library. I only wish that we were able to commission more. Over the years we seem to spend less and less on commissions and more on picture library material as our picture budgets have slowly shrunk.
Which titles are you currently working on?
We produce magazines for a whole range of clients including Royal Ascot, Harley Davidson, Center Parcs, Olympus and Saab and I’m currently working on the latest issue of Saab. Next week we have a shoot with the car photographer Alex P who produces super pics for the likes of ‘Top Gear’ and ‘Car’ magazines.
How do you choose which photographers you want to work with? Where do you find them?
We found Alex P by trawling through the car mags until we found pics that we liked. I like to use Alex because he works swiftly and efficiently, is always open to suggestions and always turns in a good job – even when it’s raining heavily half way up a Swiss mountain.
Some of our portrait photographers we’ve used for years and years – I guess we know that we’ll always get the job we need – but we are always on the lookout for new people.
Sometimes we need the best and in the past we’ve commissioned Alex Webb and Gideon Mendel – interestingly both did Saab shoots for us. Recently we commissioned Edinburgh based photographer Murdo McCloud and he shot some terrific moody portraits of the Laing brothers, the owners of Whisky company Douglas Laing.
Has the arrival of digital photography changed the way you work with photographers and clients?
The big change in the way we work has not so much been with photographers but with picture libraries. Now it’s so easy to quickly go on-line and download exactly the picture we need and this is probably why we use picture libraries more and more.
You’re based in Norwich, which is not exactly a hot bed for photography, do you find it difficult to find photographers or do they find you?
It’s never been a problem being based in Norwich. We use photographers UK wide. If we need to we source overseas photographers via the internet.
This year we’ve commissioned a couple of jobs in the US and one in Sweden by an excellent Swedish portrait photographer called Anna Hult.
Last year we redesigned ‘Yorkshire Life’ and ‘Cheshire Life’ magazines and came across a great young photographer called Andy Bulmer who shoots charming photos of country life. He’s on our books now as our ‘northern’ photographer.
What advice would you give a photographer when approaching you with the hope of being commissioned?
Every day I get two or three emails from photographers or their agents and they tend to go straight in the bin only because I just don’t have the time to open them all and look at them.
Gone are the days when photographers would trawl their portfolios around. I think the best advice I can give is, to keep sending the emails but make sure that they are relevant and well crafted and that the photographers have simple, easy to navigate websites
Where do you stand on the importance of technical ability versus creativity?
Pictures must be sharp (unless they are deliberately meant to be blurred) otherwise we just can’t use them. And they must be of a big enough file size for print (A4 300 dpi if we plan to use them at A4).
Otherwise we’re not too bothered about whether they were shot on this camera or that camera – just as long as they are creative – however you define ‘creative’…
Do you or the clients go on the shoots with the photographer and do you set a tight written brief?
For most jobs we just don’t have the time to go on shoots.
We’ll go on the important car shoots. Richard, our art editor on the Harley Davidson magazine has just gone to a big European Harley rally with the photographer.
If we’re using a new photographer then we’ll always give them a tight written brief. Our regular photographers know pretty much what we’re after.
What do you think the difference is between shooting for a contract title rather than a consumer title?
I’d have thought that there is very little difference. Budgets are very similar and pictures need to be just as good.
And finally what advice do you have for a photographer just starting out?
Edit your folio carefully.
Create a simple, easy to use website.
Concentrate on the area of photography that most interests you rather than trying to be a master of all. If you’re good and you’re passionate about what you do then you’ll make it.
Keep banging on doors.
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