13.11.09
Great expectations
Just to prove that it is possible to achieve photographic commissions when you start out, Cass Chapman spoke to three young photographers who have taken three very different roads to commercial recognition and success.
POPPY DE VILLENEUVE
www.poppydevilleneuve.com
Richard Avedon’s book In the AmericanWest made me really want to take pictures.The thoughts of the people in his
photographs and the lives they lived really got to me. I realized that, as a photographer, I could be an explorer and that, through my work, I might find a portal into very complex things. I’m fundamentally most inspired by the unknown and by ordinary people and I think this has always been the case. I’m also inspired by how much more I have to learn.
I started by getting a BA in Photography from the London College of Communication, and was definitely overwhelmed and lost when I graduated. I felt as though I had little support in terms of mentorship and direction.
I went down a totally different path for a while and studied method acting, which in some ways has added to my
understanding of people’s lives, but was a real detour. I found myself veering back towards photography though and, at that point, Cheryl Newman, photographic director at The Telegraph on Saturday magazine, gave me my first job photographing a band (see page 28 for Cheryl’s editing tips). I’ve worked with The Telegraph ever since.
I feel lucky to have met like-minded, supportive people at that time, who have continued to watch and help me develop. Since then my work has appeared in a variety of publications and campaigns including Esquire, The New York Times T magazine, Dazed & Confused, Vogue, W, Monocle, Nike, The Guardian Magazine and Elizabeth Arden.
For me, my breakthrough moment was having my first solo show of the photographs I took of prison inmates in Angola, Louisiana. I’m still involved with those images as part of an ongoing project and am currently working on several film projects.
My influences have changed over the years, but I always look towards the writers, JD Salinger and Arthur Miller, artists such as Bonnard and Edward Hopper, film directors such as Sofia Coppola, Antonioni and Terrence Malick and, of course, Richard Avedon for inspiration. I’d love to shoot for The Gap and do a cover of the NY Times Magazine: I might as well think big, right?!
For photographers starting out, I think it’s important to think about what’s really right for you, as an individual. I do have an agent, but I think the industry is changing and the role of the agent is changing with that, so it’s essential to be really honest about what you need personally and what works for you as a photographer.
TOP TIP : Find a community of like-minded people so you don’t feel stranded.Always be truthful and, as the Americans say,‘keep on truckin’.
WILL COOPER-MITCHELL
www.coopermitch.com
I got into photography through my love of documentary and history. When I first picked up a camera I had a really traditional viewpoint. I went to Morocco when I was 20, expecting to take two films and left with 20 rolls of pictures.
The images were all of old wrinkly faces and markets, though I hadn’t gone specifically to take pictures; I was away
with friends on holiday. Before that trip, I had been reading history during my first year at university and had never really picked up a camera before.
My history degree definitely influenced my work and my interest in photography though – all the pictures of the Vietnam war that I had studied and all the amazing photographers out there – I couldn’t believe these people were putting themselves on the front line with the soldiers to shoot film. The writers Hunter S Thompson and Ernest Hemingway were among my other influences, because they were capturing moments in time in different ways.
Once I started, I was just snapping nonstop and realized my pictures weren’t brilliant, but they were alright. Ever since I’ve just kept going with it, but I am totally self-taught. I’ve had no formal training.
I never made a conscious decision to be a photographer. At university parties I’d be there amongst the crowd, snapping pictures whilst a friend jammed on his decks in the kitchen of whatever house we were in. He’d mix and I’d shoot him and everyone there. I started to get really obsessed with it and then I just bought loads of photography
books. I was one of those people who took pictures of a tree and had a notebook. I’d read a chapter on shutter speeds and apertures, for example, and just work out what worked for different subjects. I’d shoot until I worked out what settings on my camera were correct for that particular shot. For me, it was the only way I could do it. I felt I had a good eye, but I had to learn how to produce the finished photograph.
I suppose I realized that I was making a living as a photographer when I met the creative director of the Institute of
Contemporary Arts in London through a marketing job I had. Whilst I was presenting to him on behalf of a client,
I snuck my portfolio of personal stuff in front of him. He immediately hired me to cover all the music events happening there. I spent the next two years doing that as well as my day job and just learnt everything as I went along, whilst building my portfolio. It’s now been about four years since I quit everything to work as a photographer full time.
My recent work for Nokia was a big turning point for me. The commission led to me being taken to a different city every two months and I realized then that I was onto a pretty good thing. I met a great bunch of people across loads of different professions such as cameramen, photographers and directors, and I got a real taste of what I wanted to be doing. I’ve also been commissioned to shoot a number of album covers for artists such as The Cinematic Orchestra and LCD Soundsystem. I’ve done some great stuff in music which has been an incredible experience, especially when I’ve worked with people whose music I respected before I worked with them. My ambition at the
moment is to be commissioned by the Observer Music Monthly magazine.
TOP TIP: You just have to keep working at this stuff, enter competitions that allow you to exhibit and just get on with doing what you can. I love photography and I just love to keep working.Whether you’re working for pay or not, as bad as it sounds, just do what you can, if it means you’re getting your name out there and you’re shooting. It’s easy to say, but you can’t let fear or lack of confidence stop you. It’s important to keep shooting your own material outside of paid work as well, because it keeps you creative.
ARTHURWOODCROFT
www.arthurwoodcroft.com
I would describe my work as still life with a lot of character. It’s all about trying to find the best elements in what you’re shooting, isn’t it? When starting out, I wasn’t specifying my work enough, which is essential. My
portfolio was being called in, but I just hadn’t been specific about what exactly I wanted to shoot. I tried to cover all bases and it was an experiment that failed. These days, I’ve realized it’s about being out there and meeting people and really focusing on a specific field of photography.
I’ve met some of the biggest art buyers in the business in the past few months. It’s about networking as much as possible. I want to say I picked up a camera at a young age and fell in love, but that isn’t how I started. I began photography at school as an A level, because it was part of my art course, and I found it was something I really enjoyed. I loved the immediacy of it. The teachers weren’t that into this part of the course, but I made them open up the darkroom and blow away the dust. From that point on, I realized I had an element of talent and I was better at it than I was at painting and sculpture.
I went on to study at Mid-Cheshire College on a two-year National Diploma, which was very technical but really interesting. It’s taught on a basic level, but I got to play with each module, like printing and processing, through
specific projects, so I learnt a lot. I finally realized I’d always been into still life, but that I’d been in denial, because it’s not one of the ‘sexier’ options in photography. Still-life photography to me is all about getting into a mental space where you create an image without having lots of people flapping about you. It’s much more personal, and about getting to know an object. I just find my head in that space. It’s all about what you bring to it and your creating something from scratch, which is a challenge because you have to contrive the shoot. And I love it.
I went on to study for a degree at Blackpool and after graduating in 2002, I spent six years solidly assisting other
photographers before finally breaking out on my own. Through that period I discovered still life was definitely the way
forward for me. When I graduated I had a portfolio, which was totally non-commercial, and I felt quite daunted by the industry. I was quite fortunate, because I had a cousin in London, so I stayed with him for a long weekend while looking for work, I was still on his couch over a year later. But I was networking, meeting other photographers
and assisting.
You have to be brave. A lot of people think they can send out an email and then they instantly feel rejected if they don’t get a reply, but you have to stick at it. It’s useful to go to the AOP, look through the awards books, find the pictures you really like and then contact the photographers who took those shots. That enables you to learn from photographers whose work you respect, but most importantly, through that you’ll develop your own skills. I called 30
or 40 people, and from that, started working regularly with five of them.
One of them was working at a publishing house and he gave me a list of who he had assisted. That was ‘the golden list’, as it were, and I ended up working with them all. Things just snowballed from there. If you’re brave enough to specify what you want, you’re more likely to get called up for that type of work. I’ve been doing some
editorial work, which has also been fun, but you just need to keep shooting as much as you can. For still-lifers though, that often requires having your own shooting space. For photographers aiming to secure editorial work, I think it’s good to establish a regular monthly or weekly job and then shoot campaigns on the side. I just did a
shoot for Luxure and I’ve done some stuff for Sony, which has been incredible.
It’s also essential to keep shooting for your own folio when you’re assisting other people, because you can end up relying on the money you’re earning and never get out of it. Keep shooting and meeting the right people and things really can take off. Enter competitions, keep in touch with people you bump into and just network as much as possible. Get your name out there. And when you’ve done your assisting, it’s important to make the crossover and start shooting for yourself.
TOP TIP: Forget it and get a proper job. No, I’m joking! It is tough out there, but if it’s what you love, get on with it.
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