15.04.11
Profile: James Merrell
James Merrell’s images mirror the way people live while his aesthetic reflects his own viewpoint. Eleanor O’Kane meets a man whose genial spirit has shaped an entire career.
Before our interview I browse James Merrell’s website to find out more about him, who he is and where his work appears. I don’t discover much except that he shoots beautiful images of elegance and simplicity. His stripped-back website, with its Courier typeface, absence of biography or client list, is modest and unpretentious. “My work revolves around people and how they live,” says James when I ask him later to describe in a nutshell what he does for a living.
“Sometimes those images are more about the subject, with the interior as an adjunct; other times the person doesn’t appear at all. I try to explore what people have in their lives.” Realising at a fairly young age that he had a passion for photography, James was lucky to have an A-level art teacher who nurtured his talent.“He was amazing at letting people do what they were interested in, so I was able to take lots and lots of pictures. After leaving school I decided to get a job in photography because I knew that’s where my passion lay.”
One of his first jobs during the 1980s was in a catalogue studio. “It wasn’t the most exciting work, but it was a great place to learn; I could make all sorts of mistakes and if it didn’t work out you could reshoot the next day. One minute I’d be photographing a door handle, the next it was a big set with a full kitchen.”
James would take an afternoon off every week to go and see established photographers, people he’d heard about or whose work he’d seen in magazines. “Back in the day you could just go and see photographers because there were fewer people hunting for jobs. It was quite easy literally to turn up and have a chat with them. They were always really nice.” He acknowledges that things are no longer that way. “If you’re trying to start out now it must be so difficult,” he says with concern. “In those days there were more jobs and fewer people; you just needed to go around and see people with your work.”
Renowned portrait photographer David Montgomery, who shot for the Sunday Times and Nova magazines, was among those James went to see. He was called back for a trial and ended up becoming his assistant. “As I got to know his work I realised I’d had some of it pinned to my wall at school. I suppose he taught, mentored me – I don’t really know what the phrase is – but he shaped my point of view on a lot of things. His main area was similar to mine, portraits of celebrities, so I suppose my interest in real people came from working with him.”
While assisting, James would be approached by magazine editors requesting he shoot for them. “As well as the big story with David, they might need six product pictures and would ask if I could do them in the evenings, so I would. I had a products page in Vogue every month that I used to do with an assistant there.” Shooting in the evenings and at weekends, he would spend hours creating an image of some cushions that would ultimately appear in print at postage stamp size, but says it was fantastic training and a great opportunity all the same.
From there James worked at the Sunday Times Magazine under picture editor James Danziger. “It was a bit more style-oriented then.” he recalls.
Seeing his images appear every week gave him a sense of excitement; I wonder if he feels the same way now when he sees his images. “Oh yes,” he replies, without missing a beat. “The adrenalin keeps you focused and sharp every time you turn up for a shoot.”
The days of photographing door handles in studios are mostly a thing of the past and location work comes as a great pleasure. “Each location already has its own inherent quality, which you can ignore or enhance or use as it is. I’m not keen on working in a blank studio and if I do, I use a daylight studio.”
Working mostly with available light contributes to the soft, natural feel of his images. “Most of what I do is completely available light – pretty much all of the time. I do manipulate the light, of course, by blocking some out or putting some in. If I do use artificial light I tend to work with HMIs so that I can see the light.” He says he doesn’t get on very well with flash, explaining he can’t ‘feel’ the light. “I prefer to work when I can see what the light is doing and feel its presence.” Is relying on natural light a bit of a gamble? “Yes, it can be,” he admits. “Although I usually make it work. I did a shoot recently for Tatler at a stately home that was quite dark. We managed to make it work, though, and get the images to reflect how we saw things at the time.”
We talk about James’s natural, pleasing aesthetic and I mention the website, how wonderfully stripped back it is, how the images draw you in. I ask James if this ethos is a reflection of his own personality. “I suppose,” he admits humbly. “I think I have a point of view. I do find a modest simplicity appealing. I suppose in my pictures I strive for a certain elegance, a simplicity, rather than being...” He searches to find the right word and eventually settles on brash. He laughs at his reluctance to finish the sentence, explaining that he was trying to be diplomatic.
When he needs to draw some motivation, it’s from the art world rather than other photography. “Obviously it’s important to look at what photographers are doing but if I’m feeling stuck I think of artists and paintings, look at the way the light falls in paintings.” He cites Vermeer, the 17th-century Dutch master of interiors, among his influences and later when I revisit James’s website I see this influence; exquisite natural light falling softly across his images.
He is known as an interiors photographer, and there’s a strong element of portraiture in his work. “For me the people are an important element, whether they are actually in the people or whether I’m alluding to them. I like the fact that I’m photographing a space that someone lives in, I like hints as to what that person is about. One of the first things I do when I go to someone’s house it is see what books they’ve got, what music they listen to; because that’s what interests me. I think of my images as portraits of houses.” Over time and with experience, he says the ability to capture the essence of his subjects in his pictures comes more easily, whether the subject is in the image or not. “I’m very lucky that I get to do a huge range of work.”
I wonder how much of a hand he has in the final look of his pictures. “It varies a lot,” he says. “Sometimes I work on my own. Personally I quite like a team approach, discussing a point of view. I don’t tend to overstyle unless it’s for a commercial client where everything has been styled. For magazines you are trying to reflect what’s there.” Mostly he achieves this, but now and then James and the subject don’t share the same point of view. Very occasionally the client might have a particular image they are trying to put across, a new range of products they are trying to promote. In that case there’s a bit of compromise or, as he calls it in his unassuming manner, “some give and take in a nice way.” Unsurprisingly, he is less than precious about such issues. “It’s fine,” he says magnanimously. “I’ll try to do it in a way that looks natural and real, and doesn’t look too much like product placement. You feel there is life there rather than that you’re looking at something that’s been set up for a photograph.” Achieving a natural and authentic look is important for his editorial shoots. “Obviously I don’t turn up out of the blue, so occasionally you arrive and people have gone mad, tidied everything away and removed the character that I’m most interested in.”
James refers again and again to “easing objects in” as well as out of the shot to capture the scene. I imagine that a James Merrell shoot must be the antithesis of a tense, ego-filled fashion or celebrity shoot, with no one barking orders or having tantrums. I can’t imagine he has ever had a bust-up on a shoot but I ask the question anyway. After searching his memories, he eventually cites an incident that occurred years ago when a client got upset with the repositioning of a sofa, but once James explained what he was trying to achieve it was all resolved quickly and everyone was friends again. Easing things in; easing things out.
He does personal projects but unsurprisingly you won’t see any resultant books or exhibitions, although occasionally a new idea will find its way into a commercial shoot. It is important to try new things, he believes, because you never know where they might lead. “Never think of anything as being a mistake, because so many good things happen out of a mistake. Ultimately everything one does or everything one uses is as a result of one’s own or someone else’s experiment.”
What about house envy? I ask, trying to find something that might rattle James’s unceasingly benign nature before we end the conversation; surely he sometimes secretly covets the spaces he’s photographing? “One of the advantages of being an interiors photographer is that you can live some of that house envy out,” he explains. “For years I wanted to live in a loft but I ended up photographing so many that I lived through it and eventually realised that, actually, I quite like going up and down stairs.”
www.jamesmerrell.co.uk
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