23.07.10
Fashion Photographer Steve Shaw Interviewed
Steve Shaw may now be based in Los Angeles creating images that epitomise Hollywood glamour and movie star excess, but as he tells Cass Chapman, he has not forgotten his Manchester roots, his Salford training and the importance of working hard to get a lucky break.
Steve Shaw is delightful. Unassuming, down to earth and very open. He is not at all what I expected when I first called him at his house in LA, his new puppy yapping away in the distance.
I had heard he had been linked to Lisa Snowdon in the past and was responsible for some pretty risqué shots of her from that time. I had also heard some Playboy-style stories about him, which helped paint a picture of a man who had dived head first into the Los Angeles world of Hollywood portraits, gorgeous women and the enviable photographer’s lifestyle that is both enigmatic and very ‘LA’. Yet, he came across as placid, gentle and just very grateful for the life he has, an Englishman living happily on the West Coast of America, with a great lifestyle that comes from being a successful photographer.
His Manchester accent still resonates and he is charming and self-effacing. He left school at 15, and got a job working at Cartwright Photography Studios in Salford, where “they used to shoot mail order work, like JD Williams catalogue stuff. They used to do a lot of product photography for magazines and I worked with them all as an assistant, basically loading film and making cups of tea and keeping my mouth shut.”
Shaw’s passion and enthusiasm for learning allowed him to silently learn all he needed to to about lighting and technical skills. “I just wanted to learn so badly that I made more money in overtime than I did in actual salary. I think I made £1 an hour overtime. I would stay and just watch and see how they lit everything, which is basically how I learnt.” Being the mid 1980s, this was, of course, pre digital, but “it was all still life so I gained so much technical and lighting knowledge by doing still life photography and then they started doing a bit of fashion – I don’t know if you can call it that because it was pretty awful mail order stuff – but I used to just watch and set up lights and just listen.”
Shaw’s commitment to learning and willingness to put in the hours quickly paid off and, though he may not have trained under one of the greats, he learnt what he needed to get himself started. “I ended up working with the main guy who considered himself a fashion photographer and I ended up being good at assisting him and he relied on me for everything! I got a lot of hands-on experience.” Experience may have been there for him, but responsibility was not. Shaw became relied upon heavily as an assistant, and found it difficult to break out of this role. With quiet confidence, Shaw states: “I was desperate to be a photographer. I was just over 18, so I decided to leave and set up my own business. The father of my girlfriend at the time had all these empty warehouses in Stockport where we lived, and he let me use them as studios.”
As each warehouse space had roof skylights, Shaw had to work from 9pm each day and shoot through the night because “I had no way of blocking the daylight out. So that’s how I started my own business. I started on a YTS scheme, actually.”
Shaw soon felt a strong desire to get out of Manchester. “I got to 21 and was like: ‘What am I doing? I need to see a bit of the world.’ And I’d been working since I was 15. I saw an ad: ‘Cruise ship photographers wanted’ – to work in the Caribbean, so I applied and got it and left.” That was to be the job that took him abroad and, though he has regularly worked in Europe, he has not lived here since.
After a stint shooting on the high seas, “some buddies called me from home and said they were coming to Miami and wanted to drive from there to LA, so we drove across America and ended up in Newport Beach.” After what must have been the road trip of a lifetime for a young man newly arrived in America, Shaw decided to stay on. “I ended up selling portraits in a shopping mall. I was trying to get a job as a photographer, but no one would hire me because I was illegal, so I ended up selling appointments for family portraits.”
From family portraits, Shaw moved on to shooting glamour photography. One particularly memorable job came in the form of a transvestite who asked to be shot looking like Barbra Streisand. “This guy came in and I had to put all these doilies and frills all over him and take his portrait. I thought: ‘This is getting ridiculous.’ So I worked in photo labs for a while, and started doing some tests for model agencies in LA.”
The Los Angeles earthquake of 1994 left the city devastated and Shaw had to get to Australia for his sister’s wedding, so he packed up and left LA, which was “dreadful” at that time. Australia ended up being home for the next two-and-a-half years: “That’s where my career actually took off. I started shooting for lots of teen magazines and then I did Cosmo and then Elle and ended up shooting the cover of Harper’s Bazaar and Marie Claire, and before I knew it, I was shooting for Elle every week.”
This focus on fashion photography was what became the driving force of Shaw’s work and, after only two years in Australia, he had built an impressive portfolio of work. His reputation as a serious fashion photographer spread overseas and, as a result: “I went home one afternoon and on my answer machine was a message from Ivan Shaw at American Vogue, and I was like: ‘Oh my God, this is unbelievable,’ so I called him back.”
Shaw had wanted Steve for a shoot in Australia, which ended up being done on American soil, but “he said he’d love to work with me and to look him up when I was in New York. I thought: ‘This is the time,’ and decided to go on a month-long trip away from Australia. I knew it was time to get out there as I’d shot for all these magazines and I loved it, but I was very ambitious and I knew I was done in Australia.” Steve met Ivan Shaw in New York and Shaw explained that he worked with Herb Ritts and his agent Vernon Jolly a lot and offered to make a few calls, and the rest, as they say, is history.
“So I met Vernon and he’s Australian. He said: ‘If you can do this from Australia with their crappy models and crappy clothes, I can get you work here, but you have to move to New York.” Despite his nerves when meeting Jolly, Shaw went back to Australia, saved some money, packed his bags and moved to New York.
Jolly was at the agency, Visage, the Los Angeles office of which was headed by an agent who was desperate to represent Shaw, Rhea Rachevsky. Jolly then quit Visage and set up his own company, Vernon Jolly Inc, representing Herb Ritts, stylist L’Wren Scott and Steve. Shaw jumps about with great enthusiasm as he relays the chain of events at this stage in his life. He admits to being thrilled at working in New York and being associated with Herb Ritts, but frustrated at the same time. Jolly’s attention was focused predominantly on Ritts, which Shaw rushes to explain that he understood. A commission for the then very cool Sky Magazine in London lead to more UK work and meant that Steve ended up working between London, New York and Los Angeles.
He eventually ended up leaving Vernon Jolly and working with Rhea in LA. “I’d kind of had enough of New York after a year and a half, so I ended up moving back to LA and working there and in London. I’ve stayed in LA ever since.”
Shaw had finally settled in one place, though the travelling that came with work was inevitable for a fashion photographer so in demand. Shaw describes the ‘American Vogue – Ivan Shaw’ phone call as a defining moment, though he talks of his success with some surprise and one senses he never had a moment of feeling he had somehow cracked the business. “You never know if you’re doing something right, but my first job for Vogue was to shoot Hilary Swank and then I did a lot of portraits for them and some little jobs too, though it never led to any big fashion shoots. Those photographers are all under contract and it’s very hard to break in.”
He may rush to tell me the Vogue fashion spreads were hard to come by, but that didn’t stop him working with some major celebrities for world-renowned publications. A browse through his website showcases Kevin Spacey on the cover of the Los Angeles Times Magazine, Kylie Minogue languishing across the cover of Rolling Stone and a portrait of Christina Applegate for American Cosmopolitan. Kanye West looks dapper on the cover of Prestige, and the stunning black and white fashion spreads he presents show precisely why he has remained in such demand through the years. Shaw’s shots are stark and honest and unpretentious, while at the same time, sexy and beautiful.
Shaw still expresses a certain frustration with the business on some levels: “Over the years, I’ve worked with some great people, but it’s very frustrating as a photographer because you know you’re governed by publicists. If you’re shooting celebrities it’s all about the publicists, as they are the ones who make a decision on whether you are hired or not. It’s not really down to the magazine anymore.”
This frustration has led Shaw to develop another love, one that also nurtures his creative side: property development. Constantly paying top dollar for shoot locations led him to realise that, if he bought and developed the right property, he wouldn’t have to hire photographic locations anymore. “This ended up being another creative outlet for me. As long as you have passion about what you do, it’s all creative.”
Despite earning a good living out of property, however, photography seems to be his first love. “I really like to keep things pretty simple, and in the photos I take, it’s always about the person that I’m photographing. With the women I photograph, I want to make them look beautiful and feel amazing about themselves.”
While Shaw continually ponders another move, possibly back to Australia, for now, LA is home and one where he seems very happy. “I have an amazing lifestyle.” Though he admits: “You know, I’m from Manchester and it sometimes gets to me a little bit. Whenever I go home my friends are like: ‘Oh, who do you think you are, some bullshit photographer? Who cares?’ They bring me back down again.” Though when Shaw talks of how he loves living in Venice Beach and riding his bike everywhere, I find it hard to imagine his success going to his head. “It’s not all about the Hollywood nightclubs,” he says. “It’s just not me.”
Shaw recognises the ever-changing industry and, as such, seems to have his ears and eyes open to new projects. “With the advent of the internet and this iPad thing coming out and the Canon EOS 5D MkII camera, you have to do video now.” What is so interesting talking to Shaw is that he refers to friends he has that are “big photographers”, unwilling as he is to consider himself as one of them, but this separation makes him refreshing, interesting and totally down to earth: “I’ve got friends who are big photographers who literally spend their lives on a plane working for a daily rate and that’s all they do and they’re killing themselves. There is more to life than flying. That’s why I’ve always tried to avoid getting on a plane. I’d always rather drive.”
You can take the boy out of Manchester, but...
www.steveshawphotography.com
- Average Article Rating 0 Stars
-
Your Rating
Login Required!
Sorry - You must be a registered user & logged in to rate this.
Login | Register
Back to Categories