This blog comes across as very negative, and I am aware. Photography has jaded me somewhat; multiple breakdowns over 10 years have contributed to this, along with the overwhelming sense of never feeling like my work measured up to other photographers working in similar niches.
However, I have had some good times and made some good memories which will last a lifetime. Here’s a short post to highlight a few of those memories and hopefully impart a bit of life and photography experience on those who read it.
I’m not going to get caught up in the skills or anything I’ve learned, as I have covered this in a previous post. Here I am more concerned with the experiences I have had that I feel have impacted me and maybe others in a positive light. Starting with the wonderful friends I have made through this stupid little art form of pressing buttons. I think when I look at my list of people who I consider close friends, 90% of them started with me taking photos of them. Whether that be at a skate park or booking in a TFP shoot because I wanted to create something, or even shooting a wedding, the people I work with and who I genuinely enjoy shooting will always remain in my life as friends. A fine example of this is Olive. I messaged Olive on Instagram when they were in the middle of their “handstand a day for a year " challenge. Honestly, I did not expect a response to me saying, “ You look sick as fuck can we shoot photos of you?” Yet somehow they decided I was worth the time to take photos with, and after 4 shoots, I can say with total honesty, they will remain a close friend whom I take photos of until I can no longer hold a camera.
Through shooting Olive, I also managed to meet Krista, who again is a wonderful human and “hair artist” ( I use that term as hairdresser doesn’t seem good enough). I shot Krista’s wedding, and to this day, they remain a part of my thought train, and I am blown away by the work they do with their hair business and using their platform to educate people on hair products they should be using. Again 2 of the people I respect most in this world and would have never met if I didn’t start taking photos of people.
I’ve also had the chance to go to some amazing events and experiences with photography. Nothing too insane like a trip to the south of France to photograph watches, but a nice weekend at Cornbury Festival with AAA passes to photograph artists both on stage, and BTS was one I’ll never forget. I got to head backstage aged 20, meet Ghost Poet and bizarrely the Chuckle Brothers. I was stage side for the Jackson 4 and Sugar Hill Gang and shot some of my favourite music work ever there. I had the chance to drive around the UK with my friend’s band, documenting their life on tour. I slept on stages and sofas for around a week, got some really terrible photos, but overall had the best time ever.
Combine these experiences with the chances I took that worked out, and I start to realise maybe my short stint in photography wasn’t all bad. Maybe dropping that message was well worth the risk. Or heading to that event and overcoming the anxiety paid off. Something I really appreciate is the chance the burlesque industry took on me. I messaged a small promoter who had limited funds at the time and offered my very basic rate just to get in the door, as I knew the work I could make there would be good. Through the promoter’s trust alone, I got the gig. I showed up 40 mins early and prepped as I have never prepped before. Yet a 135mm lens from the 80’s was the only thing I needed. I shot 400 photos, edited down to a solid 80 both in colour and black and white and sent them over within 24 hours of the event. This sort of hard work and chance-taking are experiences I absolutely loved. Up till 3 am, shooting in dingy pubs with beer-stained floors. Truly, the life I always wanted. Through this, I got to work with pole societies and narrowed my focus into this niche and became a fairly solid pole/burlesque shooter. Working on local fringe festivals and doing some portrait work that I really enjoyed planning and making. Sadly, I never quite latched on to it the way I think I should have, and I got bored and complacent too easily.
I write all of this hoping to inspire some level of hope and positivity in those starting photography. Many of us are jaded and can become arrogant and almost miserable with the way the industry has gone however if you enter it full of energy willing to take risks and work really really hard for not a lot of reward money wise you will have some truly great experiences and the aim of us all is to have enough of those to cancel out the bad which will always occur.
Get out there, learn your craft, take a punt and try your very best not to end up as jaded as me. I should not be a barometer against which you measure anything. Oh, and below are some examples of the work I shot during these good times.
