Image 06 issuu by The Association of Photographers UK

COMMENT

HOW TO GET AHEAD What does it take to succeed in photography these days? First of all, it takes good photography, and you can see plenty of that in the winners of the AOP’s Photography Awards 2015, which are included this issue and which will be on show at the Old Truman Brewery, East London on 9-11 October 2015 as part of the Photoblock festival. Picked out by a prestigious panel of curators – including Kate Mahon from Saatchi & Saatchi; Jon Jones, director of photography at The Sunday Times Magazine; and Olivia Gideon Thomson, founder of the We Folk agency – these images have been selected for their visual appeal and ability to communicate, and are testament to the power of photography. But beyond that is the wide range of other skills needed to make a go of it in a highly competitive market. There’s the ability to get noticed, through your networking (both on and off-line), through the consistency of your vision, and through your originality; there’s also your ability to get on with people, and to make a shoot work whatever the circumstances. The latter is something AOP member Chris Terry knows all about following his shoot for the UN World Food Programme, which saw him shoot in five different countries in three continents, bonding with an extremely diverse bunch of families along the away. It’s something John Spinks, Thomas Butler and Luke Hayes could also give masterclasses in, having forged relationships with clients that have lasted for years – Spinks shooting for Albam for seven years, Luke Hayes shooting for Zaha Hadid Architects for eight years and Thomas Butler

Portrait © Jonathan Worth www.jonathanworth.com

working with Red Bullin one way or another for well over a decade. There’s also your ability to innovate while staying relevant – your ability to pick up on trends, perhaps, before they’ve even become a thing. That’s an area in which Martin Parr rules, consistently leading the way while staying true to his own way of doing things. He helped spearhead the contemporary passion for photobooks when he published The Photobook Volume I with Gerry Badger in 2004, for example; now he’s launched a clothes collection featuring his images with House of Holland, just as other high-end photographers such as Roger Ballen and Hiroshi Sugimoto are making similar connections with designers such as Comme des Garcons and Issey Miyake. Parr’s at an age where many are starting to think about retiring, but he’s more playful and innovative than many young graduates. Then there’s the ability to appraise your skills and reach out to others for help when you need it – to take a training programme such as the one Zoe Whishaw’s running for the AOP, for example, or to join the AOP. Paolo Patrizi and Suzanne Wegner are both AOP members based outside the UK, who signed up to the organisation when in London but hung onto their membership back home because they recognised the support it offered them. Photography’s a tough market, but then that’s nearly always been the case; the ones who’ve made it take great photographs, but know that that’s only the start of the process.

Diane Smyth Editor

CONTENTS

4 HOT OFF THE PRESS THE LATEST PHOTOBOOKS, FROM EVE ARNOLD’S ARCHIVE TO DAN WILTON’S LATEST SELF-PUBLISHED ZINE

Cover © Sam Robinson

8 Q&A PHOTOGRAPHY AND FILM ARE A KEY PART OF ITS FUNDRAISING AND EDUCATIONAL STRATEGY, WITH A LONDON-BASED TEAM WORKING WITH IMAGE-MAKERS AROUND THE WORLD TO MAKE HARD-HITTING BUT SENSITIVE WORK. JESS CROMBIE, DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF THE CREATIVE TEAM, EXPLAINS

22 INSIDER INSIGHT PHOTOGRAPHERS NEED TO CREATE A CONSISTENT BODY OF WORK, A CLEAR BRAND AND A STRONG VISUAL IDENTITY TO SUCCEED, ADVISES ZOE WHISHAW, WHO’S RUNNING A SERIES OF WORKSHOPS ON THE SUBJECT FOR THE AOP

26 AOP AWARDS 2015 AOP MEMBERS ABROAD AS THE AOP UNVEILS ITS 32ND PHOTOGRAPHY AWARDS EXHIBITION, GEMMA PADLEY ASKS FOUR OF THE CURATORS ABOUT THE IMAGES THAT CAUGHT THEIR EYE

84 AOP AT LARGE ALTHOUGH THE ASSOCIATION OF PHOTOGRAPHERS IS A UK-BASED ORGANISATION, SOME OF ITS MEMBERS LIVE FURTHER AFIELD. RACHEL SEGAL HAMILTON HEARS FROM TWO OF THEM – PAOLO PATRIZI AND SUSANNE WEGNER

96 FEED THE WORLD AOP MEMBER CHRIS TERRY TRAVELLED TO THREE CONTINENTS TO PHOTOGRAPH THE THE UN WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME COMMISSIONED PHOTOGRAPHER CHRIS TERRY TO SHOOT A MULTI-LAYERED PROJECT ON FAMILIES AROUND THE GLOBE WHO HAVE BENEFITED FROM ITS AID. LAUREN HEINZ REPORTS`

121 PLAYING THE LONG GAME THE UN WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME COMMISSIONED PHOTOGRAPHER CHRIS TERRY TO SHOOT A MULTI-LAYERED PROJECT ON FAMILIES AROUND THE GLOBE WHO HAVE BENEFITED FROM ITS AID. LAUREN HEINZ REPORTSS

143 FADE TO GREY THE FASHION AND BEAUTY INDUSTRIES HAVE DEVELOPED A SURPRISING TASTE FOR OLDER MODELS, FINDS ELIZA WILLIAMS

149 ENDFRAME YES, THAT’S REALLY THE NAME GIVEN TO MARTIN PARR’S HUMOROUS, EYE-CATCHING AND SAVVY COLLABORATION WITH BRITISH DESIGN LABEL HOUSE OF HOLLAND

The Association of Photographers (AOP) is a not-for-profit member organisation representing commercial photographers, agents and assistants globally. Based in London (UK) the AOP supports its members with business and legal advice, workshops and talks, a member forum and an annual Awards programme to spotlight the best in commissioned and noncommissioned photography. For more information go to www.the-aop.org Contact us at info@aophoto.co.uk Office +44 (0) 20 7739 6669 Image magazine is the publication of the Association of Photographers, UK.

BOOKS

Selfish Kim Kardashian, Rizzoli US $19.95 www.rizzoliusa.com

From reality TV celebrity to one of America’s richest and most successful women, Kim Kardashian is now poised to make waves in the publishing world. Her new book, Selfish, features a selection of self-portraits taken mostly between 2006 and 2014, and offers a closer, more intimate glimpse into her world – if such a thing were possible. The coffee table book opens with a selfie Kardashian took when she was four years old. “I put my mom’s clip-on earrings on Khloe and found a disposable camera and took a picture to capture this memory,” she writes, in a book which traces her formidable rise to stardom. Readers are whisked through nine years of cleavage, derriere and pout, with shots including Kardashian’s friend Paris Hilton and a self-portrait taken on the day of her wedding to Kanye West in 2014. Selfies taken in mirrors abound, and in the closing image we see Kardashian and Wests’ hands joined together, wedding rings gleaming. Love her or hate her, Kardashian has become a cultural touchstone and this book only cements her name in photographic history. Image © Kim Kardashian West

BOOKS

Portraits in Lace: Breton Women Charles Freger Thames & Hudson £24.95 www.thamesandhudsonusa.com/books

Portraits in Lace, the follow up to the French photographer’s 2012 book, Wilder Mann, features Freger’s trademark approach to portraiture – softly-lit, enigmatic images, that fall somewhere between reality and fantasy. But while in his previous book the Rouen-based photographer explored myths and rituals, this time he captures Brittany’s Breton folk revivalists, and the women who celebrate age-old traditions and customs. Photographing women of all ages, Freger captures the elaborate dresses and hair decorations that were worn in villages across this part of Northern France up until the 1950s. Often photographing his subjects in front of dreamy gauze screens, Freger touches on notions of femininity and identity, just as Wilder Mann emphasised on rugged masculinity. Frequently he shoots the women from behind to reveal the details of their headdresses, or up close in profile to capture the subtleties of these age-old traditions in a startlingly contemporary way.

BOOKS

Unseen Waterloo, The Conflict Revisited Sam Faulkner, Impress £60 www.samfaulkner.co.uk

This summer marked the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo, and a slew of titles is being published in commemoration of it; Unseen Waterloo, The Conflict Revisited is photographer Sam Faulkner’s contribution it. Unlike other text-heavy historical tomes, Faulkner focuses on portraits, each one “an imaginative impression of a Waterloo soldier,” he explains in the book’s preface. As Faulkner notes, the Battle ended decades before photography was invented, so there are no contemporary portraits of those who fought; but by carefully researching what soldiers of varying ranks would have worn, he’s created a series paying homage to their sacrifices. Faulkner shot the images in the fields where the battle occurred, but placed his subjects against black backgrounds to focus attention squarely on them. “By focusing on the individuals rather than the scale of the battle, I hope to reframe Waterloo in more human terms,” he writes. The book also includes some texts, which offer a useful overview of the history and context of the conflict.

BOOKS

Canyon Dan Wilton and Josh Jones, Ditto Press £17 danwilton.co.uk

Writer Josh Jones and photographer Dan Wilton have teamed up to create a limited edition book celebrating the people of Runyon Canyon Park in the Hollywood Hills. Produced in collaboration with Ditto Press, the book features a swathe of colourful characters, from millionaires to gangsters and from film directors to hustlers and fitness fanatics. One woman – Yolande, a former Playboy Bunny – explains how she moved to LA in 1972 to escape “from a very bad guy”; another man, due to join the army, uses the 160-acre park to train in. The book itself has a magazinelike feel and by showing the images full-bleed, the duo creates an intimacy between viewer and subject. Its centre pages are dedicated to the people’s stories, told in their own words, and showing that, far from being just a dusty canyon, Runyon is the go-to place for Californians from all walks of life.

Photography and film are a key part of its fundraising and educational strategy, with a London-based team working with image-makers around the world to make hard-hitting but sensitive work. Jess Crombie, deputy director of the creative team, explains

Q&A: JESS CROMBIE

What is your role at Save the Children? My job is to drive the creative direction of the organisation – making sure that we make effective content that achieves its objectives, whether that is asking people to give us a donation, sign a petition, or share something that they find relevant to their lives and the stories they want to tell. I am always looking for innovative ways to do this, and at the moment we are getting very excited about virtual reality and the possibilities of this medium to really bring to life the situations we deal with every day all over the world. My role is also to guide the ethical direction of the organisation when it comes to how best to represent those that we work with. Save the Children takes its responsibility to represent the children and families we work with very seriously, and has undertaken large-scale research into this area which helps me guide how best to gather and use the stories that we tell. How many people work on your team? We are a team of 25, made up of film producers, writers, designers, picture editors, photographers and film makers and a post-production team; together we make all the emotive and effective creative content that comes out of Save the Children. A small part of the team – the photographer/film makers part – is based outside the UK in strategically useful locations. We have literally hundreds of pieces of content in production at any one time, and also deal with breaking emergencies in a regular basis so it’s a busy place to be. What kind of photography do you commission? Mostly documentary capturing the situations and lives of the children we help all over the world. Some of this is very challenging as we are often looking to tell the stories of the hardest to reach children – those who are geographically remote, deliberately hidden, or emotionally distressed. We have to commission very carefully for this reason – everyone we work with must be DBS checked and comply to a series of guidelines regarding how to work with children – and there are a lot of ‘in the field’ logistical challenges to overcome that it takes a certain character and amount of experience to negotiate.

One potentially surprising area of commissioning that is growing at Save the Children is celebrity and studio-based shoots, which we undertake to bring some of our fundraising campaigns to life. Some of the most fun to work in the last year has been ‘Den Day’ and ‘Christmas Jumper Day’, shoots which have to take place months in advance. It’s always fun to celebrate Christmas in March! What kinds of project do Save the Children shoot? We might send someone out in the aftermath of an emergency or, more typically, commission someone who is already there, to gather imagery which will show the situation on the ground, and also tell the children’s stories and explain how what is happening has affected them. As an organisation focused on children, we have a responsibility to tell their stories, and we are often one of the main sources of content in this important area. A good example of this would be Moises Saman’s beautiful images for us showing the Syrian refugee crisis, which got a huge amount of media coverage. Another good example is Lindsay Addario’s images of a woman giving birth on the side of the road in the aftermath of the Philippine typhoon Haiyan, an astonishing series of pictures that was widely publicised and helped us enormously in shedding light on the reality of life after this natural disaster. We commission hundreds of shoots every year, so it isn’t possible for us to attend every one. As a team we tend to attend those that are particularly important or particularly challenging. I used to travel a lot on shoots, but these days I am more office based – I do miss the travelling but I have a small child myself these days so it’s not so easy to jump on a plane with 24 hours notice. What do you hope to achieve with this photography? To bring to light situations where people need help that are either not in the public eye, or tell stories that may be from a well known situation, but that are not being told. Imagery is the most emotive way of bringing to life the stories of people across the world, it’s incredibly important to the work that Save the Children does.

Q&A: JESS CROMBIE

How do you find the photographers you work with? All over the place –we have a very experienced and well connected picture desk, plus many of us have many years in photography under our belts so have lots of contacts. We also go to all the photo fairs and events talent spotting, and meet regularly with potential new photographers each month.

Do you commission separate people to shoot film, or need people to be able to do both? We do often try to find people who can do both – particularly in an emergency situation where seats on planes are hard to come by. So it is a pretty important skill to be able to shoot film these days, but we also still commission people who will only do one or the other. It will help you get started to be able to shoot film though.

Do you have a preferred group of photographers you work with? Yes, in that we know who does a fantastic job, is DBS checked, and will always deliver on a brief. But we are still always looking for more talent, especially in hard to reach locations – we are trying to commission locally as much as we possibly can at the moment, and the majority of our shoots are now commissioned in that way.

What can video offer that photography can’t? And vice versa? Video can put you in a location faster than photography as you get more context, but photography will help you focus on a particular moment in a more powerful way than video can do. Ideally you will use both.

If someone wants to work with you, how should they approach you? Send an email to our picture desk but do be aware that we are approached several times a week and it’s hard to stand out so make sure that you have a strong and relevant body of work to show us. How much video do you commission now? Less than photography, mostly because we have more in-house film makers, but still a substantial amount. Tens of shoots each year.

www.savethechildren.org.uk Jess Crombie – LinkedIn

A Syrian boy wakes up inside his familyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s tent in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon. There are currently 1.6 million people from Syria in need of refugee assistance in Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon, Iraq and Egypt. Approximately half of the refugees are children. Those who manage to escape often lack access to schools and safe places to play and are frequently living in cramped, overcrowded conditions. Image ÂŠ Moises Saman/Magnum Photos for Save the Children.

A six-year-old boy waking up inside his familyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s tent a settlement in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon. Image ÂŠ Moises Saman/Magnum Photos for Save the Children.

A Syrian family in a school occupied by Syrian refugees in northern Lebanon. Image ÂŠ Moises Saman/Magnum Photos for Save the Children.

Syrian children sleeping inside their familyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s tent in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon. Image ÂŠ Moises Saman/Magnum Photos for Save the Children.

Midwife Norina Malate delivers the baby of Analyn, 18, on the side of the road on Leyte island, Philippines, while Analyn’s husband Ryan comforts her. During Typhoon Haiyan (known locally as Yolanda), the couple’s house was destroyed, and they were displaced to a more remote village. Between 50% and 90% of the region’s local clinics (known as Barangay health stations) and hospitals were destroyed, and the couple were attempting to reach their nearest clinic by motocycle when she entered the critical point of her labour. A stranger passing by saw what was happening and went to bring the midwife. After her baby was delivered, Analyn was taken to the Tolosa clinic on a Save the Children truck, where her baby’s health was monitored. Typhoon Hayian hit the Philippines on November 8, 2013, and killed some six thousand people, and affected some 14.1 million others, destroying their homes, livelihoods, and displacing families. There are currently over 250,000 pregnant women in the affected area, with much of the medical infrastructure destroyed. Image © Lynsey Addario/Save the Children.

Midwife Norina Malate delivers the baby of Analyn, 18, on the side of the road on Leyte island, Philippines, while Analynâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s husband Ryan comforts her.

Analyn, 18, with her newborn baby in the rural health unit in Tolosa, outside of Tacloban. Image ÂŠ Lynsey Addario/Save the Children.

Christmas jumpers modelled for Save the Childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 2014 Christmas Jumper Day. Image ÂŠ Dan Burn-Forti/Save the Children.

Photographers need to create a consistent body of work, a clear brand and a strong visual identity to succeed, advises Zoe Whishaw, whoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s running a series of workshops on the subject for the AOP

INSIDER INSIGHT

“The competition is so fierce now, you have to have more than great photographs to be successful these days,” says Zoe Whishaw. “It’s no longer enough just to create compelling images, you have to become expert in those who commission photography – what they expect from you, and where and how they look for new talent. In addition, you need to develop and cultivate your personal brand. Marketing is key, she adds, but it’s not an added extra tacked on after making the images. She advises photographers to have an “integrated, consistent approach” throughout, so that their brand can be recognised and trusted. Creating a consistent body of work which in turn will help give them a clear brand and visual identity is enormously important. “Those who commission photography need to be able to trust that you will be able to deliver, so they will not want to see oneoff, random images which don’t show a cohesive approach or style,” she says. “From a photographer’s point of view, it’s really all about confidence – having the confidence to find your most authentic self and to express this through your work. Find what you’re most interested in, what’s important to you as an individual and see how this can be transmitted through your work and then pursue it through personal projects. These interests will naturally evolve over time, but they will help you differentiate yourself from everyone else.” It’s something Whishaw has been helping photographers with for years – starting out as a picture editor with Tony Stone Images, she went on to become European Director of Photography for Getty Images, tasked with inspiring photographers and art directors to create “original but ever relevant” work. Now a commercial photography consultant and mentor, she works with clients such as Magnum Photos, the London College

www.the-aop.org/events

www.zoewhishaw.com/index.html

of Communication and Photofusion as well as individual photographers, and says that this mix of originality and relevancy is still key in the commercial marketplace. “I look at how photographers can optimise their offer, helping them ensure that the way they’re working is relevant to today,” she says. “Many photographers have been working for decades and have a good body of work, but need a roadmap to make sure they’re working efficiently and making a living in what has become a very different arena.” Part of this roadmap includes working out what other photographers in the market are doing she says, by reading magazines, browsing online and attending events and exhibitions. This gives photographers familiarity and a better understanding of their competitive landscape, which will help them hone their interests into something that’s particular to them, but not off-subject, eccentric or wacky. Much of it is down to identifying trends, she says, and keeping at the cutting edge while retaining a personal style. Beyond that the trick is staying visible – maintaining a good presence online but also networking in person. “The website is key, because everything else emanates from that, but photographers also need to take advantage of the social networks [such as blogs, Twitter, Facebook or Instagram] and use them to optimal effect. “You also need to have a physical presence,” she adds. “‘Networking’ sounds fearsome to some, but socialising with other photographers and potential clients at industry events will be where you come into contact with art buyers and picture editors. Do your research and work out where people will be – there are so many potential events, from gallery openings and festivals to workshops and magazine launches…. you have to be pro-active and tenacious in finding these opportunities.”

“Zoe is very able, and very well placed to comment on trends in the photography industry,” says photographer Tim Flach, whose image is shown here. “She saw the revolution in commercial imagery first-hand, and the way this area moved towards metaphors and concepts to be used over a variety of media. And she was working at a very high level as it happened, so she has a unique perspective.” Image © Tim Flach.

As the AOP unveils its 32nd Photography Awards exhibition, Gemma Padley asks four of the curators about the images that caught their eye

AOP AWARDS 2015

The AOP Photography Awards are back, and they’re bigger and better than ever. The annual contest has rewarded cutting-edge commissioned and non-commissioned photography in fashion and beauty, still life, portraiture and more for more than three decades, and now the awards ceremony is moving to the heart of London’s creative scene with a presentation and party held at the Old Truman Brewery on Brick Lane on 8th October. Twelve industry experts curated their pick of the entries in 22 categories, including: Commissioned Advertising, Commissioned Editorial, Noncommissioned Fashion and Beauty, and the Open Awards which non-AOP members can enter. The Assistant Awards, for those getting started in the industry, were judged this year by Lisa Pritchard of the Lisa Pritchard Agency. “Overall I looked for technical and artistic proficiency – so the basics of focus, lighting and post-production, but also images that were aesthetically pleasing and well composed,” says Pritchard, who oversaw both the single and series categories. “I guess I was also looking for images that showed a certain maturity and professionalism, and I was pleasantly surprised by how many ticked this last box.” She awarded Claudia Cannon the top gong in the Assistant Awards single category, for an image of light streaming through a moody, cloudy sky over London. The image is “particularly striking”, says Pritchard, adding: “It’s so technically precise, and the photographer has managed to create a really powerful and dramatic mood here. Composition-wise, the balance of the imposing sky and the expansive city beneath is quite clever. Impressive stuff, considering this photographer is still at assisting level.” Tristan Fennell won the series category in the Assistant Awards with a simple series of delicatelylit portraits. “I love the simplicity and purity [of this work]”, says Pritchard. “The portraits are engaging, captivating and exude confidence. The photographer has really captured a consistency in the expression and [his] connection with the subject. The desaturation and colour palette also work well, and the images work nicely as a set. For me, the simplest images are often the most powerful and memorable.” When it came to making her shortlisted selections, it was the images that “went a step further” that made the cut, says Pritchard. “The ones that stood out were more expressive somehow,” she says. “They evoked a certain emotion or conveyed a particular mood. They pushed the boundaries and offered something different from the other entries. “When I say different, I don’t mean necessarily

mean radical or disturbing,” she adds. “One set of images, for example, just had a beautiful, calming and uplifting ambience. Another set stood out because they had particularly distinctive angles and perspective, quite charming and curious. Then again, one set of images just couldn’t be ignored on account of the immense effort and foresight in both the pre-production (the casting, styling and location finding) and the post-production, which was a complex multipart composite. The final result warranted this effort worthwhile I hasten to add.” Cheryl Newman, photography consultant, writer and former photography director of the Telegraph Magazine oversaw the Open Award stills and series categories, for which there is no theme. This meant the entries varied hugely but, says Newman, she approached the judging process with an open mind and found a lot of good work. “The submissions included still life photography, portraiture, some experimental work, landscape photography, beauty and fashion, so it was quite hard to choose a winner,” she says. “Rather like a day working on a magazine, I was keen to include the various genres, but also to make sure I only included worthy images.” Even so, she did notice lots of very strong portraits this year, and picked out portraits to scoop both the single and series categories. Jessica Kelly’s image of a girl, Samantha, won the single image prize, though it comes from a wider series called Bedroom. “I was immediately drawn to Kelly’s portrait of Samantha within the disarray of her bedroom,” says Newman. “It’s quite a melancholy image, and the space feels transient. Samantha seems uncomfortable, but the quiet composition gives her some sense of place. It is a thoughtful, sensitive photograph.” In the Open Award stills (series) category, Newman picked out Harry Borden’s Single Parent Dads. “I really enjoyed Harry’s series on fathers with their children,” she says.” It’s a great subject for a photo project, and I was especially interested in the body language between the man and his two sons in the first image in the series. The images are beautifully composed and are shot in a variety of private spaces, and feature children of different ages who have different cultural identities, which keeps the series fresh.” Freelance art buyer Simon Pedersen judged the Non-Commissioned Object single and series categories, which can show “any object in any place, with the emphasis being on the object rather than its surroundings”, according to the competition rules. “I wasn’t looking for anything until I saw it,” he says. “Still life can be anything from a dead fly on a windowsill to a well-lit piece of glass in a studio; it doesn’t always have to be

AOP AWARDS 2015

studio-based. I saw a huge range of images – some much better than others,” he adds. “The lessstrong entries were a little contrived, but there were a lot of really amazing images too, which made it difficult to pick a winner.” Robert Wilson won the Non-Commissioned Object single category with an image from his series, Helmand Return, Camp Bastion. Towards the end of 2014, Wilson visited Afghanistan as an official war artist, photographing personnel and equipment during the withdrawal of British Troops. Brightly coloured and eye-catching, his near-abstract winning image fills the entire frame with what looks to be the interior of a piece of military-related machinery. Still life photographer Marcel Christ won the Non-Commissioned Object series category with his series, Micros. Having studied chemical engineering and photography, Christ describes his work as: “still life photography with a twist of chemistry”; the series stood out to Pedersen because of its “lighting, colour and attention to detail,” he says. Speaking generally about the entries in the series category, Pedersen commented: “Content mattered less to me… It was more about the photographer’s observational abilities, the use of light, and how the images worked together – it was important they all conveyed the same message.” Carrie Scott, an independent curator and arts consultant, judged the Non-commissioned Fashion and Beauty (single and series) categories. Scott, who has worked with celebrated photographers such as Nick Knight and David Sims, was judging the competition for the first time, and says she found it tricky but also refreshing. “We’re so used to having context in which to read an image, and in my job I know all the photographers I work with, but for this, we didn’t know anything,” she says. “You therefore have to evaluate the images based on line, form, colour, composition, which was challenging, but enjoyable at the same time.” She made a shortlist of images in each of the two categories, and from there selected the final winners. “In the single category I actually chose two winners,” she confesses. “I couldn’t decide between two images – I loved them both for different reasons. I asked if I could pick two and the AOP agreed.” The winners of the Non-commissioned Fashion and Beauty (single) award are: Julia Fullerton-Batten for her image of a woman’s

torso seen through a hessian-like fabric; and Florian Geiss for an image of two naked young figures playing in what could be a sprinkler system or rain shower. Of the former, Scott was intrigued by the image’s strong composition but mysterious subject. “The light in the image is stunning and I like how you’re not entirely sure what this is,” she says. “The woman’s hand is the focus of the shot. It’s a tentative pose, but the woman is not at all objectified and she’s not in a ‘come hither’ pose – she’s standing strong. I couldn’t get the image out of my head – I kept returning to it; I wanted to know the woman’s story, and that’s the mark of a great photograph.” The light in Geiss’ image also caught Scott’s attention too. “The light is beautiful [and the image] has a sharpness – you can see every drop of rain,” she says. “There’s a playful energy to it. It’s a dark image because of the way the light is, and that rich blue-black [background] contrasts with the two young figures as they play in the water. Again the image raises questions – who are these people, and where are they?” Scott chose Sam Robinson’s series, Twins, London, as her winner in the Non-commissioned Fashion & Beauty series category. “I tried to purely look at the images in front of me and to think about how the photographer captured the photograph,” she says. “But I also thought about fashion and beauty, which have their own [requirements] – as in, you’re trying to picture fashion or cosmetics, or to put it another way, from the perspective of what fashion and beauty brands need. So I had to look in both ways. “Overall, the level of submissions was impressive,” she adds. “I was most excited and impressed by [the use of] light, whether it was natural light or studio lighting… In fashion and beauty photography you normally see the model and the face, but in the strongest submissions the faces were either turned away or slightly obscured, which is quite unusual. It was the poses and body language that were important in conveying the mood of the shot, something I really enjoyed. The Awards are a great place to see what photographers are doing and what the trends are.”

AOP AWARDS 2015

The AOP Photography Awards Winner 2015 Claudia Gannon Assistant Single Tristan Fennell Assistant Series Jessica Kelly Open Single Harry Borden Open Series Simon Stock Commissioned Advertising Single Olly Burn Commissioned Advertising Series Marcus Peel Commissioned Design Single Tif Hunter Commissioned Design Series Alex Telfer Commissioned Editorial Single James Day Commissioned Editorial Series Joseph Ford Non-Commissioned Portraits Single Jon Enoch Non-Commissioned Portraits Series Paul Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Connor Non-Commissioned Life Single Clare Park Non-Commissioned Life Series Richard Seymour Non-Commissioned Environment Single Nick Meek Non-Commissioned Environment Series Robert Wilson Non-Commissioned Objects Single Marcel Christ Non-Commissioned Objects Series Julia Fullerton-Batten Non-Commissioned Fashion & Beauty Single Florian Geiss Non-Commissioned Fashion & Beauty Single Sam Robinson Non-Commissioned Fashion & Beauty Series Jake Thomas Project The winning and shortlisted images are on show at the Old Truman Brewery until 11 October 2015.

www.the-aop.org/awards/aop-awards-exhibition-events

Assistant Award â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Single Image ÂŠ Claudia Gannon

Assistant Award â&#x20AC;&#x201C;Series Image ÂŠ Tristan Fennell

Open Award – Single Image © Jessica Kelly

Open Award – Series Image © Harry Borden

Commissioned Advertising Award – Single Image © Simon Stock

Commissioned Advertising Award â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Series Image ÂŠ Olly Burn

Commissioned Design Award – Single Image © Marcus Peel

Commissoned Design â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Series Image ÂŠ Tif Hunter

Commissoned Editorial Award â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Single Image ÂŠ Alex Telfer

Commissoned Editorial Award – Series Image © James Day

Non-Commissoned Portraits Award – Single Image © Joseph Ford

Non-Commissoned Portraits Award â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Series Image ÂŠ Jon Enoch

Non-Commissioned Life Award – Single Image © Paul O`Connor

Non-Commissioned Life Award – Series Image © Clare Park

Non-Commissioned Environment Award – Single Image © Richard Seymour

Non-Commissioned Environment Award – Series Image © Nick Meek

Non-Commissioned Objects Award – Single Image © Robert Wilson

Non-Commissioned Objects Award – Series Image © Marcel Christ

Non-Commissioned Fashion & Beauty Award – Series Image © Sam Robinson

Project Award Image ÂŠ Jake Thomas

Although the Association of Photographers is a UK-based organisation, some of its members live further afield. Rachel Segal Hamilton hears from two of them â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Paolo Patrizi and Susanne Wegner

Sharon, a Nigerian sex worker, sits on her makeshift bed in the countryside outside Rome. Roadside prostitution in Italy is primarily conducted by migrants, some of whom are victims of trafficking, and some of whom have willingly been smuggled into Italy, but find prostitution the only way they can earn enough to send money home. All images from the series A Disquieting Intimacy ÂŠ Paolo Patrizi.

Deborah, a Nigerian sex worker, sits on her makeshift bed outside Rome. Image ÂŠ Paolo Patrizi.

An open-air room used by sex workers, in a field on the fringes of Rome. Image ÂŠ Paolo Patrizi.

A chair used by sex workers, in a wooded area near Rome. Image ÂŠ Paolo Patrizi.

Anna, a Nigerian sex worker near Rome. Roadside prostitution in Italy is conducted primarily by migrant sex workers. Image ÂŠ Paolo Patrizi.

Cheoah Commissioned work for Voith Hydro, one of the biggest hydropower equipment suppliers in the world. Image ÂŠ Susanne Wegner

Einöde (“solitude”), from a personal project shot in places in southern German with particularly evocative names. Other images in the series are entitled Affental (“ape valley”), Zuflucht (“refuge”) and Killer. Image © Susanne Wegner

Offshore Terminal, from a personal project. Image ÂŠ Susanne Wegner

A refinery, shot for a print campaign for an international industrial pump manufacturer. Image ÂŠ Susanne Wegner

An abandoned sinter plant in the Ruhr Valley. Image ÂŠ Susanne Wegner

Via Mala, a formerly infamous passage through the Alps in the Grisons Swiss Canton. Wegner shot this project for the exhibition Winter Images at Gallery Schacher, Raum fĂźr Kunst, Stuttgart. Image ÂŠ Susanne Wegner

The UN World Food Programme commissioned photographer Chris Terry to shoot a multi-layered project on families around the globe who have benefited from its aid. Lauren Heinz reports

FEED THE WORLD

Starting in August 2014, commercial photographer Chris Terry spent six weeks visiting five countries around the world to document the work of the United Nation’s World Food Programme (WFP). In Ecuador, Chad, Niger, Jordan and Myanmar, Terry met with five different families benefiting from the programme, which is the world’s largest humanitarian agency dedicated to fighting hunger. The finished project, The Family Meal, is made up of Terry’s photographs and short films, along with each family’s stories and recipes that they shared with him, plus an online competition inviting people to upload their own images conveying what family and food means to them. The project has been presented in exhibitions around Europe and on its own website. Terry is based in London and usually shoots a very different kind of food project – he has worked extensively with Jamie Oliver, taking photographs for his cookbooks and product packaging, and working with him on his Channel 4 TV series. But his links with the chef brought him the WFP commission, as initially the organisation was keen to work with Oliver. “It was obviously the perfect match – a family-orientated chef, who’s highly motivated in terms of feeding people and food education, married up with a global food charity,” says Terry. “It would’ve been a perfect mix. For about five years we tried to get a project off the ground, but Jamie at that point couldn’t help, so they kept coming to me and asking if I could shoot projects for them here and there.” Terry met with WFP’s head of PR and visibility while in Ethiopia on an editorial assignment, and The Family Meal project soon came up. “He talked about how complicated the project was and how they wanted it to pan out,” says Terry. “It was just a chat in the back of a Land Rover, that was it. But then he phoned me two or three months after I returned from Ethiopia, asking if I fancied doing it all. They have staff photographers, and to use their photographers would have been less of a headache for them, but given they are always reacting to big disasters, their photographers were off covering other things. So they asked me to shoot the whole project, which I thought would be wonderful.” Five star Logistics and politics greatly determined the five countries chosen to represent the programme because, as Terry explains, “If we upset anyone, or if the UN appeared not to have done their paperwork, or have sort of overlooked some procedure, the consequence might have been that the UN doesn’t get access to feed people and people don’t get their food. “It’s not just a case of, ‘You don’t get in to take photographs’; it might be a case of, ‘People don’t

get their lorry load of grain or rice’, so it’s serious,” he continues. “Yet we needed a broad spread, and we needed to show how far-reaching the food aid from the EU and World Food Programme is. We wanted big differences visually from the people in Jordan or Myanmar to the people in Chad and Niger, to show that actually there is still a common thread here inasmuch as we all sit around and eat food together as often as we can. “The whole basis of The Family Meal project is this commonality – we all have to eat, and often people come together to eat, and what we have in front of us only differs by a quirk of birth. We really wanted to make things as common as possible, so photographically the approach needed to be the same. We needed to shoot people in their environment, buying food, making their meals and enjoying their food.” Terry found that all the families he spent time with were incredibly hospitable, despite their daily hardships and deprivations. He visited a single mother in Chad with 10 children, and another single mother in Ecuador with seven children; a father himself, Terry found he could easily relate to the difficulties they were facing. “I have three kids and my twins are the same age as the twins I met in Ecuador,” he says. “I think it gave me an advantage, having kids – it allowed me to gain their trust and work with me. “All of these people invited me into their homes, offered me drinks. The Syrian refugees in Jordan insisted on cooking me lunch, using their rations from the World Food Programme. It’s an awful position to be in, but you can’t say no. It’s hugely offensive to Arab families if you turn down refreshments. I think having a family allowed me to connect with the kids quickly, and if you connect with the kids the parents relax quickly with you as well.” Speed was of the essence, though, as Terry had just a week to work in each country, shooting straight documentary work but also carefully lit, standalone portraits. “It’s a pain in the arse taking lights to countries like this, but actually it’s so worth it,” he says. “When you light something in an environment where you normally wouldn’t have lights, it really makes it slightly different. We wanted that common aesthetic across each country so it could all work together or stand alone.” Another obstacle Terry faced was the language barrier, which made things particularly challenging when shooting short films. “We did video interviews, and in some countries we had to go through three or four layers of translation – from myself, to French, to Arabic, to a local dialect and then backwards. And we might find that the answer might just be one word, ‘No’. Some of

FEED THE WORLD

the beneficiaries would talk for five minutes very eloquently about where they come from, how they got to be where they are now, why they need the aid from the UN. And others would just give one-word answers. Sometimes it was like pulling teeth.” The back-stories of the five families are heartrending, but Terry’s brief was to focus on the tangible, positive effects of the food programme, both to avoid presenting his subjects as victims and to help promote the charity. “All NGOs and charities are suffering from donor fatigue,” he says. “People just aren’t giving money any more and are slightly blind to photos of starving kids because they see them so often – they are finding it easier and easier to switch off. “It’s primarily because they think, ‘I’ve been giving money to this charity for five years and the kids are still starving, so it’s not working.’ Unless there’s a disaster, [when we] see the immediate effects and have that sudden empathy and sympathy, with food aid people need to primarily see that it’s working. The Family Meal project was really a visibility campaign for ECHO, which is the European fund for this project, and it was to show the taxpayers that the money is well spent. These people are feeding their families, minimally, but they are getting food.” Ultimately, The Family Meal was conceived to raise awareness and therefore, hopefully, have its funding continued without question. “The WFP is the only part of the UN that is donor-funded as opposed to government subscription-funded,” Terry explains. “The EU give money to it, rather than have to. So the WFP hopes to gain traction and awareness. “A lot of people haven’t even heard of the WFP, but they feed more people than any other organisation on the planet. It’s a massive organisation. Earlier this year they made the news in a big way because they ran out of money and they had to stop giving Syrian families any aid, until the EU came and gave them money again. The ultimate aim is to keep people fed, and fed well and nutritionally.” Maximum visibility The project has now been turned into a travelling exhibition, which has already been on show in several public places around Europe. “On the

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http://familymeal.eu/index-en.html

website there’s a timeline as to how the images are being used, [so far it] has been exhibited at about 15 places around Europe,” says Terry. “At the moment it’s on at the European Parliament in Brussels, Madrid airport, Barcelona, Cyprus airport and major rail hubs. The whole point was to gain maximum visibility, so the travelling exhibition and multi-site exhibition has probably gone to about 50 major transport hubs, and it will continue until the end of this year, when this leg of the project is officially over.” The Family Meal website was also designed to raise visibility, as well as giving audiences an insight into the subjects’ cultures and lives via, for example, the recipes Terry collated. At this year’s Food Photographer of the Year competition, Terry had six images from The Family Meal project shortlisted and was awarded first place in the Food for the Family category, but he says that for him it was much more than a commission and much more than an award. “Personally, I got heaps out of it,” he says. “I work with a lot of big commercial brands and a lot of high-profile chefs and restaurants; it’s amazing, and I earn good money out of it. But, and it sounds trite, I wanted to do something good with my work. A little of it is karmic for the soul. I earn a good living out of the high-end food industry, and there are a lot of people in the world starving. Doing this project was a better use of my time than, say, running a marathon and trying to get sponsorship.” Prints of the images Terry shot are being delivered to the families who took part, and he says their willingness to get involved speaks volumes about what the programme has done for them. “Some were interested while I was shooting and wanted to look at the back of the camera and the laptop to see what I’d been doing, but I don’t think any of them assumed there was a direct value to me being there for them,” he says. “They all knew they were doing it for the greater good of the programme, which I thought was amazing.” The Family Meal project is a travelling exhibition, shown in various pubic places around Europe. It was recently on show at EXPO Milano 2015 and is currently on display in the check-in area of Larnaka International Airport, Cyprus, until the end of October 2015. More information is available at the World Food Programme website.

Father and daughter ploughing their dry land to make the most of the rainy season, Chad. Image ÂŠ Chris Terry

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UN World Food Programme food distribution centre, Chad. Image ÂŠ Chris Terry

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Families often have to walk for hours to get to the WFP distribution centres to receive the cash or vouchers. Image ÂŠ Chris Terry

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A traditional Kouzi hut in Arada, “The mouth of the desert”, Eastern Chad. Image © Chris Terry

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Achta, mother of 10, fled to Arada from Northen Chad because of drought which killed all their animals. Image ÂŠ Chris Terry

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Bread distribution in Zaatari camp, Jordan Image ÂŠ Chris Terry

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17 metric tons of bread is distributed daily Zaatari camp, Jordan by three on site Jordanian bakeries Image ÂŠ Chris Terry

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Syrian refugees in Zaatari camp have tried to make it feel like home Image ÂŠ Chris Terry

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The Syrian residents in the camp donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t like to describe themselves as refugees. They have organised themselves and family and community groups to retain a sense of home Image ÂŠ Chris Terry

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The first accommodation for new arrivals in the camp is a canvas tent provided by UNHCR Image ÂŠ Chris Terry

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The camps are funded and supplied by European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection department (ECHO) and World Food Programme. Image © Chris Terry

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The WFP help them grow their own food to supplement the aid and kids go to school in the local community. Image ÂŠ Chris Terry

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Fleeing war between various militias, separatists and Myanmar military who are trying to retake ground Image ÂŠ Chris Terry

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Teenage refugees in the camp playing football when the rain ceases Image ÂŠ Chris Terry

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The people in the camp were the most welcoming and cheerful of people given the circumstances and happy to be photographed Image ÂŠ Chris Terry

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WFP food distribution centre, Niger. Image ÂŠ Chris Terry

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Touareg tribesman in traditional garb, Niger. Image ÂŠ Chris Terry

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Sunset over Nigeri village, UN vehicles must be off the road before dark. Image ÂŠ Chris Terry

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Two hours out of the capital of Niger, Niamey, WFP supply food aid to a Nigeri family who have fled their homes because of drought. Image ÂŠ Chris Terry

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My escort supplied by the Nigeri government for my trip to a WFP food distribution centre, Niger. Image ÂŠ Chris Terry

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The first accommodation for new arrivals in the camp is a canvas tent provided by UNHCR Image ÂŠ Chris Terry

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Luke Hayes, John Spinks and Thomas Butler on how to turn commissions into lasting relationships

LONG-TERM CLIENTS

Building a successful ongoing relationship with a commercial client takes mutual trust, respect and understanding. It can bring a wealth of benefits to a freelance photographer: most obviously a regular source of income, but also exposure, experiences and opportunities, as well as the chance to push the creative boundaries. Rachel Segal Hamilton talks to Luke Hayes, John Spinks and Thomas Butler, about their long-term clients in the fields of architecture, fashion and sport to find out what makes it work… John Spinks & Albam Seven years ago John Spinks was strolling down Beak Street in London’s Soho with his wife when they noticed an interesting-looking menswear store and popped in for a look. Both were struck by the classic British charm of the clothes, but also of the staff, who were down-to-earth and friendly – which can be a rarity in central London. “It was unusual in that they weren’t trying to be cool, they were trying to be nice,” he says. “It was lovely. They were – and still are – trying to do something honest, forthright and simple and that was really appealing.” For the first and only time in his photography career, he decided to follow up this chance visit with an email, saying ‘I like your shop, if you want any photography, let me know’. They did, and so began an enduring commercial relationship for a photographer who’s worked for Levis, Selfridges and Uniqlo, among others, and for the tailor Richard James (for 15 years). Spinks has shot pictures for Albam’s look books, store displays and website, as well as, increasingly, projects which transcend conventional marketing. “In the last two years we’ve been doing less illustrative and more – for want of a better word – creative stuff, so getting together and thinking about things that represent or describe what the company’s trying to do,” he says. One of these projects is Factories, a book of still lifes, portraits and documentary shots taken in Albam’s factories and published five years ago. The idea originated with Albam co-founder James Shaw, who was heavily involved in the company’s production at that point. “He’d go round all the factories on a week-by-week basis seeing if the product was looking and feeling right. He said to me, ‘Why don’t you come along, just to see what they’re like?’” Spinks recalls. “It started off with, ‘You might find it interesting to come along’. Then it was, ‘Why don’t you take a few photographs?’ Then it was three years later and I said, ‘Shall we do a little show?’ They said, ‘Well we don’t know about selling prints but we can sell books so why don’t we do a book?’” They made a limited-edition run of 500 books, which were sold

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in Albam shops and online, and which aimed to take customers behind the scenes and celebrate English manufacturing. “We were trying to look at those places before they disappeared or changed; to say this is really valuable, making stuff is a good thing to do,” says Spinks. Last year, Spinks shot a series called Winter Portraits, photographing friends of the Albam team, rather than models, but also working with art director Mark Tappin and stylist Lynette Garland. “Alistair Rae, who runs the business, and I discussed what we thought would be interesting and produced what we call a ‘kit’. A kit might be still life pictures, portraits, landscapes, pictures of objects. We put all that together, give it to Mark and Mark makes sense of it.” Spinks describes this ways of working as an “art school approach”, in that it roots all projects into an open, exploratory dialogue about common inspirations – and says it’s one of the reasons the working relationship has lasted so long. He’ll sit down and talk through ideas with the team, he says, and ideally they’ll end up having a conversation that “drifts really nicely into a shorthand”. “We have a shared vocabulary,” he says. “It needs to work for what the company requires but within that there’s a lot of scope to try things out. “Some client-photographer relationships are very formal,” he adds. “Sometimes you walk in and go, ‘I’ve got a brilliant idea, I’ve been looking at these ridiculous paintings by so-and-so, let’s do something based on that’, and they say, ‘No we need something within these very rigid parameters’. That’s fine – that’s another skill. But what’s particularly nice working with Albam – and Richard James – is that you say, ‘What about this?’ And you’re not told, ‘Don’t be stupid, that isn’t what we need’, they say, ‘Alright, what do you mean by that?’ You can talk through that idea. And maybe what you do in the end is different from what you presented in the first place but at least you have a really interesting result.” Even so, he says Albam and Richard James are “different beasts”, which have to be tackled in very different ways. “Working for Richard James is kind of like working in a lab – you do these wonderfully strange things,” he says. “Working for Album is a process of accretion, it’s an interestingly evolving thing. We’re walking through these different ideas and processes, which are continually building up and changing. The flavour of it is hopefully still there but we go in different directions and meander around.” Luke Hayes & Zaha Hadid Architects His commissions for Zaha Hadid Architects have taken Luke Hayes all over the world – from

LONG-TERM CLIENTS

Oxford to Montpellier, Baku to Beirut. But it all began in London in 2007 when Hayes, who’d worked regularly for the Design Museum for the previous eight years, shot an exhibition of Hadid’s work. Impressed with what they saw, the firm hired him to shoot Lilas later that summer, a temporary pavilion designed by Hadid and erected on the grass beside the Serpentine Gallery. He photographed the installation and completion of the project and produced a time-lapse video of its construction. “They got to see how I worked, the style of my images, but also the fact I can work on site, edit and get things to them fast,” Hayes recalls. “Zaha’s profile in the UK was increasing dramatically at that point and she was in high demand with the press, so papers, magazines and online blogs all wanted the images really quickly.” That job became the first of many, with Hayes going on to be commissioned to shoot some of Hadid’s most iconic buildings – including the London Aquatics Centre, the MAXXI in Rome and the Sheikh Zayed Bridge in Abu Dhabi. The briefs vary depending on the project in question, but generally they allow him a lot of creative freedom. The Sheikh Zayed Bridge, for example, was completely open, “it was: go there, shoot it, get what you can”, says Hayes. “Whereas the Pierrevives building in Montpellier was very specific. The commission was for the opening ceremony, they wanted it looking busy, with lots of people. Hadid was going to be there so they wanted some pictures with her. It was quite a grand opening and they had this son et lumiere show where they projected light onto the building so it was unique.” Hayes, who specialised in architectural photography after falling in love with largeformat cameras during his undergraduate degree at Falmouth University (then Falmouth College of Art), puts the success of this particular client relationship down to trust. “When you work with someone a lot, reliability becomes an important factor,” he says. “If a client is going to send you overseas to do a shoot, they want to know that you’re going to do it when they need you to and come back with some good pictures. It’s as simple as that, I think. “When you start off, things can be quite formal but you gradually get to know the client’s requirements, and the trust evolves,” he says. “Architects have a very personal relationship with the buildings they create, so I believe it’s important to photography a building carefully and with empathy. Having a good relationship with Zaha Hadid Architects has allowed me to photograph the more intimate moments of a project’s completion,

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portraits of Zaha, [director] Patrik Schumacher and the senior project architects with their buildings, for instance.” The media hype around Hadid as a so-called ‘starchitect’ means that photographs of her work have a far wider circulation than most other architectural pictures. That makes them “really exciting clients to work with, especially in architecture”, says Hayes. “With a lot of architectural photography, a lot of people may never see it – it’s for [the firm’s] records or things like that,” he explains. “It’s not like fashion where the primary space the pictures are going to be used is in magazines. [But] the pictures for this go everywhere.” They also feed into personal projects. His recent series, The Naze, shows the ancient Essex coastline glowing brightly thanks to a remarkable supermoon, for example, and he says photographing Hadid’s work has helped hone is approach to the light. “I approach things the same way – ideally if you’ve got the time and can wait for really good light, you can do with architecture the same thing as I’ve done there with the moon lighting up the cliffs,” he says. “Hadid’s work is very sculptural. They use a lot of concrete, which is a beautiful, textured surface to photograph. Recently a lot of their projects – like the Serpentine Sackler Gallery – have used daylight in a really interesting way.” But what working with Zaha Hadid Architects has afforded him above all is the opportunity to shoot some extraordinary and important buildings – a privilege for any architectural photographer. “I’m getting access to these amazing spaces that you wouldn’t normally get access to,” he explains. “Some of them are public but some aren’t. It’s a really nice time to go into one of these spaces with a camera when they’re new and not many people have seen them before. I’ve always loved her work – it’s a really modern form of architecture, fantastic to photograph. Every time I work on a commission for them, I end up shooting loads. You can just keep going.” Thomas Butler & Red Bull “Formula One is portrayed as this glamorous, fancy sport, full of billionaires – which it is – but when you’re there on a rainy Wednesday afternoon and they’re practising, it’s basically like being with a load of truck drivers,” says Thomas Butler. But he doesn’t mean it in a bad way – for him, getting that behind-the-scenes insight is part of the allure of working with the organisation. “On-screen it all looks slick but it you’re standing five metres away from the TV crews, there are cables running everywhere, the equipment’s

LONG-TERM CLIENTS

battered, it’s got stickers all over it,” he says. “It’s messy.” Butler has been shooting F1, and various other sports, for Red Bull, since his student days. In the final year of his undergraduate degree at Falmouth University he was assigned a largescale project and, being savvy, he opted to spend the time developing a commercial portfolio. “I didn’t really know what sort of photographer I wanted to be and didn’t want to pin myself down too much, so I ended up using sport as a thread through the portfolio but it wasn’t really action photography,” he says. Instead he shot portraiture and documentary, and, getting in touch with a Red Bull student rep at Plymouth University, he got free tickets to a Red Bull skate and surf event. He was hooked and by the time he had graduated, he had a portfolio filled with Red Bull logos. After graduating he picked up work an editorial photographer, shooting for magazines such as the NME, The Face, Mixmag and Elle, doing “a mixture of crappy, little jobs and then a really awesome 12-page feature every now and then”. In late 2004 Red Bull bought Jaguar and Red Bull Racing was born, and the next year Susie Forman, with whom Butler had worked with at The Face, was appointed picture editor for a new print magazine the company was producing, Red Bulletin. She soon got in touch with Butler, and he was taken on as a staff photographer. Part of a tight-knit editorial team of 20 people, Butler travelled all over the world for Red Bulletin, visiting every Grand Prix and producing a magazine every day on site. It was hectic, but Butler loved it. “We were working until 3am – you’d go to the hotel, have something to eat, a shower and then go back,” he says. “My brief was pretty much to just wander around taking photos of whatever I wanted, but then they might say ‘We need you to go and take a photo of Jenson Button because someone’s done an interview with him’. It was really flexible, really good to work on.” By the end of 2008 the magazine was remodelled into a glossy lifestyle monthly, covering all of Red

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Bull’s activities, and nearly everyone on the racing editorial team was made redundant. But instead of simply going their separate ways, they kept in touch, with many former staff branching out to other roles within Red Bull, “like a little family tree,” as Butler puts it. “We were annoyed at the time, obviously, because it was a great job, but a year later we realised that we were all doing much better,” he says. “We were all working together on loads of random different projects through Red Bull – Red Bull Austria, Red Bull UK, RedBull. com, RedBullmotorsports.com … from having one regular job and being made redundant, now I’ve got something like 11 clients.” Now Butler still shoots for Red Bull and the Red Bulletin, and has also branched out into video, Vines and other social media content – partly thanks to his experience of making the track-side magazine. “When I started working with Red Bull I was shooting medium format film,” he says. “I had a Hasselblad and was using harsh, on-camera flashes, [But] we needed to produce a magazine every day, so I instantly had to get on board with digital. At the time it was difficult but I embraced it,” he says. His experience with Red Bull also helped him establish other ongoing relationships, he says, in particular with the Formula One group. At the moment he’s shooting a personal project on trophies in F1, and says “the access and the idea would never have come if I hadn’t done that job for formula one and Red Bull in the first place”. But it’s also helped him with other commercial commissions, not least because Red Bull has become such a cool and well-known brand. “People will contact me saying, I’m contacting you because you did this thing and I’ve been speaking to this other guy,” he says. “When clients show me the work they like from my website, Red Bull is one of the main things. Because it’s a global brand and is really recognisable, other brands that want to be like Red Bull instantly hop on board with that. It’s great to be able to show that you have a good relationship with them.”

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