Robert HardingThis March we were showing at The Photography Show in Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre, UK. As well as presenting a talk on stock photography, we caught up with some fantastic photographers and got the latest on products, techniques and what people are shooting.
Leica fever
There was a buzz around the digital Leica Q and SL which has made a splash since coming onto the market recently. Iconic street photographer Bruce Gilden, known for using the legendary brand, presented his work at the fair, and his award winning photobook, Face was available at the Dewi Lewis book stand.
iPhone photography adventures
Top landscape photographer Julian Calverley shoots for big ad agencies and used to use his iphone camera just for reference, but when he started getting great results he added the photos to his portfolio. The response to this work led to him making a gorgeous book of iphone landscapes, entitled #IPHONEONLY.
He suggests that photographers who want to try iPhone photography should make sure the highlights don’t burn out by tapping the screen to set the exposure. He recommends the Snapseed app for enhancing the photos.
Other photographers found that iphone photography, while more limited in terms of quality and print options, had afforded them extra publicity. Jo Bradford’s project, in which she took a landscape photo every day for a year, took her from 100 to over 50,000 instagram followers in under six months, and brought her opportunities to exhibit, collaborate and promote herself that never would have existed otherwise.
Creative travel photographer Dan Rubin also found that shooting on iphone, even on commission, had attracted positive attention. He likes using iphones for street portraiture and in particular loves the burst mode, allowing you to show 10 frames per second.
However, he had not abandoned other formats, also using polaroids and large format as well as digital on the same job, keeping things fresh and allowing him to work out which medium suits his subject matter best. He advised photographers to ‘share everything’, adding that LightRoom mobile makes it easy for him to upload his work to Instagram, especially those images shot on film.
Advice from a master
One of the highlights of the show was a talk by master US documentary photographer Alec Soth, who is currently exhibiting Gathered Leaves, a retrospective on his work about the American Midwest at the Science Museum, London.
His advice to young photographers was to ‘try everything, and then feel what authentically fits’. When asked how later-career photographers can stay interested and inspired in their work he replied: “Keep experimenting to keep things alive and find space to play that’s not tied to finances.”
Alec has found that collaboration and editorial work has given him the space to try things out. In particular, his own editorial, Little Brown Mushroom, allowed him to travel round the US with a journalist and an open brief, as well as to collaborate and explore storytelling methods with visual artists.