Photo Profile : Lee Potter

Ever since picking up a camera with an intent beyond just taking snapshots, there have been many times when it’s felt wrong not having one in my hands.

There are so many moments in life, so many bits of magic…I want to photograph them all. This is what inspires me to get out of bed at 3am, to walk for an extra hour, to run out of the house into the rain. I want to see those things that I would normally miss.

I’ve never had any formal training or taken any photography courses, I just started like a lot of people do. I read a few magazines, tried odd DIY lighting set-ups with desk lamps, spent fruitless hours trying to capture the perfect water droplet etc. A lot of trial and error.

At some point I read an interesting article on the ‘Flickr-isation of Photography’ and it led me away from How-To articles, it made me want to just shoot the kind of images I wanted to see, instead of following a tutorial or trying to replicate what I liked in the portfolios of others.

I enjoy working with other creative people, those who have chosen to add something to the world instead of just consuming what mass media provides. Recently I’ve been working with several local musicians and bands to create a number of different images, from general promo shots to artwork for their releases.

I’ve only been doing it for a couple of months, but I’m really pleased with the amount of work I’ve been able to produce and am hoping to continue in this area. Working with these people tends to lead to a more collaborative approach, in which both me and the subject are invested in creating an image that represents both themselves as an artist and the music they make.

I also like to explore, be it cities, remote parts of the Peak District or derelict buildings. Consistency is a new thing for me this year, I’ve been trying to focus shooting images with a common subject. That doesn’t stop me from taking the occasional random shot of something, but I get more out of producing a group of photos that have some sort of central theme.

I currently live in Derby and am focusing on creating a series of 16 images that reflect how I feel about the city. How I see it. I hope to show it in a couple of galleries in the next few months.

My influences vary greatly, and aren’t just limited to particular photographers. Inspiration can come from anywhere – a sentence in a book, a lyric in a song, a scene in a film. I like it this way; it means that when my ‘style’ finally emerges it will hopefully be something that is different from that of other photographers at my level. Personal style is something I think about a lot at the moment. I’ve only been doing this for a few years and know I’ve got a long way to go before my style becomes apparent.

I’m lucky enough to shoot with a Sony a900 at the moment. The combination of a full-frame dSLR with one of Sony’s lovely prime lenses (my favourite has to be the 50mm f1.4), coupled with its very generous view finder, means I’ll be shooting with this camera for a long time to come.

Yes, it’s big and bulky, but I like that. I’m also taking my first tentative steps into shooting on film…it might seem like a backwards step to some people, going from digital to film, but I want to go back to basics and see what happens. It’s exciting, and until it stops being I’ll always be passionate about my photography.

Links

Website: http://www.artstarphotographic.com
Blog: http://artstarphotographic.tumblr.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/art-star-PHOTOGRAPHiC/169187051346
Twitter: @_artstarPHOTO