It still feels strange to call myself a photographer but I’ve been involved in the industry for nearly a year. I studied International Relations at University and after graduating due to a random series of events I ended up assisting Lara Jade, a fantastic fashion photographer, for a number of months.
She really helped me understand how the industry operates at a higher level and was very encouraging about my own work and pushed me to get in contact with agencies for testing and putting my own shoots together.
Through assisting Lara I have been able to network with numerous other photographers and creatives who have all been enormously supportive and welcoming. I’ve met and talked to photographers I’ve previously only admired through flickr and sites like that.
Finding a style has been a struggle for me and although I’ve worked closely with Lara, I’d say that my style is really divergent from hers. I look more towards photographers like Sarah Louise Johnson, Camilla Akrans, Anna Fowler, and Ellen Von Unwerth.
I love classical beauty and joy – I’m a big fan of smiles and an element of fun. The first three photographers I listed are wonderful at natural light and capturing beauty, and Von Unwerth I find great at finding and showing the personalities of her models.
I’m a huge fan of her work for Guess. Recently I’ve started following some advice I read that suggested that you shouldn’t look at other photographer’s work and instead draw inspiration from numerous other sources – although this is a bit bittersweet because I miss out on looking at gorgeous photographs. It really does help with feeling frustrated in comparison with other photographers though.
It feels like there’s a lot of pressure to conform to certain styles so it has been pretty liberating just trying to find my own voice and focus on what I want to photograph rather than what I think people expect me to photograph.
I currently test for a few commercial agencies who trust me to sort of do my own thing which is really gratifying. I love their models as they aren’t all 5’9” amazons who photograph well no matter what you do or have them wear – I enjoy the challenge of making a 5’4” model look tall which really helps me push my skills and experiment with posing. I am looking forward to test with fashion agencies more and try and push out some editorial stories that really reflect where my style is going – showing a model’s beauty with a dash of humor.
Photography hasn’t been the easiest path for me and some days it does feel like I’m made a mistake but the high points luckily make up for any low point. It’s been really amazing to start getting recognition from my peers as well as other people in the industry. I’ve made some wonderful friends and am doing what I love so it doesn’t get better than that!
Links:
site: www.smread.500px.com
facebook: www.facebook.com/stevetakespictures
twitter: @smread
Leave a Reply