Hello and welcome to Out of the Darkroom on AdoramaTV.
I'm Ruth Medjber and joining me on the show today we have fashion photographer
Alex Hutchinson.
Alex, thanks so much for joining me today. So maybe if you could give us a
little insight, first of all, into how you got your start in photography?
The first time I started photography was 2010.
I was working as an IT consultant and I was being paid too much money.
I was like 'oh, I kind of like photography' so i bought a camera and thought I was
good. It turns out I was really bad,
so I decided, okay I'm going to go back and study photography,
see what I'm missing and then I took it from there, turned it into a career.
That's a mad leap. So you went from a really nicely paid job,
picked up a hobby and then decided to turn into it really awesome career?
That was it, yeah, right in the height of the recession, I decided to take up a career
free lancing as a photographer.
So while all the other photographers were bailing and
getting real jobs, you were like, I can do that?
Yeah I think that might have been it. I saw a gap in the market.
Came in when everyone else was bouncing out.
So really have not been at it that long, but you have this amazing portfolio.
Professionally, I'm only doing it, I think it's like three years,
maybe four, but I mean I've owned the camera for six years but that's all, you
know, and I realized very quickly I was very bad at it and I really needed to study
something, but I always had the same philosophy when it came to photography,
which is capturing a real moment,
and since the beginning of my portfolio I still see the kind of... the same
scenario repeating itself and trying to capture something that feels real even
though it's a false scenario but...
Yeah, I was just about to say, I mean, it's obviously the
set up. You know, you're either in a studio or on location, but you know
everyone's been paid to be there so there's not really,
I wouldn't think there would be a lot of natural, candid moments but...
There isn't but I will treat everybody on set like they're... that we've been friends our
whole lives and that way your kind of building a rapport with people on
set because they're helping you build, you know, your portfolio and they're
helping you create your dream,
so if you treat them like you're higher
than them, then you just become a bit of a bleep.
So you go in there as just one of the crew?
Yeah, well, I mean you are... we're all
just people at the end of the day, trying to create something so I mean
there shouldn't be a hierarchy in terms of, like, who's better than anybody else.
You're getting your team together, who you feel is going to be the best for
your shoot, so I mean everybody should be kept on the same level, no matter what.
So tell me who is on your crew, like on a standard photo shoot?
It changes all the time but there will be a few people that I would go to. It
depends on the shoot so if it's a bigger campaign, let's say it's for
sportswear, I know the right crew that are going to work well with me for that
so I'd have Nadine Quinn on hair and I'd have
Hayley McGowan on makeup and then styling wise it's going to probably be Courtney Smith,
because like we work really well together.
So you've got your favorites that you love?
I wouldn't say favorites but, I just,
there are certain people I just do enjoy working with but I like working with
everybody and I mean if anybody's going to bring something new to the crew then
come on board.
And would you have any production crew, like anyone on lights or anything like that?
No it's all me. As assistants go, I normally get one assistant who will be Alex
Sheridan, I love having him around because he's amazing and other than that I have
Luca Truffarelli. He would be my shoot partner, depending on the actual shoot. Two of us
went to college together and studied and we took different paths
afterwards but we still have the same kind of conceptual ideas and we still
understand lighting in the same kind of way so I always love having him on board.
And tell me then about the bigger campaigns because you've shot so
many amazing campaigns, I was just lost in your website looking at them... they, to
me, that looks like it takes weeks and weeks and weeks, like the shoot itself but,
I mean, prep must take even longer, right?
I've shot entire campaigns in about three hours.
But, I know. Don't tell anybody!
Now, that was three weeks, people!
I mean, the reason you can do it so quickly is because the prep takes so long.
So I'll go in, come up with a conceptual idea then pick the locations, pick the
model, pick the team. After that, I'll go go and
location scout the actual... and I'll sit there maybe for a few hours and see
how the light will pan through the day and then I'll know exactly what time of
the day that the shoot is going to actually work for a particular outfit, so
then I'll move on to the next location,
pick the time of day and then I can plan out the entire day through that.
And, like, is it a case that you're just, like, randomly pitching to editors
whose magazines that you like or do people come and find you? How do you get hired I suppose?
It works both ways. At the beginning I would constantly have to pitch
ideas and say that this is my work, this is what I do, so I would be continuously
testing ideas and then send that test idea to somebody and say look I want to
expand on this, the same way you would with a short movie. You do
your short film and then pitch it to a producer or a production company and
see if you can get it funded as a feature so it's... that's the way I kind of
started so I'd come up with all these test ideas,
test it out and then match a mood board to what I've been doing and then
send that to the editor and see if they like it. But at the moment it's the
magazines and the clients that have been coming to me, thank God.
In terms of that, you very much have your own style, you know, your own
kind of brand you're putting forward, as this is your type of imagery.
Would it be a case that you would turn down certain ideas a lot, that they'd be
like 'oh can you shoot like this and like this?'
down a lot but if it is something that I definitely can't do, I'll
reply to the client and say 'thank you for contacting me. It doesn't seem
to suit the style of work that I'm actually good at. For example, there
was one client recently that came to me with a mood board and said look this is
what we're looking for and it
was very heavily stylized, really overly photoshopped and a lot of
lighting going on and that's just not my style at all, so I replied to him and
said 'Look, I can shoot it in this way and resent them a new mood board with my own
type of work and they actually... they came around and said 'Look, we'd love to shoot in your way'.
Yeah, that's fantastic. You wouldn't mind just telling me a little bit about the
models because I don't work with models, I don't work with fashion, the whole
thing scares me. I work with musicians who are very not... they're not models and
they require a lot of direction because they don't really know what
they're doing. How much direction does a model require and how much input of that
is yours?
It depends on the model's experience, like I
like working with people who are new,
because you get to kind of... not mold them...but you get to express, you get them to kind
of push themselves into a comfort zone that they're not used to
and therefore realizing that modeling isn't just putting your hand on hip and
looking kind of pretty,
because modeling is, for me, it's about expression, it's about emotion, it's about
bringing something else that you can relate to in an image, so if you're just
standing there looking pretty,
you might as well look like every other modelling photograph that's ever been done.
So, but of course, when you're working with high-end professionals it's amazing.
Like, my most recent shoot for Exposé magazine was running around the streets
of LA and I was literally chasing the model.
I couldn't keep up with her. It was amazing.
Thank you. That was so much fun and it was...that was the highlight of my
career so far,
because I literally got to shoot my own style in a setting that, I felt,
suited what I had come up with and we even got kicked off the ferris wheel
because I was taking photos on the ferris wheel. They were like, 'You can't take your
camera up there'. I said 'Well, I'm not leaving my camera with you, so I'm going
to take it anyway.'
And you just shot it then?
I just shot it and then they kicked us off.
Well, you know, better being kicked off after you've got the shots.
Yeah, exactly, yeah.
So, it doesn't matter. You have to take these kind of chances and just run and
chase people and just capture what you feel is going to suit the scenario,
rather than over stylizing anthing.
Well that's all we have for this episode but join me again because I'm going to
be chatting to Alex about all the types of gear he uses on his fashion photo shoots.
If you'd like to hear more from us at Adorama then subscribe to our YouTube
channel and if you'd like to brush up on your own photography skills then check
out the Adorama Learning Center.
Thanks and I'll see you again soon.