Hello and welcome to Out of The Darkroom on AdoramaTV. I'm Ruth Medjber and
joining on the show today we have fashion photographer Holly McGlynn.
Thanks so much for joining me Holly. Thanks for having me. Yeah you are very welcome. I love
your work so maybe if you could do us a favour and tell our viewers a little bit
about you and how you got started in photography.
Sure, so after I graduated I did an undergrad in history of art and French at
Trinity. I moved to Berlin and just for the crack really and I got really
into photography when I w as there. I actually remember the exact moment that
I decided I want to be a photographer. I was at and a gig with the band
called Louise Attaque, who are french band and there's a violinist and the
strings on his violin kept breaking but he was completely silhouetted by the
light and I was so frustrated I didn't have a camera to capture that moment. So
I don't know instantaneously was like I want to be a photographer.
Wow and then from there you went. Yes I bought myself a camera the
next day and just started taking photos and Berlin is such an inspiring place to
take photos anyway and then I moved back to Dublin and and my flatmate was
actually a TV producer and she needed stills photographer and she just said do
you want to do it and I said okay. So I built up a portfolio and then because I
kind of had only been in education and my whole life I sort of thought oh
well I guess you study photography. So I applied for a master's in photography at
Goldsmiths in London and so moved to London and kind of the rest is history
really but looking back on it, there's absolutely no need to study photography
at all. It is just sort of about developing your skills and assisting
photographers and building your portfolio but it was a platform that
worked for me at the time. You do a lot of workshops don't you, where you
teach people, could you tell us about those. So that's quite recent and so this
summer I was commissioned by the Soho House group in London and New York to give a
series of fashion photography workshops and I've actually just taken that
workshop to the Gallery of Photography in Dublin which is really nice because
that was the first place I ever did a photography course so it's really nice that's
kind of come full circle. Your returning
to give back knowledge. But then I don't actually really teach
technical photography skills. What I teach is concepts and ideas because
for me fashion photography is way more about the ideas, that's what's more
important than technical skills. If you look at someone like Juergen Teller, he
has the most simple setup. He shoots on a tiny little 35mm camera with an
inbuilt flash. He takes some of the greatest fashion photos in the world,
but his ideas are incredible and his intimacy with his subject is amazing and
that's what makes a great photo in my opinion. So I try and get the group
sort of thinking about concepts, thinking about ideas and developing those areas
rather than technical skills. So would you be one of those photographers who
has just books, books and notes and sketch pads and things just to develop
your own ideas.
Yeah I do the odd sketch. I have loads of mood boards, I am always like ripping
images out of magazines and yeah quite a tactile kind of photographer. Lots of reference
images, lots of the pinboards that kind of thing.
Wow, that's fantastic.
What kind of thing would you be trying to guide your students in your
workshops to to do more of? Like practice-based things. I always
say don't take literal photographs. That was some advice I got from my
mentor many years ago and so don't just take a photo of a model wearing clothes,
it has to go deeper than that. There has to be an idea behind that, what are
you trying to communicate and again my mentor always says the job of the
photographer is to communicate ideas in new ways and so that's what I really try
and get them thinking about. tSo if you take a an abstract concepts like
communication. How can you try and yeah tell that story through photography.
You work with a lot of big brands don't you? Yeah. Massive, massive brands out there, I mean
Mulberry and we've got Primark over here. Thats a big contract, do you find
that you can put all your concepts and ideas into their campaigns?
Or is it much more like structured in terms of what they want? It depends.
Client to client it would depend.
Some clients are really happy for me to sort of just run with whatever kind of
ideas I have and we'll work together quite closely on the brief and an
ideally what a client should do is say, we love this photographer style
and their ideas and what they bring to the shoot, so we're just going to let
them do that, but you know massive corporations it's not always the case.
That's the ideal isn't it? That they pick a photographer because they love their
work and their head space in their ideas and their vision. Exactly. They do
pick you because of that, then they want to kind of sculpt you.
Yeah I mean again coming back to Juergen Teller he's worked with Marc Jacobs
since 1998 and one of my favorite stories at with Marc Jacobs and
Juergen Teller’s relationship is the Victoria Beckham campaign, I don't know if
you know that but Marc Jacobs I assume paid millions to Victoria Beckham to be
the face of the brand but Juergen Teller never actually photographed her
face. He managed to convince her to get into a Marc Jacobs shopping back and he
just photographed her legs coming out of the bag. I know the shot.
It's an amazing shot, I think it’s one of the most powerful fashion photography
images in existence. Marc Jacobs trusted Jeurgen to do that.
That's the ideal relationship. That’s what we are hoping for here. A
lot of your work then as well, you have your amazing campaigns with your big brands
and then you've got to personal work as well that goes with that.
Tell me a little bit about the personal work and if that's important
and that kind of thing.
Yeah that's another piece of advice I've got along the way is that clients aren't
actually interested in what you've shot for other clients what they want to see
is your ideas and your ideas as a photographer really are your currency.
Personal projects are so important I would say I spend as much
time shooting personal projects as I do shooting commissioned work. It's just so
important to keep that fresh. Like presumably the personal work that you are
shooting is unpaid? Yeah absolutely. So I mean you spend a good chunk your time
doing unpaid work in order to build your portfolio, yeah because it's just as
important because actually it's the unpaid work that you do that leads to
the big money jobs. That must be tough.
Yeah it does feel like there's not quite enough hours in the day to fit
everything in.
Are you working nonstop then to get where you are in your career? Did you
just work seven days a week? Yeah, it's sort of 16 hour days but most of
the time it doesn't really feel like work so you don't really notice that it you are
just sort of like doing your hobby.
You're really good though at, I mean branding yourself I suppose, like
your brand carries across your Instagram, your Facebook and your website.
You must put a lot of effort into that side of things as
well. I'm really pleased you say that because I do but a lot of effort
into my brand. It shows. Actually my sister-in-law said to me on
Saturday I think if you put out 10 different photos I'd be able to pick out
Holly McGlynn photo, I was like yes. You do show a lot of bad personality in
terms of your your behind-the-scenes shots.
You show a lot of that kind of thing, is that is that important to convey to all
your followers
what it’s like? I think people really like that. They respond? Yeah people respond well to seeing what
actually goes on and behind the camera and like I have done some pretty mad
things to get a photograph like I've gone waded into the Irish sea in the middle of
winter to get a photograph. I would do the odd bit of trespassing and sort of
swinging from trees and yeah I do think it's nice to show like that a perfect
shot or whatever perfect means. A great shot, it doesn't come from you know not
taking risks. You've got to take risks to take a great shot and I think it's good
to show that. Risks with hypothermia and criminal record. If you're
not risking your life you're not doing it right.
You do a lot on your YouTube channel as well. I only recently
started a YouTube channel, actually only in the past couple of months but yeah
I'm hoping to show kind of behind the scenes on fashion shoots, kind of
day in the life of a photographer. I'm hoping to interview models and makeup
artists and that kind of thing as well.
Wow, yeah it's not just you taking photographs really I mean your career is
this whole branding entity of Holly's work and then the whole personal side of
things where you're out they're sharing all your stories as well.
Yeah I feel like it's only recently kind of diversified I definitely
spent a good solid eight years just taking photos
yeah but I feel like you know the world we live in now you sort of do you need
more than just one string to your bow as well and also it's quite fun to do
different things as well. I think judging from your blog alone you're very
very helpful to other photographers. Oh thank you very much. You share loads of stuff
like if you like tips on what is in your bag and all that kind of thing people
just must really respond to it in terms of photographers I know I did I was really
great I'm writing this down. You put a tip up to order
business cards. I was like oh I must do that this great kind of giving back
like, community thing. Do you think that came from college or was it just
learning from other photographers or yeah definitely learning from other
photographers and I suppose I get a lot of young up & coming photographers
sort of asking me questions and I thought that there is a real appetite for this out there.
Being a photographer, as you know yourself, is like running a small
business and I feel like so many people don't know that
and therefore really talented people don't succeed because they don't
treat it like a business so,
Oh wow .Yeah I think it's kind of important to get that message out.
Do you think that there's loads more great photographers out there who just don't know
how to do the accounting and the branding and marketing and that's why they kind of
fail? Yeah and I think you can outsource all of that stuff like I have an
accountant because I'm yeah, terrible at that kind of thing but yeah you just need to
know that that's how you need to operate it I think. Wow you're very helpful to people
Well thank you very much.
Will you tell me why was it fashion, in particular, that drew you to that
type of photography because I mean there's loads of types of photography
out there. Yeah. Are you a very fashionable person
well that's not for me to say. I'm going to say yes
and I've seen your behind the scenes, and you're shooting in heels.
I could never shoot in heels. I don't often shoot in heels. Is it just when
someone photographing you like I'm going to put my heels on.
You must be into fashion though?
Yeah I know I do I absolutely love fashion and the focus of the Masters I
studied at Goldsmiths was very much Fine Art photography so that's what I started
doing after I graduated and I was exhibiting in galleries around london I
was represented by a contemporary art gallery in Dublin and I loved it I love
the aesthetic look, the thought process but I just found it such a lonely
process. You spend so much time on your own you spend six months developing a
project and then you hope the gallery will exhibit it and then you hope
someone will buy it and I really like working with teams and I like deadlines
and I like producing a lot of work so I really wanted to work in a more sort of
commercial and challenging environment and I feel like great fashion
photography is like Fine Art photography. It's really conceptual and aesthetic and
beautiful, so I thought that would be a perfect sort of side step for me so yeah
I side stepped into that about five years ago.
Yeah I think you're dead right as well I mean good fashion photography should be fine art
as well. Absolutely yeah. You should be looking at it and go
woah no idea what's going on but it looks great. Yeah exactly. I think I can see
some of that abstract kind of Fine Art buzz in your work as well and it's
just fantastic. Thank you so much for sharing your insights into your photography.
You're going to join me again in the next episode we're going to talk a
little about your gear and your post production side of things
yeah thanks Holly.
Well that's all we have for part 1, join us again for part 2
where I'll be chatting to Holly about the equipment she uses on her shoots and her
post-production styles. If you'd like to brush up on your own photography skills
then check out the Adorama Learning Center and if you'd like to watch more
videos and subscribe to our YouTube channel thanks and I'll see you again soon.