Inspirational Talk

Embracing Change

Ray Massey - Embracing Change

Ray Massey - Embracing Change

Last night we went to a really fascinating talk put on by the AOP, Association Of Photographers, from Ray Massey, a photographer of many years. He has a huge body of work and he let us into his (extremely tidy!) studio to talk to us about his successful career.

What I found most inspiring was his problem solving ways of shooting. We are all guilty of falling into the trap of - "we'll do it in post". Don't get me wrong - photoshop is a brilliant tool and has made my life easier and there are some absolutely superb retouchers out there whose talent blows me away, so not knocking that in any way. I just think we may have forgotten how to find a solution to shoot something in real life. We were shown some of his work from, I believe, the 70s where think had to be suspended by wires, stuck with glue, multiple exposures, masks made, etc - genius.

It was also reassuring to hear that this takes time. We are so often given a brief - that sounds like an amazing job - but the deadline is Friday, today is Tuesday. It would be great to be given that brief, problem solve, find a solution, create and build the solution and then shoot it. Maybe it's that our clients don't understand, they're under pressure too, we are keen to please our clients, our world has become too instant.

Ray showed us lots of personal work, interesting shoots involving liquids and movement with people. This ultimately lead to commissions.

Think harder, slow down, consider what you do, shoot for yourself. This is what I took from the evening, valuable advice.

Thank you to the AOP and Ray Massey.