Hey guys, Andy here. When I left the British Army, I landed as a fledgling photographer on Savile Row, the home of men’s bespoke tailoring. Over the next few years I became familiar with many of the tailoring houses up, down and off the Row. A frequent refrain I used to hear from one tailor when looking at an item created by one of the competition was, ‘… I can do it better.’ I promised myself, when it came to photography, I would not to be derogatory about other people’s work to help promote my own ability. Over a decade later, I am increasingly finding it hard not to be that guy.

I look at photography whenever I go; I look at billboards, I look at shop front advertising, I look at images on packaging, I look at accompanying images when I am online. By ‘look’ I mean I assess,  I deconstruct, and I critique; how has an image been lit, the pros and the cons of the composition, the aim and the audience of an image and, in regards to fashion photography, the styling and the modelling.

A photographer is an individual but a photo shoot is a team sport. There are exceptions, landscape photography being the obvious one, however, by and large, a one man band photo shoot is rare. On smaller shoots the crew may be double hatted; it is not uncommon for a make up artist to also do hair, for the air director to also be the producer, or the client to also be the stylist.  

The more people there are, the more opinions there will be (unless you rule a set with an iron fist) and the more complicated a shoot gets. As a photographer on a shoot there are too many elements for me to try and exert control over, there just is not enough time. It is a matter of delegation and trust that the other component parts perform to the best of their ability and that the team pulls in the same direction. On a photo shoot, with a team of creatives that may have never worked together before, generating positive energy is important to the flow of the day and to maximise the team’s talents. I admit, I have uttered the fateful word ‘No’ on set, leading to momentum being killed in a heart beat; you can literally feel the energy come to a shuddering halt and a room deflate. In such instances, it can sometimes take precious hours to regain the mood.

Time is money and shoots are an investment. While there is pressure for everyone in the team to deliver, the buck stops with the photographer. Hair and make up take twice as long as expected? It does not matter. The model can not model? It does not matter. Low light? It does not matter, the photographer is still expected to complete the shot list no matter how reasonable or not the demands may be. As the photographer, the more I involved myself in other shoot elements, the worse my output, the worse the photography becomes. While on smaller shoots there may a need to involve myself in matters outside of the photography, it dilutes my primary contribution.

While I look at photography whenever I go, I am acutely aware that as someone who was not there when the shutter was pressed, I have no idea of the pressures or conditions behind an image. There is certainly an element of jealousy when I see a celebrity or an exotic location; I think my reaction is only natural. However once the green monster is calmed, I remind myself both of the extra stipulations and pressures big names can bring and also the added complications of shooting away from home. Like the time I had 60 seconds to photo Stevie Wonder in concert, or where I spent the day lying on dirty Italian cobbles during a street shoot where the male talent would not take direction while reminding me he was not a model. 

When I look at photography I frequently see multiple sub standard elements. I maintain visual literacy is declining but maybe I am missing today’s visual zeitgeist; for various reasons I am on neither Instagram, TikTok nor Twitter. Sometimes I do comment, which invariably leads to acrimony and accusations of hating on other photographers. Maybe that is why my default policy is not to comment, not because I do not want to be that guy that claims to be better, but because trying to have a reasonable and critically productive conversation is so difficult when people are increasingly in entrenched positions fearful of losing their gig.