Photographic agent Nick Felby describes it as a “creative gamble”. When art directors are looking to achieve something different, they may well take on a photographer who is known for another type of work.
When it works well, the results can be fresh and surprising. But a bad match can end less favourably. And what do photographers get out of it? How does this affect their other work?
Felby, of agency East Photographic, has seen a rise in the confidence of advertising and design art directors, meaning that they are more likely to go for the unexpected when choosing a photographer. “The creative pool is so big, it’s moving through to commissioning power,” he says, “Often the results are very strong.”
Recent examples from Felby’s fold include Michael Danner shooting fashion images for a British Council exhibition – he is more used to landscape photography – and Rick Guest’s images of advertising hoardings. Guest is normally associated with fashion and music rather than urban sculpture.
Felby sees a link between these projects: “There is a huge trend towards peopleless landscapes. And that ties in with fashion because it’s almost the total opposite, the antithesis.”
It was the confidence of his own convictions that led Mitchell Bates, then at ad agency St Lukes, to pick Jim Naughten to shoot the images for Ikea’s exhibition Taste Matters. Naughten, who has only been photographing in earnest for the past 18 months, shot a series of Indian circus children for The Sunday Times Magazine.
Before that, he did a big project on Namibian tribeswomen. Bates then asked him to shoot more than 30 living rooms around the country for the show Taste Matters. “I chose Jim because I had a very clear idea of images I wanted,” he says. “Basically I needed someone who was technically accomplished in medium format. And someone I could work with for three weeks, on the road; someone who would be sensitive going into people’s houses and not brash and bashing about with a tripod.”
Guest was Christine Neophytou’s choice for the ad campaign Springer Jacoby International, created for Wall in Germany. “Our client is a young street-furniture company based in Berlin, so the feel and attitude was very much Rick’s style. It wasn’t the usual type of work in his portfolio,” says Neophytou. So he traded music and fashion for advertising hoardings in German cities.
John Granger, art director at ad agency Banks Hoggins O’Shea FCB, wanted to get away from the existing style of landscape shots that had been created for Waitrose’s press ads. “The danger with the Waitrose campaign is lots of nice landscapes. We wanted to get away from the mountain-with-cow look.” He commissioned Paul Murphy, better known for human portraits, to shoot the latest campaign.
But few art directors are taking risks, says Felby at East Photographic. Gerard Saint, formerly art director at Nova, says, “It’s always interesting to try to mix things up.”
Brett Rodgers, head of visual arts at the British Council, was also playing relatively safe when she commissioned Danner. “Danner has done some fashion, and had worked with models before. We thought about going for someone who had never worked with models, but decided that was too risky.”
As clients continue to push photographers in unexpected directions, the photographers are finding their portfolios are broadening. “Photographers are diversifying, they realise they can’t trawl around with a fashion portfolio, because art directors want to see something wider or more personal,” says Felby.
This has been photographer David Gill’s experience. “In advertising I’m used for anything, from cars to close-up food. The more confidence people have in you as a photographer, the more confident the client is,” he says. John Ross has also experienced this trend while working with a range of design consultancies from the likes of Lippa Pearce and Dragon to Farrow Design, Sea and Ross Lovegrove.
Technically, shooting inanimate or animate objects doesn’t seem to make much difference for these photographers. It is more about their approach to a job. “Compositionally, there were similarities [between people and cows],” says Murphy, “Different angles gave the cow different looks.” Guest lit Wall’s 3m by 4m billboards “as I would a person”.
And a first-time project may even leave a lasting impression on a photographer’s work. After exchanging tribespeople for middle England’s living rooms, “I would now look for more subtlety and not just the big shot,” says Naughten.
But if a project goes particularly well, there may be a danger that a photographer may inadvertently swap one specialism for another. “I don’t want necessarily to become London’s premier cow photographer,” says Murphy.
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