For a living and for fun…
I run a retouching and digital solutions company specialising in fashion and advertising photography. However this is just my day job!
If someone asked me ‘what do you do’ (which I believe is the original question) I would say I am freelance photographer. I work four days a week for the retouching company, which leaves me with three glorious days to take on photography work and projects.
For fun I like going to the cinema, reading, cycling and sports… or at least that’s what my CV says, along with the other ten I receive each day! Who doesn’t like going to the cinema or watching films? You might as well follow that with… I also like breathing, eating and living! Reading, I do enjoy, but I don’t read as often as I should. The last book I read was The Rum Diary by one of those Muppets, Gonzo I think it was. I always seem to enjoy books where the main character, usually male, is a self destructing drunk egomaniac. Not that I am any of these things but secretly I wish I were. Another great interest of mine is cooking. I love it. I managed a gastro pub in the east end for two years which totally converted me from eating pot noodles and Tesco’s Own sausage rolls to the finer foods in life… like Waitrose sausages rolls. I kid of course, but I have become a bit of a food snob.
At the moment…
Currently I am shooting for New Look Style the Nation on T4. I have been traveling the country photographing stylists. In a couple of weeks I will be shooting the final, where the contestants go head to head in a fashion shoot. Or a better way of putting it a ‘style off’ Cue David Bowie’s ‘Lets dance’. It’s been really good fun and I got to see a couple of cities I hadn’t been to before, like Cardiff and Glasgow. The highlight was being back in Manchester. It’s been about 10 years since I was there last. It’s a bit cleaner and neater but the people never change, still scruffy bastards but very friendly and welcoming. If you’ve never been I recommend Affleck’s Palace on Church street, it’s basically the whole of Camden in one old department store minus the lock.
Along with my freelance work I have just finished exhibiting a short series of photographs at the Brewery Arts Centre, which is situated in my hometown of Kendal… yes, where the mint cake is from! The exhibition consisted of six landscapes taken in and around Kendal that represented dreams I have had. I really like this set of images and I have included two of them for you to see, which I am sure you will find on this page somewhere.
Although I focus on fashion and commercial photography I love taking photos of landscapes and many of them have been in Mexico, from the city centre of Guadalajara through to the west coast of Puerto Vallarta. Some of the landscapes out there just take my breath away, and the light, the light is fantastic, it changes the whole look of my photographs. Europe has such dull grey light, while Mexico is bathed in gold! I have a whole section of my landscape photography on my website from Mexico which I encourage you to see.
Mexico has always inspired me from the first time I went there about seven years ago, I came back thinking of how I could create a cool Mexican beauty shoot. I knew it had to involve bright colours and Mexican wrestlers, but it wasn’t until lately, a couple of weeks ago that I managed to pin it down.
Thankfully a magazine liked the idea and decided to publish it. Twenty6 Magazine to be exact. They are a new online magazine founded by Creative Director Matt Setchell and Fashion Director Tilly Hardy. I worked closely with make up artist Nora Nona on the story – she is simply fantastic, highly creative and highly motivational, if anything this shoot was a collaboration between Nora and I, so a big thank you to you Nora x.
Pros ands cons of the job…
Being a photographer is great! I like the fact that I get paid to create images. I no longer have the patience to paint but with one quick click you have a complete image. But it’s not all about the money. I love people watching. Taking pictures can capture odd scenarios or people’s funny quirks. Some people either don’t notice or don’t care, but I do and it feels nice to document that.
The only thing I dislike about what I do is the constant anxiety I feel, the need to always do better. I know it’s a necessity and it’s what keeps me driven but at some point in my life I would like to relax mentally (I suppose that’s what death is for).
Where he grew up and how it affected his life choices…
As I mentioned I grew up in Kendal a small Market town, which is considered to be the gateway to the English lakes. I had a very happy childhood, no complaints. I had (and still have) great parents, great friends and annoying siblings. School was just school, teachers were just teachers, jobs were just jobs, everything was/is very normal. Everything flows along nicely whilst set against the idyllic Lake District backdrop. It’s very easy to take advantage of this lifestyle, especially if you’re into fishing, fellwalking, sailing and hunting (basically energetic outdoorsy type stuff!). However if you’re not the outdoorsy type then substitutions for interests can be limited, and at 17 years old they appeared to be: wearing Kappa, driving your Vauxhall Nova several times around town in the space of an hour and standing in groups on non-descript corners for no reason whatsoever. Unfortunately, I fitted the bill with my white trainers, Ben Sherman shirt and attitude to match. Fortunately I lived on the outskirts of town in the countryside and it was difficult for me to loiter on a school night at a specific corner I can’t describe. My options would have been to walk six miles or ask my parents for a lift to go nowhere and to do nothing, and so I stayed home mostly, watching telly and listening to music. On a few occasions I would paint.
If it weren’t for art and my art teachers I wouldn’t have had any aspirations, I don’t think! I was always good at art class, especially in primary school. I remember vividly being apprehended by two girls from the year above outside my classroom. They pinned me to the wall and said ‘so we’ve heard that you’re good at art, but don’t think you’re the best in school, Sarah Hallsworth* is far better than you, alright!’
*I can’t actually remember the girl’s name that was supposedly better than me, as it didn’t matter. This ‘Sarah’ a year older than me was obviously fearful of my talents and had appointed two of her goons to shake me up, it had had the adverse affect and I walked around more confident than ever. It still makes me laugh when I think about that. Going into secondary school my first art teacher was Mrs Cope. She had sweaty armpits. Usually a point of attack and ridicule by students, but no one ever made fun of her because she was so passionate about art and teaching art. She got through to everyone including the bullies and jesters of the classroom (I was one of the jesters!). She would stand at the front of the class explaining perspective and the vanishing point so loudly and animated with her arms flapping about the place as if she was a traffic controller or a pilled up air hostess. It was impossible not to be inspired! I set immediately to drawing large buildings and trains originating from the vanishing point and almost bursting off the page. This has always stayed with me and if you look at my landscape photographs many of them place the vanishing point in the middle of the page, giving this sense of direction, or something further we cant quite see. It’s mainly an aesthetic thing for me, it just feels right!
It was art that inspired me to move to London, and once I had realised this I set all my sights on getting there! Going there for photography came down to my art foundation teacher - I was interested in fashion but not in design or styling so one day he handed me his old medium format Bronica 6x6 and said ‘shoot some fashion stuff’. I was hooked!
I have lived in London for 10 years now but from time to time I do miss my hometown. My annoying siblings aren’t so annoying anymore, and Kendal isn’t as boring as I used to think - there are plenty of creative and amazing people up there all living lives I am slightly envious of, with their cheap rent and large houses, fresh air and hills outside their windows. But I know that if I hadn’t left I would be a couple of steps closer to being some washed up drunk character from a Hunter S Thompson novel, minus the dark romanticism which normally surrounds them.
Best advice received…
‘If you carry on always taking the piss one day someone will punch you in the face’ - My father when I was fifteen. I stopped taking the piss (as much!).
Number one recommendation…
My number one theory is ‘Live East, Die Young!’. This is why I live in Angel, North London, which is where you will find the Duke of Cambridge on St Peter’s Street. It’s Britain’s first organic pub and their Sunday roasts are fantastic.
His work…
Curtis Gibson Photography
Skin Studios
Curtis Gibson Tumblr