Life in Focus - Issue 5

Written by Paul Walsh

Returning from the UK in 2006 with his fine portfolio of photographic works, MORPH promptly snapped Nic Staveley up as chief photographer. Since then Nic has worked on 6 editions of MORPH, and has worked with a huge range of clients, and exhibited in a number of photographic shows.

Artist Paul Walsh interviews Nic about his passion and his plans.

Paul: It smells really good out here.

Nic: It’s that plant there. (He points at a nondescript bush behind me.) It’s called Lady of the Night, I think. When it gets darker it really comes alive.

Paul: Nice. Okay, so I’ll kick off with the obvious question. When did you start?

Nic: I’ve always been into art, mostly painting, but hadn’t done much photography. Then I spent a year in Belgium when I was 16, my sixth form year, which was when I really started getting a love for it. I came back here for seventh form and ended up getting second in the country for Bursary Photography. I have to be honest, though; my first reaction? I was gutted I didn’t get first! Only because the person who came first got, like, three grand, cash. All I got was a pat on the back.

Paul: I thought I was special because I came first at my school in Photography, but there were only four people taking it that year.

Nic: Haha... yeah I got a photography award from the school too, a camera and some film.

Paul:Was your school around here?

Nic: No, I grew up in Christchurch and went to school there. So that’s when I started getting into photography. Next I went to film school, the New Zealand Film School in Wellington, but I was still doing photography. It was always in the back of my mind, right through this intensive 9 to 5, Monday to Friday film course... They complement each other well though, and those are definitely my two main passions; film- everything about film- and photography.

For the moment I’m pursuing the photography avenue, but my focus hasn’t really shifted over the last decade.

Paul: Are you looking to make it into a full-time commercial job, or would you rather explore the art side of the medium? Because the way I understand it, photography is one of those forms of expression that almost demands you seek commercial work to fund it.

Nic: For me, I’d like to get enough work commercially so I have the freedom to do the exhibitions. Essentially, though, I just like taking photos because, well, I like taking photos. It’s not necessarily, “Oh, I like doing this work because someone’s paying me to do it”, or “I don’t like doing this work because it’s for somebody else”. I mean, I’d be doing it anyway, regardless.

Of course I would like to be successful in a commercial sense, because…

Paul: … it’s a mad expensive hobby.

Nic: Exactly. Getting loads of money for photography, I know that that’s possible, because my time at the moment’s actually split between doing my own commercial work and doing assisting, photography assisting.  There are a couple of guys I work with in Auckland, and I worked in London for a couple of years as an assistant. I’m looking at travelling again, and if I do end up back in London then I’ll pursue a bit more work as an assistant over there. It’s the best way to get hands-on experience, and you get to work in the field…

Paul: I guess that would be the really high end work, too.

Nic: Yeah, totally. It’s the kind of work I don’t know so much about now, but it’s more or less where I’d like to be at. So I’ll be exploring and trying to find a balance.

Paul: If you could make some massive generalisations, what are your favourite subjects?

Nic: This is a difficult question. One I never know how to answer… if I had to nail it down I’d probably say ‘people stuff’. Not exactly portraiture, but… people.

Paul: I guess if you make it as base as possible, ‘landscapes’ and ‘people’ would be the two styles, the strands of photography that get the most recognition…

Nic: Yeah, and the photos that I’m interested in would be the ones that have the ‘people’ element. Not necessarily someone’s face. It might even be a landscape, but the focus is on people within the landscape.

The work I’ve been doing recently with bands, CD covers and promo images, it’s enjoyable because there’s quite a lot of scope. There’s so many clichés there, too, you know, you always see the same photos… the band up against a brick wall… however because there’s such a cliché about it, you can use that, you can play with it. Sometimes the band will insist on a photograph in that particular setting, though, and there’s not much you can do about that.

Paul: How do you find that aspect of a shoot? Posing people, moving a band around and getting them to try different things… Is that something you’re still working on?

Nic: That’s one thing that I’ve had to learn, and definitely something I’m still working on. I think you can naturally be a talented photographer, or any type of artist, but I think that interacting with people is quite a specific skill within photography. I’m always learning about how to get someone to do something, or maybe getting them not to do something but asking them in the right way, without offending them. If they’re doing something and I’m thinking to myself, ‘no, no, that’s completely wrong,’ I need to make sure I don’t say it out loud. Which I have done, in the past… they got a bit self-conscious after that.

Really good photographers know how to speak to people, how to relate to different people and how to get them to do different things. With bands, I’ll usually say, look, I’m not here to tell you how to act; you are your band and you know how you want to be portrayed, so there’s no point in me standing here saying ‘look tough’ if you spent the morning writing songs about rainbows.

They’re really powerful images for bands, too. The images they use to portray themselves can help define their audience.

Paul: Do you pay much conscious attention to things like composition, lines and the “thirds” rule?

Nic: If I do, it’s subconscious. I think there are some people that are just that way inclined visually. If they’re asked to photograph or draw something, they’ll find the symmetry, the balance or whatever it needs… I think this sense of composition comes naturally to me. This is also why I prefer film over; say, live theatre, because the framing is imposed on the audience.

Another thing about photography that I thought about the other day- sorry if this is a cliché- but I really like the way that a photograph captures a moment in time. I love looking at old photographs from, say, fifty years ago… they really do act like time capsules. That’s always appealed to me.

Paul: Film versus digital. Discuss.

Nic: I used film when I started, at school, developing and printing my own stuff in the darkroom. I’m aware that there are purists for sticking with film, and I still like the idea of it, but I don’t really mind one way or the other. Digital definitely has the upper hand for now, simply because it’s easier, more immediate, and you don’t have the ongoing cost that film has.

For me, though, it’s a lot more about photography being a creative outlet than the technical aspects of the gear involved. I mean, I’d be taking pictures with a pinhole camera, if that was all I had.

Paul: Any photographers you’d rate above all others? From what I’ve seen of your work, I’d guess Henri Cartier-Bresson would be up there.

Nic: He’s definitely one that comes to mind. I really like his humanist approach. To be honest, though, I’d rather judge each individual picture on its own merits. Having your own distinct style is important, but at the same time you don’t want to be pigeonholed by that.

Paul: Where would you like to be in ten years time?

Nic: I’d like to be known as a photographer, to start with. Not celebrity status, but I’d like to be introduced as, you know, “this is Nic, the photographer.” I mean, I do that now, but in a decade I think it’ll be more solid.

Mainly though, in ten years time? I’d make sure I’ve done all of the things I wanted to do ten years ago.