The Magazine

Home

About us

News

Interviews

Events

Showcase

Painting

Illustration

Sculpture

Digital Art

Photography

Graphic Design

Fashion Design

Product Design

Vehicle Design

Architecture

Special Effects

3D Modelling

Animation

Film Making

Richard Warren
Beyond beauty: An interview with the fashion photographer by Mark McGough

Richard Warren is an internationally published fashion photographer, based in Manhattan’s fashion district. His clients range from Donna Karan and American Express, to BBDO New York and McCann-Erickson.

What follows are 7 carefully selected questions.

1. Photography can be thought of as a design discipline. How did you use colour, space, lighting and the angel for the image on the right and what effect did you want to achieve?

For me fashion photography is about story telling. Magazine editors call fashion pages in a magazine “stories” and I take that term quite literally. . Sometimes the story is a narrative and other times its simply fashion forecasting or reportage. In any case you need to be able to tell stories in different ways. The art of this simply comes with time and the knowledge you get looking at current and past fashion stories. With the Dollhouse story I wanted
the viewer to flip from page to page and see a stage where the model occupied different volumes within the the two page rectangle. All 12 pages of this story were double page spreads so it really leant to the theater effect. I lit the model slightly warm then gelled the background cool to add depth. The wall behind the model was painted a warm white and this helped the aqua colored gel from either side to not blend in the middle which added even more depth. Three lights on this one. Two on the background from either side and one on the model (an umbrella).

2. What is your philosophy on lighting and what techniques have you learnt over the years, for lighting a successful shoot?

You learn it as you go along. I light everything very simply, usually umbrellas.

3. It is apparent you pay great attention to detail in your photo shoots. How long can a session last and is there lots of planning involved or do you just dive in and see the result?

Sometimes I will plan a shoot for a week. I never just “jump in and see what happens”. On the Dollhouse shoot we did two 12 page stories in one 10 hour day, but like I said it was all planned ahead of time...

4. At 26 you had your big break with Italian Bazaar. How did you get in contact with the magazine and how did this lead to winning them as a client?

That’s a long story but a good one. The Italians are very nice and polite and at the time (mid 1980’s) they would actually take appointments and review your portfolio. Most of them spoke English so the hardest part was getting past the secretary knowing limited Italian language. I kept getting promises but was told to come back in 3 months. After two of these Put-offs I felt I had enough and actually went to the magazine without an appointment.

The editor was in the middle of a shoot and was horrified that I should just walk in unannounced. Before he could show me to the door the photographer who was shooting (Nadir) asked if he could look at my portfolio. I said yes and based on how much he liked my book the magazine hired me. The point of this story is that something clicked in my head and told me if I don’t get aggressive then it may never happen for me. I’ve never done anything like that since.

5. When you moved to New York at 22, you started assisting. What did those 5 years consist of?

When I moved to NY I had already been testing amateur models but really did not know much about lighting, and how to direct a crew of make-up and hair, stylist etc. I wanted to assist to learn more.
This was before the internet so the way to find photographers work that I liked were source books that photographers pay to be in such as The Workbook, Or Black Book or Le Book. These sourcebooks were available at the library. I made
a list of all the photographers styles that I liked and sent them resumes and followed up with phone calls. I really wanted to assist Richard Avedon or Irving Penn but what I learned is that you have to be a professional assistant before you can get into those studios. A photographer who needed a third assistant to sweep the floors let me work for him for free.

I learned more about photography in one week than I had in 4 years of school! Within a couple weeks the 2nd and assistant left and I was on the payroll. Within a month the first assistant left and I became the first assistant. Its not that hard to be an assistant compared to how hard it is to get work,
I learned this later. The rest of the 5 years was becoming a professional assistant and working for more famous photographers...

There is a comfort level in being an assistant because you have money coming in. The hardest part about going out on your own is not knowing if any money will come in. Counting the 4 years of school it took me 10 years to have a solid income.

6. For young budding photographers, what action do you recommend they take in the next week if they are serious about succeeding?

If you have not already made a 2 year,
5 year and 10 year plan. In other words where you want to be in that time period. Assist in New York
or London for a couple years then move back to a smaller market... Being on top in NYC or London is just not sustainable.

If you are looking to have a 30 or 40 year career in photography then its better to be a big fish in a small pond.. Do whatever you can to make money but always have a personal project. If you don’t have
a personal project then you’ve lost the art of what
we do.

7. What was the best piece of advice someone from the industry gave to you?

The best advice I received was from a photographer named Douglas Kirkland. “Do what ever you can to make money and survive but always have a personal project”.

You will be remembered for your personal photos and not by how much money you made.

To find out more about Richard Warren visit:
richardwarrenphotos.com