About

Gary Austin

An award winning photographer working in the genres of reportage, documentary and street photography. With a personal interest in culture, people, traditions, social and humanitarian issues. With over 27 years experience working as a freelance photographer and lives in a small village in Derbyshire UK.

I photograph real life people on the streets, at home or at work, with an personal style that produces photographs full of drama, spontaneity and natural raw emotion.

I work independently, finding my own visual stories, working as an artist in producing photographs of topics that interest me and not what the mass market wants or demands. I work ethically and remain aware of the conundrum of showing the truth and that of authorship to events which I document. The photographs I make are often my first experiential impressions and I edit as close as possible to the experience and original scene as the recall of my mental memory of the image allows.

I am driven to record history in the making, especially the smaller events that are often unreported and giving a voice to those that don’t have one or are not represented in the mainstream and sometimes need to be witnessed or a visual record to be made.

Documentary Photography

Lighting from a small flash is a technique that I use in my documentary photography, as a way of highlighting the importance of the subject and separating them from distracting or less important details while giving depth to the image or showing texture and detail. The renaissance masters lit their portraits with artificial light and painted in the effect of Chiaroscuro, (which means light-dark) a technique referring to the exaggeration of light and dark contrast.

Joseph Wright of Derby was such a painter using this effect while depicting the age of enlightenment and an international artist whose work I admire. He was the first professional painter to record and express the industrial revolution and the people behind them, paintings that are not just art, but show important history of that time. Joseph Wright also painted a scene called the “Blacksmiths Yard” set in a ruined church which is alleged to have been in the village I live in, this was one reason that prompted me to start my documentary project on the village, that, and my family history connected to it.

Street Photography

Unlike a lot of street photographers I use flash on the subjects I am photographing, I am often very close (4 feet or under) to the subject and use a wide angle lens, neither do I ask permission, as this would change the response from the subject, and result in socially contrived stances and poses! This may seem very invasive on a personal level, but at least they know they have been photographed, which I think is ethically better than making candid photographs of the subject of which they know nothing about and have no choice in the making.

Often they ask why, and conversation starts, I get to meet people, we chat, they have a laugh and go about their day with a smile on their face and they feel a bit more special! I am not into “one liners” or “gag’s” there are plenty of humour websites out there that take the piss out of people and I have more respect for my subjects (and myself) To me street photography is a serious undertaking and needs to reflect the mood on the streets.

The light from the flash is also me adding to the scene or subject as a means of creating, not just recording what is in front of my lens. I angle the light to try and suit the subject and allow for the light to drop away from the background, leaving just the subject in the spotlight as it where. With this in mind I have to spot my subject further up the street, I covet the camera and my intentions by walking behind other people so I am not seen. I slow or speed up my pace to get them in front of a suitable background. I have to think where the flash needs to be in relation to the subject (I often try for loop or Rembrandt lighting).

Some times they may be looking the wrong way at the moment our paths intersect and I have to make a noise or say hello to get them to look in my direction. Simply put it’s hunting for the picture I want, yet it is done with the greatest respect to who they are!

I photograph with the attitude of “all photographs are self portraits,” meaning that the people I select resonate with me on a personal level, from a person I know, an emotion or a situation I have been in; they are like me in some way! I don’t go gunning for everyone on the street like some street photographers do. I don’t photograph people to make them look bad or to make fun of them, I won’t photograph people who are obviously worse for wear over drink or those that are homeless, I am not after victimising – victims of our don’t care-less society!

Gary Austin is based in Derbyshire, England

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