When you first see Mark Luscombe-Whyte’s work, it greets you with a certain serenity. While we’re always talking about a single still image, there is a stillness to the work that seems to evade so many photographers. Be it a bunch of kids fresh off the baseball diamond or an alpine retreat, the result is the same; borderline quiet.
"I think it is the way I relate to my subjects” says Marc. "Setting up a shoot can be quite a frantic process, and sometimes fight hard to find the right subject or location but all of a sudden I have found what I am looking for. If I have people with me I ask them to move away so there are no distractions. I shoot a few frames and the moment is over."
Also prevalent throughout his work is a certain color. At first I think it might just be my reading of the images, but there is a lot of blue.
Mark laughs - as does his wife. "I do love the colour blue, and even right now I notice that I am wearing blue shoes, jeans, tshirt and jumper (sweater), all in different shades. I was brought up in the Mediterranean, constantly swimming in the sea or walking under the sky. However it is not an obsession…”. At this he pauses while his wife laughs again.
Mark pulled out a few of his favorites to share with us on the ImageBrief blog, while we gathered a few more of our own in a special collection of his work: Tangled Up In Blue.
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Mark in (no surprises) a blue shirt.
Tell us your story! How did you end up where you are today and the field of photography you specialize in?
As a child I led a nomadic life. My father was a keen and talented amateur photographer and I was forbidden to touch his cameras and so every time he went away I would pull out his Pentax Spotmatic and play with it . When I was 17 I went to Australia and my father gave me an old Lordomat rangefinder and I started shooting pictures but I never had the money to process the film. When I returned to London in my early twenties photography was the only thing I wanted to do so I began assisting in fashion and advertising. I assisted in the day and worked in an E6 lab at night and weekends for 3 years and then put together my first portfolio and started to knock on doors.
It was a slow start but after 6 months I began to get commissions . I think the first one was for the first issue of Elle Decoration which was being set up by Ilse Crawford. From there I drifted into shooting interiors and then I met the travel editor of Harpers and Queen who began to commission me on a regular basis and that sent me off on a journey that lasted for 20 years. I ended up shooting a lot of editorial for people like Vogue, Harpers and Queen, House and Garden, The World of Interiors, Departures and AD and this began to morph into books and location photography which was heaven to me as it combined my two passions, travel and photography. In turn that led into shooting a lot of hotels for both editorial and advertising.
Ten years ago I moved with my French wife to the South of France so I am based here but work out of London. I now do more commercial work so I head off on the road for a few weeks and then return to France to recover. Its a nice balance and the work is very varied which keeps things fresh.
A shot for Bentley Motors in St Petersburg. There is something called Murphy's Law which means that if things can go wrong they will go wrong. When we scouted this shot everything was fine but when we returned the next day to shoot the building on the left was being covered in scaffold and there were four porta cabins being unloaded so we had to use a bit of trickery to get this right.
How do you promote your work? Can you offer any advice to others?
Things have changed so much in the last ten years. I can not remember the last time I actually made an appointment and went to see a client with a portfolio. Most of my work comes through word of mouth and my website and I have an agent in London who keeps things moving and provides support.
My best advice would be to neither over or under value your work. A lot of photographers seem to be prepared to work for virtually nothing and I find that if clients want something done well they are prepared to pay for it but I also understand that they have to work within a set budget so I am flexible and prepared to compromise.
Shot for Conde Nast Traveller in Cappadocia. We had wanted to shoot a group of Dervishes from above, the idea being to get five concentric circles flowing. However on the day of the shoot the wind was blowing and we could not get the shape we wanted so we had to try some different set ups and this was the shot that was chosen. I love the intensity of the eyes.
As the media landscape has changed dramatically in the past few years, how do you go about finding work? do clients come to you or are you networking?
I stay in touch with old clients but I never bombard them and I would never contact a potential client unless I had something relevant to show them. I research potential new clients before contacting them. I also shoot editorial stories if they are really interesting and sell the finished shoots into a few magazines. 10 years ago most of my clients were based in the UK. Now I shoot for people all over the world. At the moment I am working on jobs for China, Russia, Germany and the USA. All of these commissions have come about through networking and sometimes I network in my sleep.
A shot for Conde Nast Traveller in the Central Kalahari Desert. Whilst the flowers look very decorative they are used to keep the flies away. I love the matches under the scarf that the lady kept to light her pipe.
What’s one of your most memorable shoot experiences and why? If you have any shots to share from it we would love to see!
I have had many over the years ! Every day is different and I have never done a days work as I love what I do. I think my most memorable shoot was for the Discovery channel a few years ago. We had to shoot Alain Robert, the human spider climbing up the Tour Pleyel in Paris. Its 143m high ( 470 ft ) and after his climb I had to shoot his portrait on the top.
There was only one way to make it dramatic and that was to have him standing on a girder about 2 metres out from side of the building, it supported the window cleaning rig. It was about 10 cm wide and I set my self up a few metres away where there were two girders so I could rest my tripod and get the right perspective. He did not wear a harness for the climb or the portrait but I was kitted out by the riggers in a body harness and out I went. I felt no fear as I was just trying to get the right shot but after about 2 minutes we finished and I glanced down at the crowds below and all of a sudden it hit me. Not falling of that building was probably the greatest achievement of my career. Sadly I can’t show you the picture as I don’t own the copyright.
An advertising shot for the Taj Group in the Maldives. It was a 10 day shoot and the hotel was filled with guests so it was important not to disturb their holiday in any way. As a result shots in public spaces always had to be done at odd times. We started setting this shot up at about 4am and were ready to go just after sunrise. Just as we had it wrapped the sea plane flew in to pick up some guests who were leaving so we fired off a few more frames and got the shot.
Where do you look for inspiration? For example who are some other photographers you admire or what are some blogs/websites/publications that you find yourself lost in?
I have a large collection of photographic books at home that I pull out for inspiration and I am constantly looking at images. At the moment I am interested in wet plate collodion and salt printing so I belong to a few forums which are great for information and inspiration. I also subscribe to L ‘Oeil de la Photographie great French site that publishes in English. Its keeps me in touch with whats happening in our world.
I tend to like individual images within a body of work, I don’t just like a photo because its by a particular photographer. If I had to choose a single photographer as a favourite it would probably be Nuri Bilge Ceylan, his pictures work on so many different levels but what floors me every time is his composition. If you don’t know his work have a look at http://www.nuribilgeceylan.com
What type of gear do you use? What are your camera kit essentials?
Oh dear, where do I start ! This all depends on what I am shooting. My basic kit has to fit into a regulation sized roll on so I am using ThinkTank at the moment. I juggle things about a bit but in there today is a Hassleblad , a Phase One back, 60mm, 80mm and 120mm a 5dMK3, 24mm T+S, 24/70 2.8, 70/200 2.8 and a 100mm macro plus polarisers, batteries , cables etc. Every inch of it is filled.
I am working on a personal project using a Kodak Commercial B 10 by 8 camera. This was the first metal plate camera Kodak made an it is made of magnesium, this one came of the line in 1938 and I shoot with a mixture of lenses but my favourite has to be my 14” Kodak Commercial Ektar. Another favourite is my half plate camera built by the Gandolfi family and its sports a brass lens that was made in about 1880. I use this and the 10 by 8 for my work with wet plate collodion but I also shoot film with them as well.
There are also some pin hole cameras and an Xpan somewhere around but I have not used them in a while. I still have my Lordomat and I use the 50mm from my fathers Spotmatic as a loupe for the plate cameras . I shot constantly with Hasselblad for 20 years but they seems to have lost their way and when they began locking out other digital backs from their systems I became disenchanted with them so my 5d MK 3 is probably the camera I shoot most with.
Probably the only two things I do not like about my work are Airport Security and Excess Baggage both of which fill me with fear.
How would you describe your visual style? Do you have any trademark uses of light or composition?
Again it depends on what I am shooting and what I want to achieve. I try and keep things simple. I work well with daylight and use flash sparingly . In a perfect world I would work with Broncolour flash and a daylight mix but I also like HMI’s and Dedo Lights but I never want a shot to look lit.