In this interview, The Official Short Clone to Paul Giovanni £rd asks about how and why PG£ takes pictures...
OSCTPG£: At the begining of 2009 you suddenly got keen on taking photos...Why did this happen, and what do you think you've achieved so far..??
PG£: I re-got into doing pictures for a number of reasons...
Firstly: I felt the arrival of my first child needed to be an inspiration to branch out and creatively challenge - rather than to retreat and make excuses - THE ANTE NEEDED TO BE UPPED!!! I NEEDED TO TAKE ON FAR MORE THAN I COULD REALISTICALLY CHEW!!!!
Secondly: I felt it unlikely I was going to be in London for long, so I wanted to make use of the HUGE opportunities that lie here for photography and in particular working with interesting models...
Thirdly: I was figuring that there was money to be made in wedding photographs and commercial portraits and I thought it possible I might be better able to commercially compromise myself in photographic realms than I am with words..
Fourthly: I've been into photography off and on for years and having not owned a decent and viable camera for a few years, I was missing it and really wanted get one and TAKE SOME FUCKING SNAPS!!!
OSCTPG£: So what were you looking to photograph and what kind of equipment did you want to play with..??
PG£: I was almost completely interested in portraiture in all times and places. It occurred to me that having as I did a reasonable following of very handsome folk reading my blogs, I might be able to convince a few of them and perhaps even some strangers to pose for free and form that I could build up a portfolio that could put me in touch with some pay for jobs...
OSCTPG£: How easy was it to get people to model??
PG£: Initially, I was amazed at the response...From just one blog and bulletin post on the then failing myspace I had 4 or 5 people say they'd sit down and most of them weren't even people I vaguely knew...But promises don't always materialise into sitting ducks, and so, most of those who said they would clucked out at some point and had it not been for one person in particular, I might have had to work a hell of a lot harder to get the whole job going ...
OSCTPG£: Who was this person...?
PG£: Seraphina Rodriguez Guiterrez Thomson...She's easily the most versatile and PURE RAW iconic model of our times...
OSCOPG£: She replied to the original add...??
PG£: Phina had been aware of my blogs for a month or two and she dropped me a line saying she was a contortionist and would be happy to pose despite my add saying I was trying to do things that weren't too wierd...I was overawed by what might be possible and I initially said, I'd be in touch in a few months after I'd got myself warmed up on some easier models...I really didn't want to start with a model that would be so challenging...
Well, I got back in touch a few months later, in which time all except 2 other perhaps simpler model folk had led me up the garden path to nowhere land...I explained that I was still a little raw and amateur to be taking on such a challenging photographic task as contortion, but that I'd have a go if she could be patient...She was fine with the idea and we met up and did the first shoot in April 2009...
OSCOPG£: How did that work out??
PG£: Initially, we did a shoot indoors here on Fish Island using a skanky duvet to white out the floor. It was a rank amateur effort on my part, but one that produced some good images and gave me confidence to keep working...
If you're interested in modelling,comissioning or buying contact me via paulgiovanni@paulgiovanni.com
OSCOPG£: Before we get into that any further, lets talk about your philosophy of photography...
PG£: Well, the first thing I insist on when making pictures is an amateurish, mistake ridden approach AT ALL TIMES..!! Yes boss, if there's one thing I find interminably dull about photography it's this obsession with clarity of shot, clean and sharp lighting AND TECHINCAL BRILLIANCE...!! I find that approach all too often bleaches the soul of the image...I much prefer my shots to be fuzzy, dirty, rough, amateurish, accidental, contrasty, dark and vague so long as they make for an interesting picture...
OSCTPG£: So you're setting your own rules..??
PG£: Essentially, I mostly have no idea what I'm doing and i think that challenges me to create something out of nothing - whilst not intentionally not following the rules...
OSCTPG£: So you like to make mistakes..??
PG£: My whole photographic technique relies on me knowing a few basics, mostly ignoring them, taking lots of pictures at more or less complete random - and then editing things that look good into rough but hopefully decent and emotionally striking images..
OSCTPG£: So, you do or you don't know what you're doing ??
PG£: Mostly not. I understand that a long exposure means you get movement and more light...I understand that I don't much like flash....And I know that good images are very often accidental and could be made just as easily by a Chimp as by a degree trained photographer...These facts aside, I know very little about what I'm doing or trying to do...Essentially, I find the technical basics of photography to be more or less completely incomprehensible and very dull to learn and practice, so I try and remain as ignorant as I can - which gets harder to do the more pictures you take...
OSCTPG£: So you've not consulted photography books or done any kind of formal training...??
PG£: I occasionally dip into 'HOW TO' books and sometimes I get close to understanding concepts of intent with photos from reading them...I also like to look at other images to get ideas as how not to take my own - but I instinctively react against any kind of tutoring and I don't want to know too much about how to get the PERFECT SHOT!!!
OSCOPG£: If you don't read much or have any interest in taking lessons, how do you improve your technique as a photographer...??
PG£: Firsty, I'm not that interested in improving my technical skills beyond a point....I'd like to be a little better than what I am now, but the way I work is to go on a journey...I don't want to have a very clear idea of the place and the way to get there to be all marked out with knowledge...
It's like travel...If I go somewhere, I don't want to know what it's like there before I go...I don't want to read books about it, or hear other peoples tales of what they did and where they went...
I want to turn up like a virgin and be COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY AMAZED!!!
For me The Lonely Planet guidebooks are an abomination and the death of REAL adventure...
So with photography it's the same..
OSCTPG£: Does this mean that quite a few of your photos are utter crap...???
PG£: Yes...The vast majority of my initial images are utter and complete fucking crap - as are many better photographers...For me, it's all about the edit - that's where I find what kind of a picture and mood I'm working with...
OSCTPG£: So what percentage of finished and displayed images are you happy with???
PG£: At the time of posting on www.paulgiovanni.com I'm usually at least 80 or 90% happy with the images I display, but I often find them lacking afterwards so I cull them and replace the duff images with pictures of roses...I plan on having culls every 6 months or so, to keep things fresh and decent...
OSCOPG£: Going back to the question of models - what's you technique for working with models...??
PG£: I prefer to work with people long term...To get a good photo I think you need insight into the character - you need to get in and around the layers of who they are and dig a little into what gets them going...For instance, having some skinny horse on broomstick legs turn up and go for a salad the minute I start struggling with the basics isn't what I'm interested in photographing...Essentially, I want to portray beauty, in that sense I'm the same as many photographers, but my version of beauty isn't anything to do with someone being polished or perfected without a hair astray or precision SHARP!...I like the beauty to often be dark and unpolished...I like the deeper beauty of character and I like to not direct the model at all...
OSCTPG£: You don't direct models at all...???
PG£: Say with Phina, I knew she would be able to do contortions, so I knew certain things would be possible and that wierd human shapes would be a part of any pictures I did of her. But each time we've done a session, I've let it take it's own course and I rarely tell her what to do when...
Therefore many of my favourite pictures of Phina have been of her in between positions, or depict her in ways I'd never think to ask her to sit - I find it next to impossible to do that. Sometimes when I'm liking a particular something, I ask for a tweak or too to the position - but that's usually because I can start to see the picture I want and need to get a foreign object out of the corner of it. Otherwise, I like to sit about, drink and chat and keep the camera running, then look at what I've got later and try and build those raw unintentional images into something with depth and feeling that would have been missed completely at the time if I'd have been chunttering down some well laid planned out train tracks of what I wanted the image to be...
If you're interested in modelling,commissioning or buying contact me via paulgiovanni@paulgiovanni.com
OSCTPG£: So are you serious about taking pictures or not...?
PG£: That all depends on what you classify as being serious...?
I'm VERY serious about making good pictures and getting satisfaction from seeing them evolve and then looking at them regularly from that point on...
I'm also VERY seriously hoping other people get what my ideas are here and don't just lazily dismiss what I'm doing as being amateur unpolished rubbish that is done so because I'm incapable of learning how to use a multi trip flash gun, light meter or studio lighting...
OSCTPG£: But you are an amateur...?
PG£: At the moment yes, and in many senses I will be even if I go on to make money from any of my images...
OSCTPG£: I'm still struggling with why you don't try and improve your images in technical terms...?
PG£: Because that's not what I'm trying to do..
I like HIGH CONTRAST and pixel grainyness - i like faces to be messy and rearranged by the light and the movement...
Look at painting - there are many people who can paint very well and do perfect reproductions of either existing paintings or real time scenes - but those people aren't great artists - they're great technicians...
And the last thing I want to be is a great technician...
With photos, I'm exclusively interested in provoking a response in the viewer of the pictures - of making them frightened or wary or aggressive or confused - I'm not looking to make them go...
'Oh yeah, that's a very clear technically brilliant picture, taken with a Nikon Bum 1, with HIG RAZ lighting at 75mm f3.2...'
I only want an emotional human response and I feel that they way most people go about photography is completely emotion free...
OSCTPG£: OK...Well, I'm still not sure I get it, but thanks very much for your time...
PG£: Thank You
OSCTPG£: At the begining of 2009 you suddenly got keen on taking photos...Why did this happen, and what do you think you've achieved so far..??
PG£: I re-got into doing pictures for a number of reasons...
Firstly: I felt the arrival of my first child needed to be an inspiration to branch out and creatively challenge - rather than to retreat and make excuses - THE ANTE NEEDED TO BE UPPED!!! I NEEDED TO TAKE ON FAR MORE THAN I COULD REALISTICALLY CHEW!!!!
Secondly: I felt it unlikely I was going to be in London for long, so I wanted to make use of the HUGE opportunities that lie here for photography and in particular working with interesting models...
Thirdly: I was figuring that there was money to be made in wedding photographs and commercial portraits and I thought it possible I might be better able to commercially compromise myself in photographic realms than I am with words..
Fourthly: I've been into photography off and on for years and having not owned a decent and viable camera for a few years, I was missing it and really wanted get one and TAKE SOME FUCKING SNAPS!!!
OSCTPG£: So what were you looking to photograph and what kind of equipment did you want to play with..??
PG£: I was almost completely interested in portraiture in all times and places. It occurred to me that having as I did a reasonable following of very handsome folk reading my blogs, I might be able to convince a few of them and perhaps even some strangers to pose for free and form that I could build up a portfolio that could put me in touch with some pay for jobs...
OSCTPG£: How easy was it to get people to model??
PG£: Initially, I was amazed at the response...From just one blog and bulletin post on the then failing myspace I had 4 or 5 people say they'd sit down and most of them weren't even people I vaguely knew...But promises don't always materialise into sitting ducks, and so, most of those who said they would clucked out at some point and had it not been for one person in particular, I might have had to work a hell of a lot harder to get the whole job going ...
OSCTPG£: Who was this person...?
PG£: Seraphina Rodriguez Guiterrez Thomson...She's easily the most versatile and PURE RAW iconic model of our times...
OSCOPG£: She replied to the original add...??
PG£: Phina had been aware of my blogs for a month or two and she dropped me a line saying she was a contortionist and would be happy to pose despite my add saying I was trying to do things that weren't too wierd...I was overawed by what might be possible and I initially said, I'd be in touch in a few months after I'd got myself warmed up on some easier models...I really didn't want to start with a model that would be so challenging...
Well, I got back in touch a few months later, in which time all except 2 other perhaps simpler model folk had led me up the garden path to nowhere land...I explained that I was still a little raw and amateur to be taking on such a challenging photographic task as contortion, but that I'd have a go if she could be patient...She was fine with the idea and we met up and did the first shoot in April 2009...
OSCOPG£: How did that work out??
PG£: Initially, we did a shoot indoors here on Fish Island using a skanky duvet to white out the floor. It was a rank amateur effort on my part, but one that produced some good images and gave me confidence to keep working...
If you're interested in modelling,comissioning or buying contact me via paulgiovanni@paulgiovanni.com
OSCOPG£: Before we get into that any further, lets talk about your philosophy of photography...
PG£: Well, the first thing I insist on when making pictures is an amateurish, mistake ridden approach AT ALL TIMES..!! Yes boss, if there's one thing I find interminably dull about photography it's this obsession with clarity of shot, clean and sharp lighting AND TECHINCAL BRILLIANCE...!! I find that approach all too often bleaches the soul of the image...I much prefer my shots to be fuzzy, dirty, rough, amateurish, accidental, contrasty, dark and vague so long as they make for an interesting picture...
OSCTPG£: So you're setting your own rules..??
PG£: Essentially, I mostly have no idea what I'm doing and i think that challenges me to create something out of nothing - whilst not intentionally not following the rules...
OSCTPG£: So you like to make mistakes..??
PG£: My whole photographic technique relies on me knowing a few basics, mostly ignoring them, taking lots of pictures at more or less complete random - and then editing things that look good into rough but hopefully decent and emotionally striking images..
OSCTPG£: So, you do or you don't know what you're doing ??
PG£: Mostly not. I understand that a long exposure means you get movement and more light...I understand that I don't much like flash....And I know that good images are very often accidental and could be made just as easily by a Chimp as by a degree trained photographer...These facts aside, I know very little about what I'm doing or trying to do...Essentially, I find the technical basics of photography to be more or less completely incomprehensible and very dull to learn and practice, so I try and remain as ignorant as I can - which gets harder to do the more pictures you take...
OSCTPG£: So you've not consulted photography books or done any kind of formal training...??
PG£: I occasionally dip into 'HOW TO' books and sometimes I get close to understanding concepts of intent with photos from reading them...I also like to look at other images to get ideas as how not to take my own - but I instinctively react against any kind of tutoring and I don't want to know too much about how to get the PERFECT SHOT!!!
OSCOPG£: If you don't read much or have any interest in taking lessons, how do you improve your technique as a photographer...??
PG£: Firsty, I'm not that interested in improving my technical skills beyond a point....I'd like to be a little better than what I am now, but the way I work is to go on a journey...I don't want to have a very clear idea of the place and the way to get there to be all marked out with knowledge...
It's like travel...If I go somewhere, I don't want to know what it's like there before I go...I don't want to read books about it, or hear other peoples tales of what they did and where they went...
I want to turn up like a virgin and be COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY AMAZED!!!
For me The Lonely Planet guidebooks are an abomination and the death of REAL adventure...
So with photography it's the same..
OSCTPG£: Does this mean that quite a few of your photos are utter crap...???
PG£: Yes...The vast majority of my initial images are utter and complete fucking crap - as are many better photographers...For me, it's all about the edit - that's where I find what kind of a picture and mood I'm working with...
OSCTPG£: So what percentage of finished and displayed images are you happy with???
PG£: At the time of posting on www.paulgiovanni.com I'm usually at least 80 or 90% happy with the images I display, but I often find them lacking afterwards so I cull them and replace the duff images with pictures of roses...I plan on having culls every 6 months or so, to keep things fresh and decent...
OSCOPG£: Going back to the question of models - what's you technique for working with models...??
PG£: I prefer to work with people long term...To get a good photo I think you need insight into the character - you need to get in and around the layers of who they are and dig a little into what gets them going...For instance, having some skinny horse on broomstick legs turn up and go for a salad the minute I start struggling with the basics isn't what I'm interested in photographing...Essentially, I want to portray beauty, in that sense I'm the same as many photographers, but my version of beauty isn't anything to do with someone being polished or perfected without a hair astray or precision SHARP!...I like the beauty to often be dark and unpolished...I like the deeper beauty of character and I like to not direct the model at all...
OSCTPG£: You don't direct models at all...???
PG£: Say with Phina, I knew she would be able to do contortions, so I knew certain things would be possible and that wierd human shapes would be a part of any pictures I did of her. But each time we've done a session, I've let it take it's own course and I rarely tell her what to do when...
Therefore many of my favourite pictures of Phina have been of her in between positions, or depict her in ways I'd never think to ask her to sit - I find it next to impossible to do that. Sometimes when I'm liking a particular something, I ask for a tweak or too to the position - but that's usually because I can start to see the picture I want and need to get a foreign object out of the corner of it. Otherwise, I like to sit about, drink and chat and keep the camera running, then look at what I've got later and try and build those raw unintentional images into something with depth and feeling that would have been missed completely at the time if I'd have been chunttering down some well laid planned out train tracks of what I wanted the image to be...
If you're interested in modelling,commissioning or buying contact me via paulgiovanni@paulgiovanni.com
OSCTPG£: So are you serious about taking pictures or not...?
PG£: That all depends on what you classify as being serious...?
I'm VERY serious about making good pictures and getting satisfaction from seeing them evolve and then looking at them regularly from that point on...
I'm also VERY seriously hoping other people get what my ideas are here and don't just lazily dismiss what I'm doing as being amateur unpolished rubbish that is done so because I'm incapable of learning how to use a multi trip flash gun, light meter or studio lighting...
OSCTPG£: But you are an amateur...?
PG£: At the moment yes, and in many senses I will be even if I go on to make money from any of my images...
OSCTPG£: I'm still struggling with why you don't try and improve your images in technical terms...?
PG£: Because that's not what I'm trying to do..
I like HIGH CONTRAST and pixel grainyness - i like faces to be messy and rearranged by the light and the movement...
Look at painting - there are many people who can paint very well and do perfect reproductions of either existing paintings or real time scenes - but those people aren't great artists - they're great technicians...
And the last thing I want to be is a great technician...
With photos, I'm exclusively interested in provoking a response in the viewer of the pictures - of making them frightened or wary or aggressive or confused - I'm not looking to make them go...
'Oh yeah, that's a very clear technically brilliant picture, taken with a Nikon Bum 1, with HIG RAZ lighting at 75mm f3.2...'
I only want an emotional human response and I feel that they way most people go about photography is completely emotion free...
OSCTPG£: OK...Well, I'm still not sure I get it, but thanks very much for your time...
PG£: Thank You
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