ARTIST PAUL PETCH

Studio Portrait on Film.

One of the positives of moving into my own studio is that I get to explore and expand my portrait photography skills on film for the first time. I’m very comfortable outdoors, and commercially I’m no slouch when it comes to capturing headshots in a studio setting. But when it comes to transferring my technical skills and more creative concepts to film in the studio it’s mostly a new experience. With a solid set of gear available from powerful lighting, to multiple light modifiers, with various backgrounds, the studio is always ready to go.

Last year I picked up a decent light meter, as well as a Pentax 645N with a good auto focus lens that fires the studio lights (Godox AD600’s) perfectly. Once the shutter speed is set to 1/60th it is pretty much like shooting on my digital cameras- but of course the process and aesthetic is so much nicer.

Elisabeth, is a model for Portfolio Models and we’ve worked together before at ARA when the final year students were showcasing their work. (you can see the results here if you are keen). Instantly we were into the process and very relaxed. The background I chose was from a roll of material I found at the second hand store and the first time I’ve tested it out. What a beautiful setup! The peach tones really worked on the Portra 400- and I love the monochrome (I used Rollei 120) vibe a lot.

While this shoot was experimental, I do like the connection to the grassy organic element, that may well become part of a series. Saying that it’s nice to just shoot portraits and have fun rather than always looking at a bigger picture. Pairing two or three photos from this set would make for a great art piece, and the rough prints in the studio hung on the wall, do look really good.

What did I take away for this session? Mostly that even though I used a light meter, the set could have done with another stop of light to offer the best negatives possible. Unlike digital, film likes more light and in turn provides great dynamic range.

What about a highlight of the shoot? I used a tripod as the Pentax 645N and huge lens weighed a ton. A great decision as every image is in focus. Setting the Aperture to F11 of course helped too. The Pentax 645N is in my mind a perfect camera for the studio.

Exploring Self.

I remember vividly in 2019 while studying at Ilam Fine Arts- when it was suggested that if I’m happy to ask subjects to pose for my portrait work- that I should be ok to do the same. I utterly hated the thought of being photographed by anyone, but it really did get me thinking.

As a portrait photographer it’s the very building blocks of the image that people show their soul, personality or message to my camera. I ask people to look here, move there, wear this or that, and “yes!” perfect light….. *shutter releases*.

I came in hot to Fine Arts after a decade or more of commercial photography and being in my mid forties. With a brief, goal or deadline fuelling the work I did, it was very easy to forget or not even be aware that as the photographer the balance of power is never equal. After being made aware of the power play,  I spent time to acknowledge the balance between subject and photographer more, and my first real self portrait, made me truly connect with the vulnerability a subject feels.

Hanging such personal portraits and the insights into what I hide in the ‘stage play of life’ in public spaces at Ilam sparked all sorts of reactions. One student started to cry when she saw the images and the insight into my struggles. Another who had experienced death recently was overwhelmed with how one of the images looked like I had died. In reflection, it was the first piece of my artwork, where I witnessed people interacting with it on an emotional level, and seeing my struggles with mental health.

From this point, I was more aware of how each subject feels in front of my lens. I started to adopt a process in my personal work to guide subjects as minimally as possible. For my commercial work I started to spend more time with subjects, and to ensure the subjects are involved with the end result as much as possible. In both instances my goal is to share the power more and allow some balance. I was tired of creating work with an overwhelming agenda being the guiding force. Understanding this really did change the direction of my work.

Since that first self portrait from 2019 I’ve involved myself in more images than previously. While I’m not very comfortable with others photographing me, I’m still happy to share my own vulnerabilities more. It’s actually quite a liberating experience and a nod to my own imperfections, ageing and how much the human form if not seen as ‘perfect’ is such a taboo narrative. Seeing your own form is a very confrontational process, that every subject experiences on various levels.

This week I put together another self portrait that’s an extension of my first, and it explores the narrative of the war we are currently caught up in- a war of our hearts and minds.

“We laugh at the screens, while being force fed ‘truths’ and ‘stuff’ offered to us by marketing teams and maniacs. Decades in the making. It’s a war of hearts and minds.”

It’s your body and mind – so it’s your choice.

 

New Prints.

I’ve added some new prints to the shop and reduced the price until the new year. You can view the new works here https://forever1995.com/store/

Any image size/ border options available. Also happy to frame. Please email me to discuss.

Recent work.

It has been a great 4 months since moving into my own wee studio and once everything was setup and ready to go I started picking up a good stream of commercial portraiture work that’s a brilliant end to the year. I’m very grateful to be a photographer in all forms from hyper commercial to art based- because most weeks I get to meet great people and see new places! My good friend Ness from Inkfulness Tattoo has also moved into the building- how cool is that!? Now I’m obliged to get more ink…. of course.

I’ve slowed down the two larger projects I’m focused on ‘I want to’ and another project yet untitled. Even though I balance commercial and personal work really well, the truth is that I can’t really jump from one to the other, as it creates a different mind set, so I tend to invest in one direction for a while then the other.

I’ve had some energy to focus back on my creatives and makers series again which has been great. I really enjoy the whole experience.

Some artists that i’ve had the pleasure of photographing are, Simon Ogden who has an extensive art based practice spanning back to the 1990s and my tutor John Maillard from ARA.

Have a great end of 2022 everyone, and all the best for 2023! I can’t wait to get my head into projects over the holidays, and in the new year translating my work into zines and books.

Thank you for the support. – Paul.

An Update September 2022.

I’m pretty slow at updates I guess- but i’ve had some quite monumental events come and go over the past year or so. In a nutshell i’ve now graduated art school with an academic excellence award. I was the highest graded student in my class, that I’m sharing with pride not arrogance. I also got a scholarship for the Masters program at ARA and put it on ice as Covid hit, and due to the mandates I opted out. Since graduation I’ve focussed on both my commercial work as well as personal art based projects, and it’s ticking along really well.

The full-time 4 years of study was brilliant but tiring as you can imagine. I could have not had a better finish though with the Beekeeping Project (and an exhibition) that spanned the final year- that really highlighted to me a solid process, and bringing it to the front of my mind. An understanding of a solid reproducible process for my future work was/ is priceless. It was worth the 4 years of commitment and cost 100%. It now looks like I’ll now pick up the Masters direction in 2023- part-time this time round.

Some personal projects from the past year or so include mostly Covid narrative driven work that includes ‘Sunshine .Long Walks. Thumping Electronica.‘ 2021, and ‘Safe & Effective.‘ 2021. There were many more, but as you are probably aware, most ideas begin and often don’t make it past the concept stage. Well for me that’s the case.

So here we are in September 2022 and I’ve just moved into my own wee studio in central Christchurch too, as part of the St. Asaph Street Collective, a warehouse style shared space on St Asaph Street (their website is yet to go love). The main driver in this pace is to translate my work and projects into hand made custom books, zines and prints. Its also place to sit, listen to music, read books and get inspired. Having a space that I can can work on my various projects, and pin stuff to the wall and then percolate on the relationships of my work- is really key for me moving forward. I want to invest time into creating physical bodies of work offline. It’s important to me.

Two projects that I’m currently working on are quite polar opposites (as usual!) One is related to the past few years of Governmental, big tech and Pharma control called ‘I Want To’, while the other builds on – ‘Godley After Dark’ from 2021 exploring organic forms at night using studio flashes and my ‘new’ Pentax 645. I’ll share more about the ‘I Want To.’ project shortly as it’s on hold while the weather warms up, but right now I’m keen to talk more about experimenting with larger flashes outdoors and the other project- that thus far is untitled.

I remember seeing works by Richard Misrach back in about 2018 at Ilam Fine Arts, and being inspired with the simplicity of his desert series from 1975, where he shot a flash directly at cactus, rocks and other elements outdoors. I started to think more about using flash at that time more creatively, and even considered capturing structures in and around the city that had scaffolding – in an attempt to explore that aesthetic. I did not, but put that concept on ice, and picked it back up in 2021 while studying at ARA, and I developed a process to capture ‘high key’ organic elements on film with flash as part of an an assignment. ‘Godley After Dark’ was captured on a Holga toy camera, and a canon speedlite at Taylor’s Mistake here in Christchurch.

This ongoing body of work now explores scaling it up to larger subjects and experimenting with large studio off camera flashes that output a whopping 1200 watts vs the 75 watts on the previous Canon flash work. I’m liking the early results captured at Hagley Park, and progressing towards some more concepts, before putting a body of work together with the goal of printing and exhibiting/ selling the artworks. I have a great feeling about this series and its worth my investment of both time an energy.

Here are some images lately that offer some insights into the current projects, my process and the on-going experimentation of concept and equipment/ mediums. It’s actually quite interesting mixing the images from both projects below! Maybe they will merge.

Anyway, I hope you have enjoyed this wee update and I look forward to sharing more at what’s becoming my ‘digital workbook’. Meanwhile please check out my journal as I’m sure there will be more updates that I failed to share via social media  or my newsletter.

New Camera. Pentax 645.

I’m not a huge gear guy if the truth be known. Sure, i’ve tried a few cameras in my time but spoiler alert- the results are the mostly the same and you can’t ‘name that camera’ or lens. Saying that, over the past decade I’ve preferred using medium format cameras due to the unique results and usability. My goto camera has been the Yashica 635, and the images have always had a interesting look to them- and not super sharp or ‘perfect’. Cameras with perfect sharpness are usually expensive, and have fallen through my hands rapidly. Why shoot film if it looks like digital?

On Trademe a few weeks ago a listing caught my attention- a Pentax 645n. I’ve been looking for a more studio focussed camera to use with lights, and decided to buy it. I was then after some lenses for it too- and low and behold- another action came up with the two lenses I wanted. I’ve now got an original 645 that was ‘thrown in’ with the lenses as the seller said it did not work, and the 645n. The two focal lengths that I picked up are the 75mm 2.8 (45mm equivalent) and 45mm 2.8 (28mm equivalent). Out of the box- hitting focus has been a pleasure and both cameras are so nice to use.

Long story cut short- both cameras work and the more modern mid 90’s 645n has the ability to use auto focus lenses or register a ‘beep’ when hitting focus using the manual lenses.

The complete set is mint and i’ve instantly fell in love with the results. I was really surprised to find that the lenses produce a beautiful aesthetic that has so much soul- and I can now create work with a conscious pleasing death of field too. Sure the cameras are big and chunky- yet surprisingly portable when paired with my Peak Design straps slung across my body.

The negative size of 6 x 45cm I also adore which surprised me being a die hard 6×6 guy. Oh yes. Both cameras have an auto metering function that at box speed produces some of the best exposed images i’ve taken so far. Amazing really considering their age. I’m not going to review this setup other than sharing the way they work do not get in the way of my process, and that means they will stay as part of my kit.

In fact since picking these up i’ve been super motivated to get out and make images as I enjoy the experience so much. A new project has also begun and as timing has it- so the 645 will be the main camera that I use. Having a wide angled lens and self timer is a real treat too.

One last thing. With regards to using the 645 for studio work- I’ve secured a wee office/ studio to start work on translating my projects to books and zines, as well as portrait/ conceptual driven work. I’m super stoked and will share more about this in the coming weeks.

Here are some ‘test rolls’ of the random stuff, as well as some location scouting/ early concepts for a new project I’m working on:

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