Gary Hughes qualifies with The Society of International Commercial and Industrial Photographers
Gary submitted his panel for qualification at the 2023 Convention in London, the team of experienced judges awarded the submission a Fellowship Distinction.
Statement of Intent
My photographic life began at age eight, enlarging 8×10 business headshots in my father’s darkroom. After leaving the family business to attend school, I ran like hell from photography until rediscovering it as a hobby in my mid-twenties. Sixteen years later, I find myself joyfully working full-time in the vocation of both my parents.
Although I photograph as many as 5,000 business headshots a year, mostly at events, there has been a small but consistent genre bringing me joy throughout my whole career – entertainers. This panel of mostly actors (along with a magician, two dancers, and two musicians) is comprised wholly of commissioned work from the last three years.
Although a minority of my work is in entertainment, it was important for me to feature these incredible people. The connection I feel to them is powerful. Each person pictured pursues their passion in the face of sometimes fervent opposition from their friends and family, who mostly dismiss it as a hobby. Essentially, a bunch of mostly kids, looking for jobs during the pandemic. Their entire industry was shut down longer than most, yet they persisted. If that sounds eerily familiar, you might understand why I see these same struggles echoed in my life and the lives of many of my colleagues. The courage of these entertainers to continue on in their profession, in spite of being told to give up and retrain, inspires me to create. So here we are.
I am submitting this panel for Fellowship consideration, which is a lofty goal for a bunch of headshots but let me explain. I have never been an artist. An artist pushes limits, takes risks, and works to create something new. That’s just not me, I’m a craftsman. Like a carpenter who makes the same table and chairs day after day, I produce a product that is a commodity. Something practical that, like a lovingly made set of table and chairs, might go unappreciated year after year as it’s used every day for the most mundane but essential purposes. Over the years I have refined the simplest applications of light, colour, directing, and wardrobe to help my clients become what they always wanted – someone else.
Whether it’s the criminal, the cop who catches them, the lawyer who puts them away, or the partner left behind in the wake, I use every small lever at my disposal to help my clients slip on another skin. As the genre necessitates minimal editing and the maximum number of looks, I have had to learn how to do all of these things largely in-camera while creating completely different characters under very limited time constraints. The subtle application of all of these techniques, the natural state of the images, and the fact that this represents the quality of work I give my clients every day are why I chose to submit this group of images.
Thank you for taking the time to assess this panel. The journey in putting it together for you has been illuminating for me and I hope it brings you a small part of the connection to these entertainers that I have felt.
Watch the video below or see the full panel here
