Here is part 2 of our interview with Fashion Photographer, Gene Kiegel.  Yesterday, I showed you the man behind the lens, now we look at his  work and let the photos do the talking. He discusses his inspirations, his views on the future of photography and  his experiences of shooting iconic celebrities ( Paris Hilton, Bai Ling, Ice Cube, etc.) and models.

3. You stated that you haven’t had formal training in photography. However, you are now teaching others about photography at Central Saint Martins. How does this affect your teaching style?
Well, to be honest, the amount of information I’ve researched over the years and keep learning every day is probably more than any school would ever give me.  Many teaching methods stress memorization and learning through practice, while I strive to understand the principles and theories behind what I do.

For example, when I teach about lighting, I teach people to understand how the light works and how to control it vs. standard setups.  I teach people to envision what they want to shoot and then shoot it.  I want to teach them to be picture makers and not picture takers.

Of course, with everything there is a great degree of discovery and most important is self-reflection.  It’s the moment after the shoot, when you go through your images and you analyze and make notes of what worked and what didn’t.  Learning from your mistakes is a must because if you don’t make mistakes you simply have nothing to base your experience on.  Some of mistakes can look terrible; some may give birth to your new unique style.

I also think of a photograph as a medium to transfer people’s energy.  And it is a photographer’s job to engage the person, bring out and capture that energy, so the viewers are then able to receive it and react to it.

I also stress the importance of understanding yourself and what you like as a basis of developing your style and visual identity.  Photography is about expressing yourself and everything that you stand for, you have to be true to your vision and not follow the latest trend of what you may have already seen in other photographer's work or publications or adverts.  Then your work would look like everyone else’s.  So, why would anyone want to hire you in particular then ?

 4. You have worked with a number of celebrities who stands out in your mind as the most memorable?

Well, there are a few that definitely made an impression.  For one, it was Bai Ling.  She was just a delight to work with, such a wonderful person.  Secondly, Ice Cube.  I was immensely impressed by his work ethics and also to see his music genius at work was an incredible experience.  And also, Cliff Curtis.  I met Mr. Curtis at a Diane Farr’s birthday party.  I was under the stupendous impression that we went to school together and started chatting with him like an old friend, only much later realizing that he is NOT the guy I went to school with and that I’ve seen him in movies like Traffic and Three Kings.  Well, that only seemed to work in my favour as we really seemed to get along well and the next day he was at my downtown studio for a series of really “out there” headshots of him trying to hitchhike a car walking barefoot on the 4th street bridge or driving in the jeep through the LA river and playing a fugitive and climbing walls.  It was a blast and truly nothing of the ordinary.  

So, it’s these fun experiences and great photo shoots that got me recommendations of these actors to their agents and so forth and after I shot Paris Hilton for her music video debut that really seemed to put a seal of approval on my work for many clients and opened  doors to many opportunities.  

5. You have mentioned your IT background ... However it is noted that you have a preference for film over digital.

Well I think it really depends on what your style is and what you want to achieve.  I think that digital camera is a great learning tool due to its instant feedback, particularly when you work in the studio environment. But other than that, it’s just another choice of a medium with its advantages and disadvantages.  I don’t agree that digital media should be replacing film.  Like any form of medium, one compliments the other and so on.  There are many legit reasons for using digital, especially for commercial reasons, and perhaps with time it would be able to catch up to the feeling of space, depth and artistry that only film currently delivers.

In fact, when I started shooting, I was one of the first photographers who went completely digital, only discovering later on that film was a more appropriate media choice for my purposes.    

That’s why for now, my preferred way of working is an organic process.  I approach each project like a painter who is looking at his colour paint palette and choosing the colour scheme of his future painting.  That’s how I look at the film stock I use and the developing process methods I can use.  I also search for lenses that give me a desired effect and also decide on which film format to shoot.  It’s also important to keep in mind what is the final intent and how it is going be presented.  What printing technique is going to give it the desired effect or is it going strictly digital.
If all you are trying to produce is an image that would look great on the screen – than go digital – the native process.  I always find that my “organic” prints look much better printed rather then viewed on the screen, while the digital images look amazing on the screen but really can’t hold their own in the print.

 Coming from IT background and also spending countless ours in front of the computer as it is, I want to minimize any additional unnecessary time with it. So, I’d rather stylize my shoots directly via the shooting / developing process rather than try to imitate a certain film effect through Photoshop.  It really saves me overall time and makes the final image have much more depth to it.

But I also thank my IT background because for years now, I’ve been able to be a “one man show”, running my business, building my own PCs, my website, promos, doing mass emailing, learning all about printing, scanning, colour-profiling and so on.  It’s good to be friendly with technology.

6.  Your work has a very cinematic quality, how would you describe your work?

It is a combination of cinematic and voyeuristic. When I shoot models, I do it similarly to how you would direct a movie. I give everyone a story and a role to play in a given scenario to create the scene and then I wait for the magic to unfold.  I also try to enter their world.  It’s very important for me that a model feels comfortable without any inhibitions.  I want to understand that person to establish the unspoken mental connection and to bring their energy out and onto the image.  While some of my imagery is quiet and ambient, other is purely “in your face” and concentrates on the emotions evoked.
 
7. Where do you see photography going in the future?

 Well, I think some of that movement is quite obvious already.  As we see now, that many of the high end advertising is now moving onto snapshot based images and commercials are being recorded via webcams and mobile phones.

I think that there will be few select high end fashion labels that would still employ the usage of a single striking powerful photo image, but the demand would be very few and those photographers would have a hard time earning a living out of the few jobs they get.  So, I believe that there will be a major split between people going into illustration, moving image and select few would be going into the world of fine art.