It is not uncommon to read the biographies of photographers that start with: "I have taken pictures since I had my first camera at four years old".... Well I am not one of those and came in to photography in my late teens when I moved to London from the countryside in South East England.
I was a junior pastry chef and worked long hours with not much to do when I wasn't on duty. So I used to wander around the West End of London and one day discovered a place called The Photographers Gallery, it had exhibitions and dark rooms available for hire and lots of black and white prints that I liked.
I bought a Ricoh SLR and a couple of lens and I was hooked. I took pictures (not particularly good ones!) of my friends and really enjoyed the black and white developing process. I bought some old Paterson developing equipment and used my bathroom as a dark room. I developed my first selfie in 1980!
Then there was a gap in my photographic journey. My career had taken off and eventually led to opportunities to work abroad. I found myself in Romania opening a huge hotel in Bucharest as Executive Chef it was a fantastic experience in every aspect, the people, food, culture, scenery, everything. It was a wonderful experience and a place my wife and I lived for 5 years. We have very fond memories of that time and made many friends there.
During the opening phase there was a photographer who came to take pictures of the interiors of the building, restaurants, rooms and common areas and food. Yes, that was my area! He took lot's of pictures using small flashes that didn't seem to be connected by wires to the camera! How did he do that? It was magic! I watched and wanted to learn everything I could about this new style of image making, the photographer was extremely good at sharing his knowledge and I found both him and the whole process inspirational! The pictures he made were nothing short of fantastic with dramatic lighting and incredible detail and colour.
That photographer was Dinu Lazar and this was digital photography with wireless off-camera flash and I wanted in!
Based on this experience I was soon the owner of a Nikon D70 DSLR and a couple of Speed-lights and there it began again a passion re-kindled...
Fast-forward 20 something years and having lived and worked in many other areas of Europe and Scandinavia, what kind of a photographer am I? Well I suppose I am still finding out.
Being around food for most of my career made it easy to focus on and combined with artificial lighting was and still is a happy place for me but having dabbled in portraiture, still life and some landscape not to mention my latest adventure into wildlife I guess the answer is: not sure yet.
Do you need to have a label?
You can see more of my work here:
nickhawkesphotography.com
@nickhawkes_photography
(click for slideshow)
