Profiles

The occasion of Gavin Blue's earliest foray into photography was a parade in his native Canberra. A float came into view carrying Mickey Mouse and Goofy perched on a set of steps of the sort once commonly wheeled out to airliners. The young Master Blue made a bid for the shot with a  Kodak Instamatic. 'I just couldn't get to a front row, and when I got to the front they'd passed me. I got this shot of the backs of their heads going away from me, and all I was thinking was, "missed the shot, missed the shot"...'


Gavin Blue's very first picture

The future president of the ACMP didn't realise it at the time, but he'd just discovered his life's passion.

When he reached year 10 of high school, he was confronted with a choice: he could continue at private school, or opt for a State school with a reputation as an alternative school and having questionable discipline standards but which, he says, 'had a really good photography course.' Naturally the right option was obvious to him, if not his parents. 'I worked on my parents for four months. I cut a deal with them to keep up the academic side and so they let me change schools.'

The move to Narrabundah College was fortuitous. 'They had a really inspirational photography teacher, Les Kovacs' said Blue.  'He built his own E-6 (colour slide film) processing machine. He nurtured students. He had them coming in before school, at lunch time and after school to use the darkroom. He gave extra assignments and cultured real passion into students about doing photography.'

Narrabundah College became, he said, 'a feeder school for the RMIT photography course - which is one of the best in the country. Each year 1000 to 1500 people apply for the RMIT course and each year one or two kids would get in from Narrabundah College.' Often he said, 'people would apply for RMIT but were told to go away and look at their folio and come back. But the students from Narrabundah were so grounded and [producing such] good photography from this year 12 photography course, that they kept on getting in. It was really cool.' Of course one of those who made it into RMIT was Blue himself.

In his third year at RMIT, said Blue 'there was this great mentor scheme where the lecturers looked at your work and then suggested you go see a particular person and invite them to be your mentor. It gives you a bit of guidance outside of the photography course. The photographer I had was Andrew Craig and I ended up assisting him for about three years.'

Fifteen years on he's now a successful commercial photographer with a varied practice that includes a healthy mix of corporate, advertising and editorial work. As well, he has a separate business called Executive Portraits. Portraiture is a special passion of Blue's and Executive Portraits, he explains, offers him the opportunity to 'work with a client to get a look that represents their company and the way they want to be presented.'

His portrait work is by no means limited to the clients of Executive Portraits. Not only does portraiture form a part of his annual report and other corporate shooting, but for the last half dozen years he has also applied his people-picture skills to photographing athletes from the Victorian Institute of Sport.


How do you shoot a world champion aerial skier in Melbourne, available at Olympic Park for 15 minutes, while a thunderstorm is coming through...

Asking Blue to describe how he so consistently gets strong portraits is somewhat akin to asking an athlete how it is that they excel at their particular sport. Not surprisingly, one key ingredient is the preparation.

'When you do the thinking and you put in the intellectual effort, the shots become really easy,' says Blue. 'I did a shot of Lauren Hewitt, the sprinter, which appeared in an article for Qantas Club Magazine. She's a sprinter from this small country town called Warracknabeal. We took her out near the You Yangs and had her hitchhiking home with a nice kind of country background and a ute driving past. It was at the end of the day and a storm came through so I actually only got seven frames.'

'We did the thinking, and we got the shots because we had briefed her on what to wear, what to bring and how to be and it all fell into place. It was quite easy.'

Asked if he liked to scout out locations and plan for the light and so on, he said, 'yes, and sometimes I just react to what's there. I'm notorious with my clients for changing the set up completely, sometimes two or three times. What you think is going to work and what actually works, that's all part of the process. Sometimes you do one shot one way and then another shot another way and then don't even consider the first shot, as the second works a whole lot better.' 

Interestingly, whether it's photographing a huge truck, a group of business people at work or an athlete hitchhiking to Warracknabeal, he uses just one camera - a Kodak SLR/n. 'When I bought it, I thought "oh this is nice, they're giving away extra batteries and extra chargers when you buy the camera". But it got discontinued about six months later, and then it got discontinued. I thought "Oh, great." But it works a treat. I've got a FinePix S2 as a backup camera which, ever since I got the SLRn, I've never had to use.' 

In addition to running his photographic business, Gavin Blue has also been putting something back in to the industry he loves. As current president of the ACMP (Association of Australian Commercial and Media Photographers). 'It's such a critical thing for photographers to be a part of . We're such an industry of individuals and it really creates a community within the industry.'  

Along with acting as the voice of the organisation and attending to all the usual nuts-and-bolts duties that come with such a position, Blue also helps co-ordinate campaigns on behalf of his membership to win fairer treatment from various media organisations and other buyers of photographic images. As well, he told Photo Review, the ACMP has revived its highly regarded publication, The Collection. This beautifully produced publication features original and outstanding photographic images from Australian photographers.


I found this lady in Toronto, NSW who lived next door to where I was shooting on a job for WorkCover NSW. We talked and I came back at dusk to shoot a portrait of her great character.

Another important area of ACMP's work is the nurturing of young and emerging photographers. The Trampolene Project brings young photographers together, operates semi independently and is a particular point of pride for Blue and his organisation. 'It creates a structure for young photographers to get together', he says. 'Young photographers are pretty cool and they don't want to immediately identify with many of the older photographers. It creates a pathway for them to create their own identity and support structures and award structures. They can get together and show work and discuss it, get it judged and get prizes. It's a really great atmosphere. There would be 40 or 50 people at monthly meetings in Melbourne alone. It's a great support structure for young photographers just starting out. This industry is ever-evolving, so having such a community at this time in their careers is really valuable.' 

Asked what advice he'd give to young photographers wanting to make a career in his tough industry, Blue is characteristically upbeat. While saying that easy-to-use digital cameras have taken away work from professional photographers and that online image libraries have cut into the business as well, he nevertheless points out that, 'there's always going to be photography that needs to be commissioned because certain subjects will need to be photographed professionally.'  

Believing that it is vital for young photographers to differentiate themselves from their colleagues, he underlines the importance of service. Asked what he would advise a young photographer just starting out in the business, he says they should ask themself  'who are you going to be with your clients when the job comes in? When I go to a job, especially with a new client, I look for what can I do that's going to give them no reason to go anywhere else.' He underlines the importance of looking after the details too, 'everything from my presentation, to interaction with staff, to the way I leave the room when I'm finished, through to the presentation of the images on a branded CD in a branded envelope, I'm always thinking ahead to what they could need - and providing it. You've got to be smart in the business sense of creating opportunities for people to stay with you.' 

Gavin Blue's website: http://www.gavinblue.com/
The ACMP website (also includes links to info about Trampolene and The Collection): http://www.acmp.com.au/Joomla/index.php


See Photo Review magazine Issue 29 for the print edition of this profile which includes additional images.

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