Originally studying Digital Art and Animation at university, after leaving my home town of Aberdeen, I became heavily influenced by Graphic Design, Technical Drawing, Art and the music scene. Only taking a Thursday afternoon class in film photography, it was not until some years of living in Glasgow, that a decision was made to take photography more seriously. Some experience was gained working part time in a camera shop, whilst continuing with university, to gain a degree in the subject. Work was achieved through articles in various magazines, getting signed to an agency, travelling, assisting in the running of a warehouse studio, before finally having an office in Glasgow.

The artistic process taken for a fashion shoot usually starts around a month before any photographs are taken. Communication meetings are set up to gain knowledge and understanding of what the final project is going to look like, whilst trying to maintain and keep the vision and style which is close to your own and still make an impact. Working with images and drawings can be much easier to comprehend, than texts and written emails. Choreographing shoots as working visuals is more effective for me. Sending a few images via email with some notes can be much more meaningful and leads on to improved ideas, far more than a large block of text. Everyone perceives visions in a variety of ways, which can be misleading for both the photographer and the subject when shooting as there are many creatives in a room often fighting to have their vision captured as the most important. This can create chaos and confusion overall. The final product of the shoot can then be so diluted that there is no formal or original idea left, and ends up with images that may be acceptable rather than excellent. It is far better to get the main idea or design set in stone first, and then let creativity on the shoot take over, by trying out and generating new ideas.

It is hard to give an overall process to the actual photographic element throughout a fashion shoot. The reason being is some shoots may be up a mountain in winter, with the photographer having to carry half a studio, models looking like they need to be hospitalised with hypothermia and the weather turning during the shoot! This can make the equipment unusable, models uncomfortable and original plans thrown out of the window! My advice would be: know how to use just a camera properly, use natural light and a flash perhaps. It will and can save the shoot and you will also have a good story to tell after. The other side of this can be the complete opposite – in a studio, time on your side, no weather problems and some beers, wine or anything with a percentage!

I find myself motivated to create the final image, where inspiration comes from minimal design, concentrating on composition and layout. Composition is a huge part of making images really stand out, as well as the post process of the images. Being a fan of technology helps, as using certain types of software or inventing new techniques to use on images, can drive the whole photo shoot, rather than engaging simple adjustments. In a purists world old techniques and technology would be used, not embracing new techniques. However, while agreeing with this concept to a certain degree, I would feel slightly trapped with what I could achieve, in terms of the final outcome and design. When starting any project, I try to visualise the final outcome. For example, if images are taken for an exhibition or magazine, I imagine how they would look on a massive scale or in the pages of the magazine itself, where I mock up the images in the magazine layout then add text with design elements, in order to visualise the final outcome.

Photographs which I find interesting could be called fashion images but I think ‘style’ suits what I do better. I like to work with a variety of individuals for final photographic outcomes, whether they are great models, people from the music industry, artists, snowboarders…..you get the picture! It is always interesting to change themes, as well as moving from studio to location. Editorial Shoots can be interesting, as there is so much room to breathe and get truly creative. When designing the final layout, there may only be a small number of images with a person in them and the others may be something as simple as a collection of brick walls. What is important is making the images work together to get an overall feeling or vibe for the final image choice.

Having a problem with never being happy with my work is sometimes a curse but can also drive me to really challenge myself in all aspects of photography and design. Often it can be hard to get work published or attract new work while waiting for the next project to come together. Patience is needed! It’s hard to get over but it happens.

I believe travel and new surroundings is hugely important to the creative process. Being in the same city constantly can be challenging for creating new ideas, because there is a feeling of “been there, done that”. However, this is simply that the surroundings can sometimes no longer feel inspiring to you.

Currently, I am working out of my office at ‘The Whisky Bond’ in Glasgow, where meetings take place and the post production is completed. It’s great to finally have space to design and create as recently, my office was a coffee table and a laptop in my flat. Consequently, there would be a struggle with the tasks needing to get done. Previously, the studio which was shared with friend and photographer Garry MacLennan was a small industrial unit – a freezer in winter and sauna in summer. However, that studio is always looked back on with amazing memories which I will leave for another time.

Always follow what you believe is right for you.

All images courtesy of Derrick Argent.

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Kirsty Smith is a Sportswear Photographer, DOP and Lecturer In Fashion Photography and Image Making.

Here are her first 5 jobs:

1. Dairy Farm Assistant
At twelve I remember wishing I owned a pair of British Knights. I wanted them so badly that I started asking around to find work. Living in Worsley, Salford there where the usual paper rounds and car wash adventures but I was young and ambitious and was on the look out for something more. It came in the form of an inner city diary farm. Ten minutes walk from my house was a small hold which had a heard of around 40 cows. I would arrive every weekday morning at 5:30am to bottle the milk and get it ready for delivery. I still remember to this day the smell of milk on my hands and the stench on my clothes as I would run home to get ready for school. I loved the job. It gave me financial freedom at a young age, made me aware of my ambitions and finally afforded me my long awaited British Knights.

2. Waitress: Nynex Arena
During my college years I was approached to work for Manchester’s premiere music arena. It was an incredibly exciting time in my life. From week to week there were international artists in concert and incredible sporting events. I was employed as a waitress in private boxes before being promoted to suite events manager, organising and looking after private parties held on the premises. I learnt more skills in this job than any since. Safe to say patience and decorum topped the list. Had mobile camera phones been around back then I would have the most incredible book of images today!

3. Sports / Sportswear Photographer
I met my now partner Leo Sharp at university. At the time Leo was a budding skateboard photographer and after we left university we moved to Manchester so that I could train to be a teacher. I took a job in Salford educating teenagers in the art of photography while Leo assisted in local studios. Any free time we had, evenings, weekends, holidays we would shoot like crazy. We travelled in and around the UK, flew out to Europe and spent all our spare cash on cheap places to stay. Leo would focus on the skateboarding while my passion was lifestyle, capturing behind the scenes. I literally fell into sportswear by accident when a few companies saw my work and asked for images to use as advertisements. Before long Leo and I were shooting for Nike SB, Adidas, Girl Skateboards with images appearing in magazines and online. I still love shooting sportswear and have even made skateboarding the focus of my recent research.

4. Head of Creative Practice Newent Arts College
Leo and I moved to Cheltenham after taking a year out to travel having spent four years working solidly to build our portfolios. Travelling allowed us to take stock of that journey and explore the next stage of our careers. I have always loved teaching so when we returned to the UK, I began working in an Arts College in Gloucestershire. Within a year I was acting head of the Art Department and six months later I was awarded the role. I was able to develop an A level course in photography, a vocational arts program and began working for the Specialist Schools Trust supporting vocational arts courses in the South West. These where some of my most exciting teaching years juggling roles, putting in long hours, watching my students grow into independent and innovative individuals. I left the role feeling very proud and very tired.

5. Lecturer in Fashion Photography
Leo and I left Cheltenham fully intending to emigrate to Australia, only to find out weeks before that I was pregnant. With absolute determination we boarded a plane and headed to the southern hemisphere. Things did not quite go to plan and I felt I needed to return to the UK to have our daughter. At this point I could have gone back into teaching but my gut was telling me to take stock and apply for my MA in photography. Falmouth University took a chance on me and I started a full time MA with a twelve-week-old baby. It made me aware of the precious time I had with her and the need to be super organised. On completing my MA I applied for a job in the Photography department and began working as a technician. Within a year I was working as a lecturer for Fashion Photography.

I work with incredibly talented students imparting my knowledge of the fashion and sportswear industry as well as my love of photography. I have time to continue developing my own projects in both sportswear and skateboarding and in the past year I have had the privilege of working alongside Ben Mallaby on a BAFTA nominated short shot in Cornwall.

I am always seeking the next challenge. At the moment it is seeing our first graduate cohort through their exhibition, then off to Washington DC to undertake a month long fellowship with the Smithsonian Institute. Challenge fuels my excitement and drives my passions.

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We’ve asked professionals in creative industries what jobs they have had in the past to get their foot through the door (or at least pay the rent). For more in the “My First 5 Jobs” series look here.

Other than the Sokolsky’s, we are show­ing prints by Lil­lian Bass­man, whose work has become one of my favorites, Albert Wat­son, FC Gundlach’s Ori­en­tal series, vin­tage Nor­man Parkin­son, some wild William Klein, Elliott Erwitt, three brood­ing Sarah Moon’s,  some early color works by Erwin Blu­men­feld, who was of course much more than only a fash­ion pho­tog­ra­pher, and Frank Hor­vat, with a crazy-funny web­site of his own, called Hor­vat­land, which is truly worth a visit if you’ve never been, if only to dis­cover what wicked things he made besides the images he is mostly known for.

When some­one would have told me three years ago at the end of my self-inflicted fash­ion episode, that there would come a time when I would spend months — not weeks — work­ing on the same sub­ject, I seri­ously don’t know how incred­u­lous I would have looked. How­ever, I guess it is like one of the most impor­tant things his­tory class has ever taught me about  the Thirty Year’s War: you can always find a fas­ci­nat­ing angle to a sub­ject that does not appeal to you at first sight. I real­ize that every­one is dying to know what fas­ci­nat­ing angle mrs. deane has dis­cov­ered about fash­ion pho­tog­ra­phy, but it is way too late for bed­time sto­ries of any kind, so that will have to wait for another day.

An angle of inter­est we added with an eye on the local pub­lic in the Dubai region, is the story of Parveen Shaath, a Saudi fash­ion­ista avant la let­tre, who spent her life between fash­ion houses and her Arab clien­tele. Some pieces of her col­lec­tion, num­ber­ing more than 700 items, are on dis­play as well, along­side mate­r­ial from her per­sonal archive. As a friend of found footage, I could not but have imme­di­ate sym­pa­thy for the clumsy black and white snap­shots, stat­ing so obvi­ously what we all know: most peo­ple don’t ‘strike a pose’, how­ever fash­ion­able or expen­sive their clothes, they just wear them when eat­ing a late night ice cream, sit­ting on the edge of a foun­tain. Because there is no escape from the ordi­nar­i­ness of life, one of the most tena­cious things in this world.

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Originally published in September 2010 in Mrs. Deane, a blog run by Beierle + Kei­jser, visual artists from Ger­many and Hol­land.