Thomas Ball, Mibrag Lignite Mine, East Germany from the series 'Engineered Destruction'We've been super busy recently with trying to get things in place for the launch of CONTACT editions and have been having some really interesting discussions with photographers that I'll be posting parts of on here. We're also in the process of trying to set up informal peer to peer crits in London, in an attempt to get photographers to keep talking about their practice; personal projects can be a lonely endeavor and it can be a difficult process without peers to talk through your ideas with. More details of this will follow soon, but in the meantime e-mail us if you're interested.
I've been speaking to some of the guys that won the LPA Futures competition about their work and how being with a commercial agency might alter their practice. Five young photographers were selected; Laura Pannack, Ben Roberts, Sam Irons, Thomas Ball and Jon Tonks. Below is a quick conversation with Thomas Ball with regards to his personal and commercial practice.
What first sparked your interest in photography and how have you reached the point of commercial representation?
I grew up with photos around me, as my Dad was a very keen photographer. He bought me my first camera when I was 13 and I started shooting then. When I was 14, I wrote to National Geographic and asked how I could get a job as a photographer and amazingly, they sent me a reply! They said that most of their photographers had an education in something other than photography, such as science or archaeology etc. So when it came round to choosing what to do in college, I decided to do a science degree. When I graduated, I went to work and study in Melbourne, Australia. While there I did a photography course at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and I also got a job with an aerial photography company. It was from then on, that I realised that I wanted to re-kindle my love of taking pictures and try making it a career. When I returned to Ireland I signed up to a degree in photography, but I went straight into the second year of the course, learned a huge amount and then decided to leave after a year and get a job as an assistant in a commercial studio in Dublin. I worked there for 2 years before moving to London at the end of 2006 to do an MA in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography at the LCC. Since then, I have been working freelance as a photographer and have assisted a number of successful photographers here in London and abroad.
My first major personal project was for my MA at the LCC. It’s a series called Athabasca, which looks at the boom in the oil sands industry in Northern Alberta. It’s part of a long term project I am doing called Engineered Destruction. I shot many projects before Athabasca, but this was the first one where I felt everything came together and I found a style of photography that fitted my way of working. It was also the first project which I shot entirely on a 5x4 large format camera. Since then, it has become my camera of choice for much of my work.
Looking forward, Engineered Destruction will be my primary focus for my personal work for the next year at least. I aim to travel to Dubai and China later in the year, but in the meantime, I have a number of projects in the UK to keep me busy.
How would you define your photographic practice?
I would say most of my images come through research about a topic or issue that I am interested in. I am always reading newspapers and magazines looking for inspiration about new projects I want to work on. As my project Engineered Destruction is about energy and the environment, I am constantly on the look out for topics which I think will complement what I have shot already. Most of the places I want to go photograph are abroad and involve a lot of research and planning before a single image is shot, which can be frustrating at times. I have recently starting shooting on my Mamiya 7 again and it has been fun to be able to shoot what I see in front of me rather than having to set up a shot with the 5x4 and lug around lots of heavy equipment.
Your images seem to be particularly concerned with space and the changing natural landscape (often due to human interruption); where did your interest in these issues begin?
As I mentioned above, I have a background in natural sciences, and I studied geography, geology, zoology and botany, so I am very interested in man’s impact on the landscape. Also, my father is a hydrogeologist, and his work took my family around the world for many years. As a result, I have always been a very outdoors person and feel at home in remote landscapes. I am very interested in our insatiable need for energy and the inherent problem that this presents, especially now that most people will admit climate change is a real and definite threat. I am very conscious of my own energy usage. I fly a lot and use energy getting around the world to take photos, but I try to justify it because I am hopefully showing issues to people who may not have heard about them before. However, I know this may not sit comfortably with some people. I think we really do face a massive challenge changing the ways we live our lives. Recycling our rubbish, turning the lights off and using the car less are all noble and important acts, but at the end of the day, we need a huge effort from everyone around the world to fundamentally change the way we live. I guess this fascinates me, and it drives me to produce more work. I do not have the answers, but I am trying to find them or at least highlight some of the important issues we need to address.
Who or what do you feel are the main influences on your work?
Over the past few years, I have been fortunate to work with some great photographers, such as Simon Norfolk, and Alastair Thain. All of whom have inspired me in different ways and helped me learn along the way.
I am inspired and excited by anything I feel breaks new ground or makes me think. I look at other photographer’s and artist’s work, read books, and listen to music, all of which I find essential to my own work. There are numerous photographers who have influenced me over the years, but at the moment, I am a big fan of the work of Daniel Schwartz, Michael Kenna and Olaf Otto Becker.
How do you feel your personal and commercial work will sit together now that you have joined LPA?
I think it’s important to keep the two separate as much as possible. Obviously, I will bring my style and my working practice to commercial jobs that I get but I do not want that to influence the direction of my personal work. I think many photographers lose their ‘voice’ when they enter the commercial world and they shoot their personal work in a style which they feel is what the industry is looking for. That can be dangerous, because then you may lose what was original about your photography in the first place. Obviously, it is important to keep an eye of trends within the industry, but at the same time, I think one must try and continue to produce personal work that you are passionate about while at the same time producing creative and high quality images for your clients.
Do you have any advice that you can offer emerging photographers?
I would still consider myself an emerging photographer, so I am not sure I should be offering advice to others out there just yet. However, I think the best thing to remember about photography is you need to keep shooting and to work as hard as possible to get your work noticed by the people that matter most.
