Hugley talented professional photographer 'Perou' kindly agreed to answer a few questions for SICKMANSICK.

To see his work; please visit perou.co.uk

SICKMANSICK: You've just been in Milan; how was it, and what were you up to out there?
Perou: I love italy: I love italian food so I’m always happy to shoot there.
I was shooting ‘andrei shevchenko’ the footballer, for a reebok campaign.
and eating well.

SMS: Do you find that there is a slight difference in approach to ideas for shoots between English, European and American clients/celebrities or are you given 100% creative input most of the time?

Perou: Kind of depends who I’m shooting for.
European clients want something different to american clients and I generally have no idea what japanese clients want (it seems to change). The amount of creative control I have varies from job to job: sometimes people employ me for my ideas as much as my ability to put those ideas into a photo.
sometimes people (advertising people) come with a drawing and say ‘can you do this?’.

SMS: I get the impression (through your website) that your vision of the photography
industry's future seems quite bleak. In your opinion, what is hurting it and
how is this affecting the professional photographers?

Perou: When photography first came out people said it would be the end of painting.
it wasn’t, but painting became an art form: the day to day making of images was taken over by photography.

When digital came out people said it would be the end of film but really silver halide photography lives on: more as an art form or craft: the day to day capturing of images is done digitally: passport photos, wedding photos, holiday photos etc... the amateur market which drives the industry in bulk form is digital now.

I’ve been saying for a long while that the ‘decisive moment’ in photography will end soon.
and certainly now, still photography will be replaced by moving capture: video.
the latest cover of esquire in the states which features meagen fox was shot on a ‘red’ HD video camera and a still was pulled from the 25fps (?) that were shot. The quality is ALMOST there now. Trying to capture something a freeze it in a split second will go art just like film and painting went before it.

This isn’t necessarily a bleak thing, just something to be aware of.

Things move so quickly it’s hard to remain relevant and contemporary.
everything in life seems so transitory these days: people want everything NOW and get bored of it immediately and want the NEXT thing.

There are too many people calling themselves photographers.
People think that just because they have a digital camera and the easy ability to take correctly exposed, in focus pictures that is all there is to it.
Then also there are too many colleges with assholes teaching people how to take pictures and become photographers when they know there aren’t jobs for those people to do when they graduate, this should be stopped immediately.
It’s wrong.

...and as magazines fold under the pressure of the internet and the way media is evolving, there are even less jobs.
the industry IS imploding. It is imperative for ‘us’ to understand how to make money in new media and through the internet.
if you can crack that, you’ll survive.

...or just shoot for pleasure and yourself and don’t worry about it.

SMS: How has the way clients approach photographers (and vice versa) changed since you first started, and
do you think that there will be another shift soon?

Perou: People phone me or email me or my agent.
it’s been this way for a while...don’t know how that would/could change?

I advertise myself online and on television now which I didn’t used to.
Guess that’s a different way for me to hit clients.
I still meet a lot of mine at parties though, best to meet a prospective client socially and ‘off duty’.

SMS: You use both film and digital equipment, do many of your peers still refuse to use digital,
if so, have they found that it has lost them a lot of business or are many of them big enough for this not
to be too much of a concern?



Perou: Most of my peers shoot digital and film. Nobody exclusively shoots one of the other: it would limit you.
right tool for the right job.

SMS: Did you always know that you had what it took to become professional, or did it take a while for you to
make the jump from semi-serious amatuer/hobbist to pro, I heard that you entertained the idea of being a missionary or a truck driver?

Perou: People often ask me what was my big break in this business.
There has never been one: it’s always been a long hard slog to the middle.
It was very gradual: after a while I came off the dole...then I came off housing support...then I had enough money to start thinking about paying TAX...then I was earning enough that I had to be VAT registered.

There have been moments of self realisation: like one Monday morning in a limo through downtown tokyo heading towards a studio to photograph a major japanese pop star, listening to ‘song 2’ by blur and feeling so excited, thinking ‘I’m not on holiday: this is what I do for a living: it’s Monday morning and I’m going to work’.
I had another of these moments driving down sunset blvd (in LA) at sunset recently.
what I do for a living can’t really be defined as a job: it’s a lifestyle...that I’m very happy to be living.

SMS: Who did you look up to when you were younger, both in the world of photography and just generally?

Perou: Photographers: our lodger jeremy who wanted to be a fleet street photo journalist but smoke too much weed: used to dev films in the shower-room. brian griffin. anton corjbin. Don mc cullin. Helmut newton.

SMS: I understand that your first commissioned work was to photograph someone's dying mother, that's sounds
like a very intense first project; what was the nature of the work like?

Perou: It was a friend’s mother who was dying of cancer: she wanted to leave her son a beautiful portrait which he could remember her by.
unfortunately I wasn’t a good photographer and I was using some very hard tungsten ‘studio’ lights.
I don’t have a copy of the photo but I’m certain it was a flattering picture.
I could do so much better now.

SMS: What area would you advise photographers who want to turn pro to start out in; Editorial, Freelance,
Apprenticeships or is it simply work, work, work in any of those areas?

Perou: Photograph everything all the time: live and breathe photography: if you want to succeed, it has to be your passion.If you can, assist a ‘big’ photographer: this acts like an accelerated learning curve.

SMS: You've met a lot of interesting people over the years, I understand that you're good friend's with
Marilyn Manson, is there anyone else that you keep in touch, and perhaps catch a beer, with after shooting
them (so to speak)?

Perou: Cider.
or champagne.
or sometimes girly cocktails.
I’ve become friends with a lot of the people I have photographed.
but I don’t keep a list of my celebrity chums.

SMS: You're obviously a very busy man but when you have a spare moment, other than photography
what do you find yourself doing?

Perou:
Grass cutting.
Drinking cider.
Raising sons
Eating Italian food.

Possibly in that order although sometimes I combine some of these.

SMS: You broke your neck from a very early age, how did this happen?

Perou: Some bastard 4yr old pushed me off a 6ft high wall I was skillfully running along.

SMS: You've definitely got a unique dress sense, did you manage to get some stuff off Vivienne Westwood
when you did a shoot for one of her clothing ranges?

Perou: I have a ‘normal’ sized wardrobe full of westwood clothes and shoes.
My wife got a few pieces and so did my first assistant, frances.

SMS: Have your son's shown an interest in what you do?

Perou: Yes.
Not surprising really: maximum used to do puzzles on the floor of the studio while I was photographing people like dita von teese.
temporarily, I don’t have a studio at home.
but I have a gallery.
and we alternate shows of my work and my sons.
both take GREAT pictures
but I don’t want them to be photographers...i want them to be divorce attorneys.

SMS: Although your on-line gallery is extremely intimidating in terms of who you've shot, who would be your dream client?

Perou: God.
or the Devil.
reckon they’d both have a few good stories to tell...

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SICKMANSICK would like to thank Perou for his time and thoughts.

Cormac.

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