Photographer Profile #23 - Deadlie

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Hello all!

I'm Sean, a Finglas man and part-time photographer. I shoot mostly live music and portraits and this year I was lucky enough to get some work with Hot Press and The Revolver Project. I've been on boards on and off for years, and have found this forum to be a great part in developing my skills, so it's great to be selected for a profile! Hopefully it'll be half as interesting as whats gone on before me.

Right, where to start? Well, up until 5 years ago, I was a nurse in a large Dublin Hospital. I was working in A&E when I first held a 'proper' camera. Three asian men were admitted after a small car crash and I was asked to document their injuries as the driver that had crashed into them was blindly drunk. Despite the unusual circumstances, I really enjoyed using the camera and after a while I became the guy who did this job all the time (all for medical-legal reasons, by the way - we didn't have a weird fetish). So come the Summer, single living at home and relatively loaded I went out and bought my first camera. It was rubbish, but I loved it.

I headed out to gigs with mates, brought the camera and snapped away continuously. I was doing this for weeks, and always on my days off. One gig I shot was Fujiya & Miyagi at the Fringe Festival. I uploaded the pictures to Flickr and later the next day I was contacted by Nialler9 asking if he could use the image on their review of the gig. I agreed on the condition that he got me some photo work. He was a man of his word and suddenly I was a Concert Photographer/Nurse. There wasn't many of them around, I can tell you.

It was around this time I had a major mental breakdown. I'd seen some things in A&E that really shocked me, and being the only male nurse on shift one night when a particularly gruesome event occurred, I had nobody to debrief me or talk to in the locker rooms like my colleagues. I couldn't sleep, and I realised I hated nursing for what it was doing to me. So I left. I still don't regret the decision at all. I went a little off the rails for a while, I guess, but I used photography to get out and clear my head. Which was a blessing. I would have spent hours playing Call of Duty alone in my bedroom, not doing anything otherwise. I don't mind talking about this, it's not something I'm happy that happened, but I guess it had to happen for me to be the person I am today. So photography to me, was quite therapeutic even if the photos I was producing at the time were a bit rubbish.

I really got into photography. I would bury myself away from everyone and read and read and visit photo sites all day. So, I decided to go back to college and I started in Visual Communications. The course really suited me and the first year allowed me to really get back on track. I took photos of everything and really started to enjoy myself again. By now, I'd used some of the money I'd saved up and bought a D700. It was my baby and the thing got used within an inch of it's life. That said, my subject choices were always a bit unoriginal.

So college went on and it went really well. My lecturer really inspired me and showed me the importance of finding interesting subjects. Even in bawdy tabloids (or pictures of cats), he believed there was still room for art. I always thought this was a cool belief.

Anyway, I finished second in my class and began chasing newspapers to get me work. I was essentially only interested in being a Live Music photographer, so I took any offers I had to shoot music live. As a result my Concert stuff came on leaps and bounds from then on.

I like clean images, really uncluttered where possible and I always found this a challenge with Love Music. But after some years, I've noticed my work is as minimalist as is possible in the field!

I was eating up gigs, week by week, month by month. Sending my stuff to Hot Press, the NME and Q, but with no reply. I read an interview with one of the NME photographers, who explained that portraits were his main staple, rather than live music, so off I went starting portraits.

I started off relatively simple, using what I thought was natural, but these images were awful. Tacky, unclean and terribly posed. So I went investigating online. I discovered Strobist and I became addicted to lighting. I spent hours and a good chunk of money on Strobes, modifiers and lighting books and after a while I put it into practice. It was alright, but after getting involved in the Strobist group on Facebook, I noticed an obvious improvement to my shots. It was the small things I was over looking in the bigger scene. The lighting was grand, but model posing, framing etc had nearly been sacrificed in being 'too busy' with the dials.

Other than the benefits to my images, these groups really helped me find some like-minded people and I've made some great friends in them. Declan (Condra) is a great man to be out with and his insight to photography is invaluable to me. He also makes a quality flask of Hot Chocolate. I always get a tad nervous at shoots, dunno why, but I do. I've found having someone sharp-eyed, fun and relaxed with me makes the whole thing run smoother. I'd highly recommend getting involved in one of these groups if you wanna go further. There's some really interesting things going on in some of them, trips away, competitions etc.

But anyway, The portraits really made a difference to me as a photographer. It allowed me to be useful in more than one realm. On top of that I was nominated for two NME Photography Awards, won the Hot Press photojournalist of the year 2012 and have worked a nice niche for myself as a go-to guy for specific music/model stuff. I'm still knocking on the door of the NME, but they'll answer. Eventually.

And that's me in a nutshell! Nothing particularly special, but hopefully you enjoyed it. Any questions, just ask. I'll be happy to help in any way if I can!

Edit: Oh, and you can find me over at www.deadl.ie