The Shot: Series Premiere
This Sunday at 10 p.m. EST, VH1’s latest elimination show debuts: Called The Shot, the series pits 10 fashion photographers (pictured above) against each other in a competition to win $100,000 and the chance to shoot a campaign for Victoria’s Secret. The host and lead judge is Russell James, a world-renowned photographer who has captured images for Vogue, W, Elle, GQ and a host of others. We caught up with him to discuss what makes a good photograph and to get the inside track on what to expect. Interview after the jump.
VH1: You’re frequently on location in exotic locales. Where are you now?
Russell James: I’m on a pretty remote island right now, in Venezuela. I’m shooting for Victoria’s Secret — their fall season.
VH1: Is location an integral part of a photograph? What makes a great fashion photo?
RJ: The first answer is that I’m not quite sure. [Laughs] When you look at picture you like, you know you like it. So the first and most important thing is instinct. But what really goes into a good picture is a lot of discipline. The lighting is not so much accidental, either. Discovering where the lighting looks good — whether it’s on the edge of a frame, or if you’re using artificial lights — is very important as well. Composing an image . . . personally, I like things very balanced. I like things in the middle of the page with equal space on either side. I think there’s an enormous amount of learning available on creating a memorable image by looking at people like Irving Penn, who could take a picture of a cigarette butt and make it look absolutely compelling — it’s just the way he balances it in the frame. And then, of course, in the world of fashion and celebrity, connecting with the talent. You need to feel some intimacy in the image. That doesn’t mean having them take their clothes off and get naked. Intimacy meaning that they’re engaged with you. Directing your talent to a comfortable place, that’s the last critical thing.
VH1: When you’re shooting fashion, you have to take styling into consideration, too.
RJ: It’s often incorrectly labeled as a “fashion photograph.” It’s more just a good photo. I was terrified when I first got into the industry because I didn’t know anything about fashion. Then I realized, after speaking to some credible people, that your job as a photographer is not necessarily to understand the fashion and why it’s current, but to accept that and look for the angles, lines and shape. It’s about composing images.
VH1: The contestants are all amateurs, but even so, the series seems serious. It’s like a Project Runway for photographers. What can we expect to see?
RJ: The arc of the show swings toward building credibility. The shoots become more and more professional as the show goes on. I have a long history with [The Shot producer] Ken Mok, going back seven or eight years. For me to be involved, I wanted it to be very credible. Ken allowed me to be involved with the grid, figuring out the shoots. If there’s a season two, I’m very grateful that they’ve given me an executive producer role so that I have a lot more autonomy in the photo-shooting side of it.
VH1: What about the contestants?
RJ: You can expect to see them learn a lot about photography. At first, I had great reservations about whether anyone of them could make it to the level where they could be commercially successful. I handpicked all of them, and thought from their images that they could be successful, but once you immerse people in all the resources, some of them failed. Some really excelled. I gave them difficult subjects, extreme locations, saw if they were intimidated by celebrities. I gave them as many real photo assignments as possible. Over the course of the series, there’s fewer gags and more real shooting. It gets harder and harder.
VH1: How did you become a professional?
RJ: I didn’t start shooting until 1990. That was for myself. It wasn’t until 1996 that I generated what I consider to be an income from photography. I had a lot of fashion editorial and advertising work in the U.S. in the mid-90’s, and I started with Victoria’s Secret in 1998.
VH1: What inspired you to pick up a camera?
RJ: I wish I could say I woke up as a kid and was inspired, but where I grew up, in Western Australia, there was absolutely nothing referencing any real photography. There was no magazine market. It’s an extremely remote area. I came to it in the late ’80s while I was traveling around Europe. I was resting up in Stockholm and got exposed to a lot of images. I just decided I wanted to start shooting, and I was fortunate enough to knock on the doors of various photographers. They’d let me spend anything from a couple of days to a couple of months with them. Any money I had, I spent on photography until the debt was so big I realized I needed to get a job and get paid or I was going to go under. [Laughs]
VH1: Who did you work with?
RJ: I had great opportunities to work with Carlo Bosco. I got to introduce myself to Richard Avedon and spent two days at his place, which was like two years of school. But I jumped into shooting pretty quickly. I decided that the only way to really learn was to start.
VH1: What did you do for a living before that?
RJ: I have a very blended career. I started out in a factory making rubbish cans — trashcans. That was in Australia. I’ve been a metalworker, a dog trainer, a variety of things until I arrived in Europe. Then I invested in a failing modeling agency in Sweden. I built it back up until it was profitable. It’s hard for me to imagine that I trained dogs in this lifetime, but that’s what I did.
VH1: Training dogs must have prepared you for directing difficult subjects.
RJ: [Laughs] I was involved in the political wing of it — you know, protection and that — but yes, there was a lot of learning involved.
VH1: With photography, it seems like most of the education is on the job.
RJ: Education is the best approach to anything. As a person who didn’t have an education, it was definitely a harder course to go. But thankfully, it’s also a field where if you don’t have the education, it doesn’t mean it’s hopeless.
