Konnichiwa! We’d like to introduce you to Tokyo based photographer and photography instructor, Alfie Goodrich. Let’s hear what Alfie has to say about his big move from South Wales to Tokyo and what he has been up to lately. >>>Read past interviews
ephotos: When did you move to Tokyo and how was the transition?
AG: I moved to Tokyo from South Wales, in the UK, in October last year. The transition has been pretty good. Not easy but everything is going well so far. My wife is Japanese and I had been to Japan quite a few times since meeting her, so I had a good feel for the place already. Our two young children have settled into life in Japanese schools pretty well, they are both speaking, reading and writing Japanese well already – more than I can say for the slower pace I am picking it all up – and I have work coming in and new offers each week. The big thing about Tokyo for me is the place itself and the effect that has had on my work. I never tire of being out shooting and after just ten months I feel I am getting to know the place enough now to really begin, from here on in, to get under its skin. I also feel the yearning to start shooting movies here. The place is like a movie anyway and my work since being here has certainly developed a very cinematic feel.
ephotos: When did you realize photography was your thing?
AG: I was three years old. My father was quite the amateur photographer [his father had been too, as well as being a commercial master-printer] and I got the bug from dad. I distinctly remember the first night I ever saw my dad's transparencies projected onto a screen in our living room. For me at that age the screen was huge and the images were almost alive with light. I can even remember the smell of the dust burning on the hot projector bulb. It was intoxicating. At seven he gave me his old Olympus Pen half-frame 35mm camera and that was it, I was hooked. Aged thirteen I want on holiday by myself for the first time, staying with family friends in Germany. I took the half-frame with me and when I got back dad gave me his Olympus OM1n, as he had just bought the OM2n for himself.
ephotos: Was there a photographer that inspired or influenced you?
AG: I guess the first photographer who influenced me was my father and seeing the pictures his father had shot, especially his shots from WW1. War photographers were an early fascination of mine and the work of Don McCullin, Tim Page, Larry Burrowes, and Robert Capa were a major source of inspiration. Once I got to art college my influences changed and I became very interested in the work of people like Paul Strand, Ansel Adams and Edward Weston of course; Joel Meyerowitz and the night photography of Jan Staller.
ephotos: What type or what style of photography do you shoot?
AG: For me it is all about soaking up the world around me; everyday life. I have been told I have a 'unique' style, which is very flattering but I am not sure myself. I certainly feel that it is very cinematic and lots of people tell me that too. Life is like that though, if you look at it with the right eyes you can see it clearly. Jim Morrison of The Doors once said; “Have you had a good life, enough to base a movie on?” and that's kind of how I see life going on around me, like a movie that I shoot and capture one frame at a time. Most of what I shoot these days is, I suppose, social documentary or “news features” but I still love shooting nature and music photography. Music was my life for twelve years in PR and management of music labels and I shot a lot of gigs and recording sessions. I still do that when I get the chance.
ephotos: What type of equipment do you use?
AG: My daily workhorse is a Nikon D300 DSLR. It is my first digital SLR, having shot film for years even up until very recently. I have had a lot of cameras over the years – everything from 35mm to 5x4 inch plate. Digital is quick and convenient for what I do now, but I still occasionally shoot film. If the job demands it, the client requests it or if I feel like it. In Japan with me now, alongside the D300, I have an old 1955 Rolleicord 6x6cm camera, a Nikon FM and a Nikon F3. My favorite lens for the D300 at the moment is the 85mm f/1.4 AF D. The shallow DOF and amazing bokeh are seductive. It's hardly off of the camera at the moment. I like shooting with prime lenses; 50mm f/1.2, 50mm f/1.8, 85mm f/2, 105mm f/2.8 Macro and a 300mm f/4. I have two zooms – the new Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 which is amazingly distortion free at 11mm, which is astonishing really, and a Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8 ED IF. The bokeh on that at 2.8 is amazing too and with a 2x converter I have, that and the 300mm really have some reach if I need it.
ephotos: How did you get involved in teaching photography?
AG: I did a few lectures back home in the UK but a few friends here in Tokyo said that they wanted to learn more about shooting and apart from one or two teachers I found via the web, there seemed to be a distinct lack of English-speaking tutors in town. For some students I combine teaching photography with a bit of English conversation – if they need or want it – but I would say most of my students here now are foreigners.
ephotos: Is the there anything in particular that you stress to your students?
AG: Gear doesn’t really matter. It's your eye that does the shooting. Not that nice gear doesn’t help, but it isn’t everything and even though in the film days I knew lots of people who loved 'gear', these days people seem to get seduced by gear even more easily and high-end gear is pitched at consumers rather than just at pros, so quite a few of my students are pretty well kitted out. The first thing we work on is getting them away from P [program] mode and on to Manual as quickly as possible. That way I can actually start to teach them to understand what the combinations of aperture, speed and ISO can do for them to enable them to get a decent picture in any conditions and establish an understanding of light and how to work with it. After that we work on using DOF and speed creatively and then do little projects to try it all out.
ephotos: What’s the worst thing that has happened to you during a shoot?
AG: Not putting film in the camera! Luckily I realized soon enough and managed to make a joke of it: “Right, that was the practice, now let's do it for real shall we?” Getting to music venues without a flash and finding the lights were so bad it was like shooting in a coal-cellar. That was rescued by my having a roll of 3200ASA film on me, which I pushed to 12500ASA and managed to get away with using the grain 'artistically'. The biggest part of any training I had in photography was learning a bit of adaptability; the skills to get myself out of any given situation and still get the shot.
ephotos: Is your site flash or HTML?
AG: My main website is a bit of both. I steered away from using Flash for a long, long time as it never really addressed - and still doesn’t – wider issues of accessibility and usability. But, as everyone keeps telling me 'if your work can be seen online, it can be stolen', I started to use Flash purely as one way of reducing the risk of getting my work ripped off left, right and centre. I have some HTML pages but the photos are embedded in a flipping-page flash book which I styled myself into a kind of online magazine. I also have a daily photoblog, which is based on the PixelPost engine.
ephotos: Do you have a rep or agent?
AG: Not really. I have had people represent me in the past but when I came to Tokyo I started from scratch again. I have just recently been taken under contract to the Nippon News agency in Tokyo and they are representing me in one sense at the moment. I shoot mostly news features and photo essays for them, combining my photos with either a few words or by my writing a full-blown article to go with them.
ephotos: Where have you been recently?
AG: I shoot mostly around Tokyo but last December I did some shooting up in Hokkaido, around the areas being used this July for the G8 Summit. It was a press trip organized by the G8 Summit Preparation Committee. Recently I was south of Tokyo, in an area called Izu, in Shizuoka, shooting some research shots for a forthcoming documentary on some of the seaside resorts there. I am in London and Wales for a month soon, shooting some work there.
ephotos: Do you ever just shoot for fun?
AG: Yes and my idea of fun is spending three hours staring down a macro lens at cherry blossom or photographing poppies and dandelions in the gutters and on the roadsides around Tokyo. That is self-indulgent shooting, for me. I also go out with my son and we have some fun; him with my old digital cameras.
ephotos: Do you deal with any stock agencies?
AG: I am just starting to get into that now, with Alamy. I did have some work on iStock but I found that many of shots were not much in demand on there, and the rates of commission are abysmally low to be honest. I am also setting up my own library through Digital Railroad.
ephotos: Do you feel like you’re being treated fairly by your agency?
AG: Absolutely. My cut is very healthy and they like my work enough to let me shoot what I want, as long as I can package it up into compelling visual stories. As I live in one of the most visually compelling cities on the planet, that usually isn’t a problem!
ephotos: What do you think will be the next big trend in the photo industry?
AG: Hmm, I am surprisingly crap at trend spotting. However, given the inability for photographers to use the web to promote their work safely – unless they watermark everything to the point of obliterating the photo itself – I think a very welcome trend would be in the realm of either technology to assist photographers in protecting their work or with the advent of a better system of copyright and IP law than the web is able to work with now. Technology is not really the answer as people will find new ways around it, and everything being part of some 'free culture' is not really the answer either, as I still need to feed my family and myself. It is a hard one to figure out but it does need doing.
ephotos: Do you use a resource site or publication?
AG: I used to use Flickr a lot as I found there were a lot of useful people chatting in the groups there and I used to give out some advice to people too. I have just quit Flickr amid concerns on how their API is being used by some companies to get pics for free. I use Photonet a bit, Nikonians, but I generally just pick up on feeds, which I pull in using an RSS reader. Strobist is also an excellent site.
ephotos: What are you working on next?
AG: A documentary on Tokyo's last remaining tram/streetcar line. There used to be over 40, but the subway has done for all of them except one and that is now under threat too. I have a few things on the go apart from that, based around Tokyo, and some doco shots I want to pick up whilst I am back in the UK. I have an exhibition in Tokyo in October and am hoping to get one with Nikon here next year, in the Ginza Nikon Salon. That will be based around their 85mm lens and called “F-OneFour”.
ephotos: What do you think about what we’re doing at ephotos?
AG: I think it looks great so far. Focusing on photographers is a nicer way of doing things I think. Too many people with websites seem to be too interested in just creating a big bin and filling it up with user's photos. You're doing that too but it is all wrapped up in more interesting material. There are lots of great shooters out there and reading about what they do, how they do it and why they see things the way they see them; that's more interesting for me than simply cruising around lots of shots with people posting comments like, 'Hey, great capture' all the time.
ephotos: Is there anything else you’d like to say about yourself or your work?
AG: Only that if I went blind tomorrow, I would have a very hard time finding something as satisfying as shooting pictures. I am sure I would, but it would be hard. God forbid that ever happens but I do think about it. I live my life as if I am looking through a viewfinder 24/7. That can be hard sometimes in a city like Tokyo, where around every corner is something visually arresting. But, I wouldn’t trade it in for anything.
ephotos: We really appreciate you taking time out of your schedule to talk to us. We know that visitors to our site will enjoy reading about you. Sayonara, and remember to keep the focus!
To contact Alfie:
4-17-4-801, Minami-Oi,Shinagawa-ku
Tokyo 140-0013
Mobile: 070 6947 7149
Main website: http://www.alfiegoodrich.com
Daily photoblog: http://blog.alfiegoodrich.com