The Camera Is Just a Tool

We meet Pedro in central London. He has just come out of a meeting to try and secure funding for his next photography project and is in high spirits!

Pedro is a 24 year old professional photographer from Mexico. We sit and chat outside a café on sunny Charlotte Street. We talk about the various projects he is working on and it is clear that he is very passionate about his job. I ask him how he got into photography and he reminisces about his childhood in Mexico. His dad was a biologist and had lots of cameras lying around the house which he used to document his experiments. His sister studied photography but soon lost interest after she graduated. So at fourteen, Pedro set up his own dark room in the house and began taking and developing his own photos.

His first camera was an Olympus and then he bought a Nikon after a few years. When he made the switch to digital he chose Sony because at the time it was the best “all round” camera. When he got serious about photography he had to choose between Canon and Nikon – “the two best brands”. He chose Canon because it was cheaper. Pedro now has 6 lenses for his Canon and so probably won’t switch to Nikon, although regretfully he says “If I could make the same choice now I would choose Nikon”. When I ask him why, he explains “In terms of using the camera Nikon trashes Canon…. I prefer the way a Nikon feels… I hated my first Canon – it felt as though you were going to break it.”
We begin to talk about what he wants from a camera. He explains “At the end of the day it’s just a tool. You want to get to the point when you don’t have to think about your camera. It’s like a Mac, which allows you to focus on the creative aspect because everything is where it should be and does what you want it to. Sometimes people look at Nikon’s and are scared because they have more buttons and Canon’s have a much cleaner cut. But Nikon’s have buttons in the right places that work how you would expect.”

I ask him what he thinks makes a great photograph and he explains his “photography philosophy” which is that a great image consists of two elements:
1) Content
2) Craft
For him the more important of the two is the content and the ideas that go into a photo. He makes his point with the example of stock image libraries where the photos are technically brilliant but they are not great photos in his view because they don’t tell you anything. For Pedro it’s all about “Images that say something. A great picture must stay in your mind and do something – challenge you, suggest a story, capture a moment, say something…” He says that he often feels jealous of amateur photographers because although they may not have technical brilliance, they can have a great eye. He quotes a famous photographer, “The only way you can be a true artist through photography is by being an amateur.” To this point he describes photography as a “fool’s paradise” because the advent of digital cameras has meant that anyone can take great photos. He says that the barrier to entry (the cost of buying a camera and developing photos) has been lifted. He sees this as a good thing although it’s made his job harder because he thinks the transition from a “good” photo to an “amazing” photo is very difficult.
We ask if we can take a photo of him. He is embarrassed and only agrees to do it if he can wear his helmet and shades!

Insights:
• The camera is just a tool. It should not get in the way of a great photograph.
• Great photos should cause a reaction when you see them. The content of a photo is more important than the technical aspect, which means that anyone can take a great photo.