We had the pleasure of discovering the world of photography with Damian Weilers. Through the ‘’behind the scenes” of his work, we explored the challenges and changes in the industry, and the important moments spent behind the camera.
Damian, how did you start photography and what motivated you to pursue it as a career?
My father was a hotelier, so we moved every two years to a different place. I lived in Seychelles for three years and I was the age of nine – ten – eleven. There used to be a few photo teams and a photographer that used to go there, and because I lived at the hotel, he let me hang with him and his assistants. He used to take pictures of these models in the pool through leaves, […] so when I got my first camera I used to go in the bushes and take pictures of my family through the leaves. That was the first time I started really enjoying photography. […] From the age of sixteen, seventeen, I started assisting photographers and then I studied photography for four years at collage, assisting most of the time during it to be in the industry.
What do you believe is the most valuable characteristic of the art of photography? Do you think it will change in the future?
I think in the photography I do, the most valuable thing is the relationship that you have with the subject, and secondly, the relationship with the viewer. The picture is to entertain the viewer, so if they stop on that picture and take and look for more than 5 seconds, I’ve done my job. So, the world of the future is one where we’re also very aware and nervous about AI. We, as photographers in fashion and models, work a lot with emotion and trends. There are some elements in the commercial world that AI will take over, and some elements you’ll still need to have. It’s a bit like a singer—we fall in love with their story and the emotion we create. AI is artificial intelligence, but we are more emotionally intelligent, so that’s sometimes much more interesting. It’s just constantly evolving, and you either go with it or find new avenues of it. The value is to keep things entertaining and to keep the human and emotional element.
How would you describe your photography style, and what experiences or influences helped you develop your artistic approach?
My influences are… it’s a good question because I question it myself a lot. The one thing is, I use photography as an expression, and it’s very helpful for me, but it is also a career for income. And those two worlds sometimes collide, and you forget which one you’re doing.
My biggest influence, I’d say, is…I’ve had a few things happen in my life that have caused a lot of grief. I struggle sometimes to articulate that in places, but photography really helps me express that. […] I see it in other artists too. If I were to talk about other photographers I’m influenced by, I really like people like Peter Lindbergh, because they’re also very big characters, but they know how to manage stuff and create these things. There are a lot of great artists out there, but I think I’m really influenced by self-emotional feelings.
Where do you find your inspiration for the shots/editorials? Do you often feel confident that your ideas for shoots are the right fit, or do you rely more on trusting your vision?
When someone say, “How did you think of something?” It’s not that I’ve gone, “Let me think of something to do today.” There is one shoot I did recently, it’s the best way for me to explain it. For a long time, I kept everything to myself, really stuck inside, I did a lot of work on myself and slowly started trying to grow out of that and express myself. I came up with this idea of making a shoot of a girl inside a red box, but inside it’s warm, and it’s padded and really soft inside, it’s a little cocoon, so she feels really safe in there. But now I wanted her to grow out of that space, like myself. […] If you want to be safe and hidden in there, you’re going to miss the rest of the world.
So, there is just something that is coming as I grow, as my son gets older, I can see the change that I didn’t have and he has. These things all influence me and give me inspiration to go. […] So that’s kind of where my processes come from, because if you have a narrative that means something to you, it’s very easy to do it. If you’re trying to make someone’s crazy idea, immediately you can see it’s difficult to understand. So, it’s always good to have it personal.
What does your creative process look like when planning a shooting, from concept to execution?
The concept is something for example, like that shoot. I start by drawing the type of feel of it. I’ll take pictures of the location and begin working with a set builder and start creating it, and he’ll start feeling my needs. For me, what becomes exciting is finding the right cast, so the girl really feels what I’m talking about. Like the day I shot that shoot that I’ve been telling you about, it was freezing and it was awful, and I said, “You’re hiding, and you’ve got to come out and live in this world.” She was so excited by this, and I said, “Look, it’s going to be crazy. The wind is mad, everything’s mad, but this is your growth, your moment to come out of your shell.” That process really helped me have drive and lets me get the other artists I involve to be excited too. […] We’re all in the same direction. It’s not just about the clothes anymore.
Do you have any favorite images that you feel most connected to in your portfolio, what is the story behind them?
There are a couple I’ve done. As I mentioned earlier, sometimes my work is personal and sometimes my work is career. And a lot of the times I use fashion to express, and then sometimes I use portraiture to express.
I used to direct music videos. One time, the Rudimental band asked me to do a script for a music video. Unfortunately, I didn’t win the treatment, but I was in the process. […] and they wanted to show about being different as a person. And so, I thought of a black family with an albino child, someone who looks different but is deeply loved by their family. So, there’s the child that’s loved by its family, but looks very different. […] He’s seen very differently by his community, but still loved by his family. […] I had to learn about albinism […] and I learned that Tanzania has the highest population of albinos in the world. Unfortunately, they are hunted for their body parts for witchcraft. […] I decided to find out more about this and went to Tanzania a couple of times. I went and photographed it, and those images are still some of my most favorite. They are magic images that I keep wanting to try to remake or find again because of what they meant.
I have other little projects I’ve been trying to work on. They all come from places that have happened in my head. […] I suffered from depression at one point and didn’t know quite how to work out what was real and not real. I got asked to do a music video for a young artist, and the song sounded like someone going mad. I decided to find the harshest mental asylum I could find in the world and went to one in Indonesia. I went there to shoot it, and it was so difficult, but so important and so lovely to do. I went from that situation back to London. People were still very high fashion, and it felt so bizarre because my experience was so rich, and this felt so not real.
So, I felt really grounded again. Those things feel magical to me, what I can think about, where I can go with my format of expression, which is photography. I really enjoy finding things that are so culturally and foreign to people and for me too. But at the same time, I like to get close to them because it feels like truly being involved in the world. We often live in our little bubble, focusing only on it.
Which approach to lighting appeals to you more, natural or studio lighting? What do you enjoy most about studio photography or outdoor photography?
I always prefer natural light. There is a real beauty with natural light, whether it’s full sunlight or a misty day, some of that magic you can never recreate, it will change every hour and every day. That is already quite entertaining for me because it’s always changing. Commercially, it’s a nightmare because you have to make everything look the same, but if you have the freedom of taking pictures at different times of light, it’s the best. So, you know, those things are much more interesting to me because they give you the romantic feeling, which is so overwhelming than you trying to recreate it. So, natural light is always my first choice.
But what do you do when the natural light doesn’t help you with the idea or the concept of the shooting?
I do that all the time. Most of my time commercially is creating the perfect day. Always. And it’s raining outside, and we’re shooting inside, and they want sunlight coming in, so I create it.
That’s why it’s been very important as a photographer to assist and do the hard work of understanding lighting so that when it comes to a situation where you’re shooting in an environment, you have to make it happen, even though it’s not the right weather. […] Over time, as a photographer, you become better and better at that. But natural light is always the best, for sure, for me.
How do you think that approach to photography changed over time? What do you believe is the impact of society’s development on photography?
I was very lucky to start photography when it was only film, right? That was a good experience to know the beginnings of how photography started. Today’s age, we have phones that are incredible, and they can take very good pictures. When I work with kids a lot, and commercially I shoot a lot of kids’ fashion as well, the changes from when I was an assistant to how kids are now, they are so used to being photographed. They’re very aware of how it is. They’re almost professional without having to be professional, you know?
The only real difference is that we now have a higher demand for imagery that people want. Everyone’s more aware of it because we have Instagram and stuff, so we’re looking constantly at so much imagery all the time. It’s overwhelming at times. It’s also showing me that the pattern of something being unique is no longer unique, because so many people are doing the same thing.
Imagery is always going to be important, everything needs a photograph, everything, right? But now, we’re also working out that everything needs a video. On Instagram, you look at the videos more than the still pictures. Making a good video is so important rather than content, and it’s about entertainment to keep people’s attention. It’s a constant moving thing.
This will change again, disappear, and something else will come. It’s a constant thing of being aware of how things are moving. It’s constantly moving, so you can never get too comfortable. That’s the thing I can only say about the future, it’s going to constantly change.
What types of emotions or experiences do you aim to communicate through images? What do you hope people feel or take away when they view your photos?
I know when I work commercially, I’m always trying to make someone happy and upbeat, which I can do very well. But when I’m doing stuff personally, I want to see the real person. I don’t need the laughter. If they naturally laugh, that’s great, but I like to see them just as they are, raw. Emotion is important in all the avenues. Commercially, it’s constantly trying to make people happy because we’re selling stuff. We have to create the emotion, but it doesn’t always feel nice because it’s not real. […] Kids, shouldn’t be working, they’re children, but I have to photograph them to sell stuff at times. So, if I photograph them, but they enjoy being there, my job is easy. […] The emotions will be so natural, and you’ve won. That’s it, because they’re not working.
And in the photos that you take for your soul, what do you hope that people take when they look at them?
Sometimes I just want someone to recognize the space that’s being photographed. And if I can be true to the feeling I found […] and if it’s real, someone will feel it. It’s not about taking the picture for them, it’s taking the picture for me. And if you like it, there it is.
Do you have a dream project or a location where you would love to photograph?
I don’t think it will ever be just one thing. For example, if you’ve always wanted to go to New York, you go to New York, and then you come back and you go: I want to have that feeling again. I always wanted to go to Japan. It never stays with one place. […] It’s like there’s always a feeling that it’s never enough in a way. But with my family and my son, he’s changing, and it’s nice to see him. It’s nice to photograph him. It’s nice to document him. It keeps things always exciting, and no matter where it is, it’s just a place I like to be with him. […] It makes you present. It keeps you right now: “Look at this. This is a moment. I love this moment now.” And I think that’s what I like about, I think it’s taking pictures for the moments I never want to lose.
What are your long-term goals as a photographer or where do you see your work evolving?
I think everything I thought I wanted to do is kind of happening in a way, but there is another section of photography / filming I’d like to do. I really want to make short video portraits. Where you see a wonderful little situation, or maybe it’s not wonderful, it doesn’t have to be wonderful, it could be scary, overwhelming, distracting, it can be so many different things.
And I want to become more involved with storytelling in videos. Trying to create a story of little stories that I’ll shoot, but in between the sections of the little stories I’ve made, it’s huge pieces of really old films. […] It’s like, mixing music together to make different songs. […] So if you use that one little piece and then something that’s your own and, your expression through all of that as well, it’s so interesting to me. That would be something I’ve always wanted to try to do but never quite got to that point, but that would be something I’d love to expand on at some point.
Interviewed by Erin Beatrice Gregor
Photos by Damian Weilers