Interview with Gavin Libotte (Second prize 2024 BSPF Series)
Interview with Gavin Libotte (Second prize 2024 BSPF Series)
How did you get started in (street) photography?
As a teenager, I studied graphic design. We also had a class on photography then and since then I have been interested in photography. For school assignments, I would walk around the streets looking for interesting things or compositions to photograph.
A few years later, when all my photographic material was stolen from my apartment inSydney, I had lost interest in photography for a while. I then threw myself into music as a professional musician. Only when I was in my forties I started taking photos again. First with my iPhone, then with a Ricoh GR and a FujiX100. Back then I was teaching guitar to the son of a famous Australian street photographer, Marcus Anderson. When I saw Marcus' Instagram feed, I was completely blown away. I had forgotten how powerful street photography can be. The light immediately switched on for me and I somehow connected back to my past in photography and everything I had experienced in my life since then.
Would you say Marcus Anderson is one of your great inspirations?
At first yes, but of course in the meantime a lot of others have come along. Through Marcus, I got to know Trent Park. I also really like Alex Webb and Australian photographer Julia Coddington, in addition to people like Gustavo Minas or Chris Harisson and a bunch of others.
How would you describe your style of street photography?
I've only been doing street photography for four and a half years and I'm still somewhat searching for my own style. I am working on different projects, each of which requires its own style.
In general,I am attracted to simple designs and images with nice compositions. I also really like black and white photography with flash, as in the images I participated in BSPF with. At the same time, I am working on rather traditional color images in which I try to incorporate layers, like Alex Webb does. These are two opposite approaches perhaps, but I feel a strong attraction to each of those styles.
What does a typical day of street photography look like to you? I imagine those two approaches to photography also require a very different attitude?
Yes they do. I also find it difficult to switch between those two ways of photographing. Based on light and weather, for example, I oblige myself to do so. I usually leave for the city in the late morning and walk around. Often, I end up at the Sydney Opera House. As it gets darker, I change setup and start working with flash.
Do you just walk around or do you stay in a certain place to wait for something to happen?
I look for a place that looks good and where I think an interesting photo can be taken. Then I keep taking pictures in that area until I feel I've gotten everything out of that place and have a good picture. Only then do I move to another place.
Do you then pre-visualize an image?
If I arrive at an interesting place with beautiful light, I can indeed see more or less in advance which image I want to obtain. My flash work is different, for that I walk around all the time looking for interesting figures.
How do people react when you take pictures with flash?
I have actually never gotten into trouble with my flash photography. There are a number of techniques you can use when working with flash. For example, I always look past the person I'm photographing. Once you have walked by, you keep looking at something behind them. Very occasionally someone speaks to you, thenI say I'm working on a project and show them my Instagram feed and then it's actually almost always okay with them.
If I work without flash then strangely people react more often but in Australia most are pretty laid back and don't often have problems with you taking their picture. In India and Hong Kong it is a lot easier still. In India it happens more often that people start posing when they notice you want to take their picture. In Australia, you occasionally run into someone having a bad day or something. I try to assess in advance whether someone looks irritable or not. If I don't have a good feeling about them, I prefer to avoid them.
You mentioned that you work with the Ricoh GR and the Fuji X100, are those the cameras you use most often for street photography?
Lately I have been shooting mostly with the Fuji X100V with a 28mm adapter and a Godox flash that I use off camera. That way I can use side light which gives the photos some extra drama. Actually I like the little Ricoh better but I am so used to the Fuji by now that I’m always using this one now.
Some people find a 28mm lens difficult to work with....
The fact that I use a 28mm is actually mostly because of Julia Coddington. She uses the same Fuji setup that I do. A 28mm forces you to get very close to your subject, and by close I mean half-meter to a meter distance. That way you get a large figure in the foreground and there is still room for something interesting in the mid- and background. I also get a lot of inspiration from movies like, for example, “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” in which this kind of composition is also used. Getting very close is also an interesting challenge, by the way.
Can you tell us a bit more about the series you submitted to BSPF?
The images I showed at the festival were mostly made in India and Hong Kong. I was walking around all the time, reacting purely to what was happening around me. If I saw an interesting person I would rush over and take a picture with flash from very close up.
I have been practicing yoga for about 15 years and follow Eastern philosophy. One of the philosophies assumes that the world is an illusion. The idea is that everything you see and can touch or hold is temporary and will eventually disappear into nothingness. This also means that everything around us is constantly changing and therefore is not static. In addition to the temporary, physical world, there is also a permanent world, which is your soul, your inner consciousness, your being. The reference point against which the world is measured is you. You need that permanent reference point to identify changes in the external world.
I use my photography, especially this series, to represent that idea. The blurred and moved parts in the photographs represent the ever-changing world, the sharp and unmoving part in the image is the soul, the fixed.
Did you start the project with this idea in mind or did it gradually creep in?
I had some ideas about this, but at first it was still mostly an intuitive feeling. The more I started making images like this, the more I saw the connection between the images and my view of the world.
How did you get to know BSPF?
I learned about the festival online by looking around the festival circuit. I was looking for interesting, preferably European, festivals. The level of those festivals is high and so is the prestige of participating in them. It's especially nice that this way more people get to see your work.
How did you react when you learned that you had won second place?
I was very happy, also because I had no idea until a friend, who was present at the festival, sent me a video! That was a wonderful and exciting moment to win something like that in a high-class competition like the one in Brussels!
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Do you think this award will have an impact on how you shoot and on your career as a photographer?
It will definitely have an impact on me. It motivates me to continue on the path I have taken. Street photography is usually something you do on your own, and often you don't get very far in street photography competitions because the competition is so strong.
What advice would you give to people who are just starting street photography or would like to start?
What I've realized more and more lately is that you don't have to go somewhere to take good pictures. Look all around you in the place where you are and look for the magic there. I am convinced that you can take great pictures in your own backyard. How you look at the world is much more important than where you are.You may have to work a little harder, but most of all you have to be open to the opportunities that are presented to you and work with what you have.
I also think it's important that as a street photographer you go out and take pictures above all. Try different things, dare to experiment and discover what you like that way.
Is that openness to see things that you might not even notice otherwise, the most important trait you must possess as a street photographer do you think?
Yes, I think so. Constantly looking at the world with fresh eyes. That is also what makes street photography so addictive. While you're doing it you live in the moment. It is a kind of meditation where you are totally focused on a task; while you are doing that you are not concerned with the past or the future, just the now.