5 Minutes with . . . Kerry Curl

Continuing my series of occasional chats with my LinkedIn connections I've been talking with freelance photographer Kerry Curl

Tell us a bit about what you do?

My work intersects portraiture, fashion and documentary. If I am to label myself then I am a photographic artist, I feel this allows me room to embrace an experimental and multi-disciplinary approach. Working with photography along with exploring moving image and installation, my influences often include movement and music; recurring themes include questioning the idea of nostalgia. I’m a massive fan of second-hand fashion and this been a factor in quite a lot of the work I’ve made.

When I’m not working on photographing other people and/or their ideas you’ll find me somewhere exploring my own. I am a big believer in having personal projects on the go and that making the work you want to make is so very important for developing your creativity.

My creative career has been far from linear, although I had been making work for many years, I actually graduated from my BA Photography course at 40, my whole final project and subsequently most of the printed portfolio I left university with in 2017 was image after image of shoots made with second-hand and vintage fashion. Throughout university, I was working with indie brands/creative projects and more and more people were starting to wear preloved. I personally wore quite a lot of second hand and vintage items as did a lot of people around me. Yet I felt fashion magazines weren’t reflecting these shopping choices at all. Fashion imagery that offers style inspiration isn’t just about clothes everyone can buy on mass. This may seem odd to read in 2021 but it has taken a long time for second-hand and vintage to enter the realms of the mainstream in a way that doesn’t have negative or cliched connotations.

So if I’m being completely honest, I’m actually an accidental fashion photographer. I fell into it by being uninspired by what I felt we were being told was ‘fashion’… because if a 1950s Dior dress could be adored by the media then why couldn’t that ￡10.99 70s faux fur from the charity shop?

I wasn’t trying to rebel any more than I was trying to fit in, I was just creating the imagery I wanted to and the garment choices happened to give my work a fashion dialogue which in turn posed questions about what ‘fashion’ even is. 

Flash forward to 2021 and things have moved fast even in ‘slow fashion’. It’s been interesting to watch it happen. Almost paradoxically, the consumer demand for sustainability imposes a commercial imperative on this most egalitarian of impulses. I’m definitely not anti buying ‘new’, I’m not a fashion activist. I think ‘thoughtful consumption’ is a really positive phrase and that’s something I’m working on myself. Having a creative output is part of that process for me.

These are interesting times to be contributing to fashion media and ultimately much of what I’ve said is a long way of saying that I find photographing fashion and people an interesting way to explore my own relationship with fashion as much as everyone else’s.

You're a photographer, when it comes to images, what do you think is key for fashion labels to know?

Research photographers work that either fits your vibe or is the vibe you are aspiring to. I think some photographers aren’t that different from fashion labels in that we want to become known for a style, a spirit – a vibe. Find the right match for you and talk to us about what you hope to create and how you want to use the final work.

Also, have a budget for creative. I can’t emphasise that enough. If you are making work get the visuals to show it, share it, tell your story and document your brand. Create an image library of your work and you will always have quality content for social media, web, press, promo material, physical prints for pop-ups, portfolios, exhibitions etc. There’s potentially a lot of value to be gained from investing in good visuals and all of this advice applies to new fashion graduates too.

 What’s it like to work fashion week behind the lens?

What drew me to fashion week initially was sheer curiosity of wanting to know what working at fashion week would be like. I can only speak for how it was pre-pandemic but it’s physically, mentally and emotionally exhausting… but mainly in a good way.

I moved from the pit photographing front of house to backstage quite quickly and that really changed my whole experience of fashion week and gave me what I needed to feel creatively satisfied. It really allowed me to explore what kind of photographer I am. For instance, when shows were quieter and only a few of us were back there it wasn’t just about having the freedom to roam and document what I saw, it was actually feeling like amongst all the rush and the nervous energy, I could be a quiet presence, and I feel that shows in a lot of the work I produced.

I think maybe I’ve been really lucky with the platform I was working for that I was given that creative freedom, so I could go backstage and documenting the shows in a way that I hope goes beyond a rail of clothes on models and captures an energy of the event, the personality of the models and tells a narrative of that show from a behind the scenes perspective. I use the word ‘documenting’ because that’s exactly how I see my role when I’m making work like this. I want to give an insight into the creativity, the atmosphere, the energy and the human elements. 

I genuinely feel that backstage at fashion week helped me understand how to work in an observational way, recording scenes as I came across them and being allowed to experiment with style. In what is quite a restricted environment I found myself feeling quite free to make work.

Being backstage or behind the scenes is a hugely privileged viewpoint. In these strange times where change is happening, but we still don’t really know what the future will look like I’m wondering if I’ve made the last of my images at Fashion Week and that body of work will not be added to further. If that is the case then I’m truly grateful and when sharing this work on socials I’ve often used #documentingfashion – so if fashion weeks as we knew them with all the hustle and bustle and dozens of people mixing in close proximity has changed for good, then yes, these images really will form a record of how things were before Covid-19.

The magic wand question I ask everyone, if I gave you the wand for a day, what change would you make?

This is such a difficult question because it feels like so much is changing right now yet we also don’t really know what that change looks or feels like going forward long term. If I only had a day…I’d use my magic powers to do something communal. I’d open up every empty retail unit in the country (or maybe the world, let’s go big) and every unit would be available as a free space for creatives to hold a pop-up, an exhibition, a space to be able to make work – like a big makers and creators event where people can connect with the makers in their city/town/village.

What is going to happen to all these empty units not just long term but short term too? They sit empty whilst people in suits wonder how to save the high street…

There may be many more profound ways to use that magic wand but being able to have space to share and make work is a valuable resource and so hopefully even just that one day of creative freedom could empower and inform lots of ideas.

Do you think that creatively digital fashion weeks have moved the business to a different place?

Interesting question…I have to say I have engaged much less with digital fashion weeks than I thought I would but that’s more pandemic life related than a lack of interest. It’s a direction the industry has been forced to take rather than choosing the timing so it’s quite an unpredictable litmus test because the test conditions feel unstable if that makes sense. 

My answer to your question is mainly more questions…

I think digital would have slowly crept in much more but can’t imagine it would be at the scale it’s had to go to because if the pandemic? The reach is obviously potentially huge and the ability to connect with audiences who wouldn’t be physically at a week is massive but how do you capture their interest to get them to be ‘there’? 

Is there more creativity for a designer/creative if they can disseminate the work in another way other than a room full of people sat extremely close together, possibly being able to see very little of the show anyway? Being a creative is expensive, going forward I think being resourceful, savvy and digitally innovative will actually produce some interesting work and experiences. ‘Innovative’ of course is different things to different people and it’s going to range from VR experiences, Instagram reels, Tik Tok Campaigns to designers streaming their own events which take place anywhere and everywhere from a garden in Birmingham to a carpark in Glasgow because why not?

There must surely be a wave of creatives ready to move fashion and fashion weeks to a different place with or without the status of being part of an ‘official week’? For an industry that has taken the word sustainable like it invented it, just how sustainable are huge physical fashion weeks anyway?

If all this sound like I’m talking myself out of a job, well, I would just as happily go and document the process of a fashion film being made, a designer at work, a pop-up, a small fashion show even presentation in a garden in Birmingham or runway in a Glasgow car park. I’m here for the creativity and if the business is moving to a new and different place then let’s see where it takes us. Ultimately, I think there will be some kind of mix between what we knew pre-pandemic AND a mix of digital offerings across numerous platforms.

What advice would you give to aspiring fashion photographers?

I’m never sure if having found myself in this role unintentionally makes me a bad or a good person to answer this question. I’m developing myself and learning all the time. I think the fact building a career takes time is something that doesn’t get talked about or acknowledged enough.

I feel that whatever you are photographing be it fashion, cars, horses, landscapes…if you’re not interested in it in some way then how will you make work you want to talk about? If you aren’t making work you want to talk about – even if it has to be a personal project whilst you do a day job – then how will you explore your ideas? It can be easier to push yourself towards what seems like a trend or it’s something you feel you should do but it can be harder to say ‘that’s not for me’ so if you think you have aspirations to photograph fashion then try it but if you don’t like it be true to you and in layman’s terms sack it off.

Finally, make work with the resources you do have, this includes your camera gear. Start connecting with people you can make work WITH not just for. There is a difference.

How big of a problem is being asked to work for exposure?

You should always feel that there’s a return for you to benefit from. The reality is it might not always be money in the bank but there has to be something you get back from it. This might be being able to build contacts, develop an idea, create something for your portfolio/CV, a step up, try a new direction, open new doors. People’s experiences, contacts and access to opportunities are not all the same. It’s not an equal playing field which is why the question of ‘exposure’ brings with it very mixed responses.

Some photographers will take a less nuanced approach in answer to a question like this. They are/can be very black and white about it and it is one thing to work on a project which you can work into your professional development plans but another to give yourself away to a commercial project for free. There are definitely brands/organisations who can pay but simply won’t/don't which is something to be very aware of as we each try to navigate our way to building a sustainable career in this industry.