The Journey to a front cover!

I want this to be an honest account of my ‘unhealthy obsession' with photography and how it has lead me to picking up one of the best accolades you can get as a photographer (in my opinion) – shooting the cover of a magazine!

Back in 2015 I found myself in a pretty dark place, I had left Sony the year before to pursue the dream of being a professional photographer armed with nothing but a vision and a camera, the catalyst for this mission a conversation had back in 2011 with Sony’s lead camera trainer - regarding buying a camera to not miss any part of my unborn daughter growing up!!

From 2014 to 2015 I had filled the void with menial jobs and trying to land photography work here and there, I had some small wins but nothing that was going to pay the bills… and that was an increasing pressure! Looking back now I wasn’t good enough to get any well-paid work nor did I have a style or genre of photography that warranted it – I was a hobbyist with a dream and I was still cutting my teeth as they call it!

Then I had a stroke of luck and it came at a great time!! I had just sold my car, a car I had worked so hard for in previous years and was massively proud of! I sold it to pay my mortgage. It would buy me a few months to break through as a photographer (I didn’t have a clue what I needed to really break through!). But I keep exploring photography and educating myself to as much as I could!

At the time, I was doing a great deal of urbex in and around Suffolk as it was a style I liked and didn’t cost anything to explore. On one of my ‘lurks’ as they are called I took a picture of an empty club Unit 17 – owned by Deltic group (was previously a liquid and envy). The image I took I used HRD effect on Instagram and hashtagged the life out of it, it got a few likes and the club manager spotted it and invited me in to talk about taking pictures for the club!!!!

I got a portfolio printed and took it along to try and land a job as a ‘club photographer’ at that point I didn’t have the right kit to do the job but I went with it and landed it over the likes of ‘licklist’.

I had made it!!! a regular paid job as a photographer!!!! In a nightclub… an environment I had no idea about shooting in and no experience but I took on the challenge and learnt as much as I could to be able to do the job. I watched YouTube videos and I went and bought clubbing magazines like DJ Mag and looked at images online for inspiration… that’s when I came across a photographer called Ryan Dingham. His work is amazing and to this day I regard him as one of the best in the game, I am honoured that I can now call him a good friend and have worked on events alongside him!

The first time I shoot in the club I was covering the artist shift k3y who at the time had a house track in the charts so was a pretty big deal, I fell in love with the challenge of working in low light with moving subjects, it was so difficult and really put me to work. I came away with a burning desire to be a music photographer. I knew well enough that I wouldn’t get anywhere long term based out of a club in Ipswich so I learnt as much as I could from other photographers in the industry. I forged a portfolio of events I shoot (mostly for free) then used this portfolio to pitch to events in and around London at better known clubbing venues.

My first real big job was shooting a DJ called Artikal a resident of ABODE Records, I covered him at studio 338 a club that has since burnt down and be rebuild so has a great back story. I am so grateful Artikal gave me a way in to produce something…. Every time I came away with images from these opportunities, they were more pictures I could use in my growing portfolio, they were my sales tools to get to the next event. None of this was paid it was me building a portfolio to be respected enough to be paid. If you were a singer or a painter you could sing in the shower or whip up a picture in your spare time to practice…I only had these opportunities in clubs to produce work I could use to sell myself.  

I remember having conversations with people as to if I was being paid or not to do these events and I was so embarrassed to tell them it was all of my own steam cost to and from etc and all I was getting was images from it. It was so hard to justify my actions but I knew I need a broad portfolio to be considered in such a competitive market.

I went from Unit 17, to Abode, Elrow, Redlight, Boiler room, Social festival, Sundown the list goes on! Each event got me to the next and made my portfolio and technical ability stronger and built my network further. I soon realised if I wanted to be really known in a competitive market I needed to be publish, take my work to print as for me that is one of the best accolades a photographer can have ‘Published’! I sent work to magazines…I got nothing back… I had cool pictures but by time it was shot edited and passed on it was old news or not worthy enough to make print.

It was about exclusivity something no one else has - this is something I now look for in all my work, an angle no one else has or content no one else can produce. In a demanding marketing, exclusivity is crucial!

So, I looked for news not pictures and then I came across the guys that run YAYA Records in Norwich Lee, Dale, Stu and the rest of the gang.

If you have never attended a YAYA event at the famous Gonzo’s in Norwich you are missing out! GET INVOLVED! The timing seemed perfect Lee was throwing a party to raise funds for Sam Alger and family after a tragic death at Elrow in Barcelona!! I saw an opportunity to help the guys raise some funds for a great cause and knew its was a great story to get into the hands of a magazine, so I approached DJ Mag with the story and they let me take the interview and shoot the images.

The story went live and they guys smashed their target it was a great thing to be involved with and helped the relationship I have with the guys at YAYA’s……. I can honestly say from that point things picked up pace, as I was now creditable and I started to get more exciting work! Even got a job from DJ mag to cover the story about Fabric re-opening #saveourculture a huge landmark moment in dance music history and a huge project for me to be involved with. In the background, I was working and producing more content for my portfolio all the time.

The story went to print and I was now a published photographer!! PUBLISHED!!! This was huge and came about because I got myself in front of the right people and crossed my T’s and dotted my I’s, as you would image I had started to build a cycle of using my new content to push me to the next and build success through success and always keeping my socials active.

Throughout this Instagram played a huge part, always using the right hashtags and tagging the right people to get the reach on the posts which had started to get me a following. I used this following to build creditability and always made a point of directing potential customers to my Instagram account as it was the most up to date portfolio I had.

During all this I got approached by a recruiter who was looking for a salesman/photographer (me). I was put forward to an interview with Bowens International (a key player in the photographic world for almost 100 years!). I went to the interview not expecting to land it and I think that played a huge part in me being relaxed and myself, which won them over!

I started at Bowens not knowing the first thing about flash photography or portraiture, so I spent hours researching and networking with portrait photographers to understand the technicalities of it and ultimately mastering it or at least get on the way! I have always had this obsession with a subject and that subject has changed throughout life, photography has become my obsession and it gives me this drive to consume as much of it as possible! This has fast tracked my learning curve and I have taken to photography so well which helps.

I made good use of the connections I made at Bowens and learnt from some great photographer Steve Brown, Wayne Johns, Jake Hicks etc and even made time to sit through a Tom Barnes workshop at The Photography Show. I also had access to all the kit I could need so I used it to produce a portrait portfolio and started to shift my work from events to portraits of DJ’s. Initially offering shoots for free to build a portfolio (a technique I knew works), once the portfolio was strong enough charging for it.

I had started to transition from an event photographer to a portrait photographer which in the dance music scene is far and few between, I could also access pro grade kit others couldn’t so I used to push my craft to be as technical as possible to make the work stand out.

All this work was noticed by DJ Mag as I had worked with them previously and they could see my work was now starting to broaden to fit with what a cover would need – portrait! That’s when I got asked to shoot their cover for the Ibiza edition!

I was commissioned over 10 days in Ibiza to shoot the likes of David Guetta, Carl Cox, hang out in Calvin Harris’s villa, shoot an exclusive party in a huge villa over 2 days… the list of what I shoot is unreal! Including the Cover for Elrow!

Of course, throughout this there was a lot more detail and a huge amount of work put in, ultimately it was a case of building a portfolio and putting it in front of the right people … it sounds simple but the portfolio takes time and getting the time of day in front of these people is so hard… it’s down to credibility and reliability; can you do the work and can you do it to the client’s schedule.

I feel like I have achieved something far beyond my initial dreams and this is great as now my goals are bigger and crazier…… where things go from here I don’t know but it feels like it’s just really started to get exciting! This whole experience has proved that you can chase a dream and it can become a reality, when things were really rough for me I read positive mind set books like ‘The secret’ and they hugely helped me with visualising things and I am a firm believer that if you do this enough you will make it real!! I encourage anyone to follow their dreams provided they are prepared to graft hard!

A great place to see my story unfold is my Instagram @lukecurtis.co.uk this shows where I started and what I have become and at times I look back over it to remind myself and to inspire myself as when things become the norm you are in danger of relaxing and not working hard enough – ‘ I am far from done’

I live by 2 mottos’;

‘If it was easy, everybody would do it’

‘Every accomplishment starts with the decision to try’

Good Luck

LC