The second of November sees an upcoming exhibition that marks the first showcase of Graham Smith’s work on home shores for quite some time…and with a little grace, and a my usual verbosity I’ve had the opportunity to sit down and have a type at the keyboard with the fine sir behind some of Northern Ireland’s most iconic music photographs to date.
– A return to home shores then, it has been a while…
I have done a few small things but yes, it is my first full exhibition here since one I held in the Waterfront Hall in 2007. Although I have done many exhibitions outside this country in the intervening period, I have only done small things in Northern Ireland.
I had been asked several times about doing a solo exhibition here over the past three years and I did start planning two, but ultimately I felt like giving it a bit of space and time. Things were very different in 2007, it was around this time that my frustration with being a full-time photographer was reaching boiling point. As far as photography is concerned, this was not a happy period for me. I was also not in any way satisfied with the exhibition. Despite being given a fantastic space and the support from the organisers to do whatever I wanted, ultimately I chose to mainly display photographs of the big acts, at times ignoring if I liked the photo or not.
Now in late 2010 my photography and indeed life in general feels very different. A lot more settled and focused. 2007 seems a different lifetime. Now seems like the right time for a new solo exhibition in Northern Ireland.
– Indeed your entire working ethic is now very much an ‘on the road’ affair, working very closely on tour with And So I Watch You From Afar being the most prominent example?
I work with different acts in different capacities, but indeed much of the past eighteen months or so has been spent with ASIWYFA, who have been great to work with. This entire period has been constantly documented with my camera. Although a few shots will appear in this exhibition, I am holding back the vast majority of them from any sort of public view until sometime next year when I plan to do a book and exhibition based on my time with them. In fact I have not looked at the bulk of the photographs myself, sometimes I think it is good to leave a bit of space between shooting the images and viewing. It will definitely be laborious but fun to work through all the images I have shot of them!
As I now work as a tour manager and therefore spend a lot of time on the road, it is natural that a lot of my photographs now take on that style, but I have not intentionally set out to photograph “on the road” shots.
– …and your attitude has moved more towards a documentation of your life, rather than directly of a specific subject matter. Do you feel this is a realisation of what photography is, or that for you personally it is this way?
I am not sure if there was any massive realisation. I would say that the way I do things now was born out of frustration. Although there was a final straw “RIGHT, NO MORE OF THIS SHIT!” moment in reality when I think about it now, the process for me to go from the way I used to work to my current thinking about photography was quite a gradual process, over the course of four or five years.
I now realise that “photography” can be such a general term which can take many different aspects. It is the documentation side of it which interests me rather than the conceptual or anything else. There is nothing wrong with other types of photography, it just holds no interest or appeal to me. I prefer to see the truth captured, or at least the photographer’s version of the truth.
– Aiming less at having an agenda, trying not to label yourself in any particular manner, and focusing more on observational content – has it affected your viewpoint on how modern photographers, and photography in general is structured?
Not massively, no. It is sometimes hard to explain, but basically the way I currently think about photography has always been there since the day I first picked up a camera. The problem was these thoughts were often muddled up and buried deep under a lot of other factors, such as trying to please other people, trying to get more jobs etc…
My main thinking has never really changed, it is just I spent a bit of time stripping away all the bullshit. After doing this everything became a lot more simple, clear and concise. And enjoyable.
Recently my interest in other photographers’ work has grown like never before and I intend to work together on more group exhibitions and projects with people who share a similar viewpoint. As for how modern photography is structured, this is an area I try not to delve too deeply into, probably for fear of the old frustrations returning!
– Heading into this exhibition, and being relaxed about technical input, what are your thoughts on how important equipment is in terms of reaching a suitable quality for presentation?
Photography equipment, in general, is a subject which bugs me. A lot. At least once a day for the past decade I have received an email or been asked in person “What camera do you use?”. I also regularly get people saying things like they will be a real photographer “Once I buy the Canon 34234XDR1″ or “Once I pass my photography degree”, which definitely does get to me.
There appears to be a very unhealthy obsession with equipment and methodology and a serious lack of interest in the actual (without meaning to sound too cheesy about it) soul of the photograph. Too much emphasis seems to be put into the perfect light, or the resolution of the image or, blah, blah, blah…
It bores the hell out of me. It takes away any of the charm or magic of photography. I personally am not interested in pushing the boundaries, creating new styles etc… I just want to take photographs which are hopefully interesting now and most importantly, will still be interesting in years to come.
Of course I pay a bit of attention to cameras (and right now I am quite excited about the Fuji X100 Finepix), but what actual camera you use should not matter so much. Digital or film, £50 or £5000 – just fucking use it. I personally shoot with the absolute minimum of equipment. I don’t own a flashgun or anything like that. I often get laughed at about the cameras I use but I enjoy this reaction. Using cheaper cameras make it easier to get the relaxed style I aim for.
Who are you more likely to relax for – someone who has one small camera in their back pocket or someone who shows up with bags of lights, tripods, bulky SLR cameras, a million lenses etc…?
Grab a camera and start shooting, stop worrying so much about what you are using, make the most of what you have. I have seen stunning photographs taken on cameras which cost £10!
– This year has seen wide peer success for you, in the wake of winning last year’s Lex Van Rossen award. Do you feel any creative victory over larger, more populated music locals such as, say, London?
I would say that feeling victory over anyone or any particular scene is a little strong but yeah, I guess it does feel good that the vast majority of the photographs they judged me on were of quite unknown bands and even some friends who are not directly in the music scene. For example one photograph is just a few friends playing guitar at a party, they are not even in a band. When that sort of photograph is being judged and wins against a photograph of someone like Muse or Metallica, yeah I have to admit that does feel good.
Despite being perhaps a little blasé about it at the time, over the course of this year I have realised it was an honour to have won and it has exposed my work to a much larger audience.
– Finally, the exhibition is titled “I Like The Way This Is Going”, a statement with a direct subtext regarding home grown music, your work or…?
It is kind of a personal title, it was very spontaneous; but it seems to fit in well with everything. I had been playing around with a few different titles and was trying to make a decision when someone made me a mix with a song by The Eels on it called ‘I Like The Way This Is Going’. It was an instant decision to call it that. It has no mammoth deep meaning, but it seemed to match the way of how I am now comfortable with the way in which things are going in my own life (which feeds into my photography), my friends (many of whom are in the pictures) lives and just in general.
I like the way this is going.
The title just seems to work.
