Alex Lake: Portraits with panache
Back in 1997, with a degree in graphic design under his belt, Alex Lake decided to launch himself into a career in photography, despite describing himself as “self-taught”. Since then he has established himself as a top-notch portrait photographer who often shoots the great and the good from the worlds of music, film, TV and books. CPN editor Steve Fairclough spoke to him about his career and his 'traditional' approach to shooting portraits.
In the digital world of the 21st century Alex Lake has maintained a firm grounding in the ‘roots’ of photography. Although his primary qualification is in graphic design he took the opportunity to study photography as a module of his degree and recalls: “I learnt on an old Pentax Spotmatic 35mm that my Dad gave me, then I got a Mamiya RZ – everything was learnt on film. It was invaluable to learn the real alchemy of photography years before I’d end up manipulating images on my computer.
Whilst at the Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design Alex took the chance to examine the option of photography and remembers: “Just me and another friend really got in to it, so we would have the run of the studio and the darkrooms – I realised I loved it.”
After leaving the prestigious London college Alex’s first major commission was a location shoot in Ibiza for the music magazine Mixmag. He laughs: “I got a call to send me to Ibiza and I didn’t own a camera – I had to pop into Jessops on Oxford Street and bought my camera quickly.”
Singer/songwriter Rufus Wainwright.
The work for Mixmag led to “flitting in and out of doing things for music mags,” but for the first couple of years of his career Alex primarily shot still life product images for companies such as Ford, Durex and Cable & Wireless. By chance he ended up having a large studio in the basement of a major branding agency in central London. The deal was that he was on hand to shoot any product images required by the agency and in return they would give him a free run of the studio. By night he took his camera to nightclubs.
A trip to Poland in 1999 proved a turning point: “I went there for a month and did a big reportage trip. That was a defining moment as I realised that I wanted to focus in on photography and when I came back I concentrated on portraiture.”
Alex didn’t have any ‘photographic gurus’, or a particular svengali, but he had influences: “The images I loved growing up with were always black and white, reportage photos. I can remember photocopying images from different books - images from the Vietnam War and stills from Roman Polanski films like Repulsion – that sort of imagery was then fed into my work.”
His grounding in traditional photography meant Alex “almost grudgingly” transferred to digital with the EOS-1D Mark II in 2005, but he realised that his clients wanted faster turnaround times than film-based cameras would allow. He recalls: “It was a strange transition, even in terms of how I shot. With digital I was almost shooting too much and had to pull back and observe more.”
Author Jeanette Winterson.
From the EOS-1D Mark II, which he still keeps as a back up camera, Alex progressed to using the original EOS 5D - “perfect for off the hip reportage work” - and then onto the EOS-1Ds Mark III. Alex describes the 1Ds Mark III as: “Hands down the greatest digital SLR portrait camera ever. Unstoppable with my 85mm lens.” According to Alex pictures produced by the EOS-1Ds Mark III were: “the first digital images that might have been better than my old Mamiya – it was quite mindblowing.”
Mention of the EF85mm f/1.2L II USM lens highlights some of Alex’s portrait techniques as he enjoys using it and the EF50mm f/1.2L USM optic to ensure stunning portraits. He explains: “Nowadays I often use the 50mm and the 85mm as when shooting black and white images they let in so much light.” His portraits of the likes of musicians Keane, Amy Winehouse and Annie Lennox are often shot using available light although he does deploy his Canon Speedlite, as well as using Bowens or Profoto heads and Unilight lamps. “I like trying different lighting – I’ve never stuck to one configuration,” is the simple explanation.
Alex describes much of his career as being “very organic” and word of mouth has helped to spread his reputation. He has worked with various people again and again, such as the British rock group Keane: “I’ve shot everything from two month tours in the US shooting reportage; to big press shoots for album launches; to random photos backstage. I met them and their manager just as they were signing to a label and started working with them when they were playing tiny clubs to 50 people.”
The band Keane shot in black and white.
This relationship with what has developed into a major stadium rock act has delivered several memorable portraits including one shot just under an office strip light (it’s the lead image with this article). Keane’s lead singer, Tom Chaplin, had just come out of rehab and Alex notes: “It captured their renewed spirit at the time and ended up being used as the main press image of that era, donning billboards and the like. It re-instilled my faith about photography as it has a ‘nuts and bolts’ essence. That’s what keeps my interest in photography – the more you chip away and reduce it back to it’s essence - just you and the subjects and the less people I can have around the better.”
Singer Amy Winehouse photographed at the time of the release of her album Back to Black.
Getting the mood right is also a key factor to shooting successful portraits. Alex reveals: “The photographs I loved growing up were the ones that weren’t airbrushed, like the Rolling Stones backstage. I love unsanitised photos – I always keep in mind shots that show a more honest depiction of subjects and strive towards a certain intimacy in my images. I try to get the right mood – even if I only have 15 minutes to get the shot I try to get a relaxed atmosphere and never flap. I’d much rather talk to someone for 10 minutes and then take a few photographs at the end.”
Alex photographed rock’s ultimate ‘bad girl’ in Amy Winehouse several times during the period of her Back to Black album release: “It was a mix of posed, press shots, backstage on video shoots and on stage – the images were used extensively for the press, CD covers, books and merchandising,” he recalls. He also shot music legend Annie Lennox and says: “I think she enjoyed the process, much of it was not posed at all; very reportage – I love the unposed shots more so.”
Despite producing images for press shots of rock stars Alex maintains a ‘warm’ approach: “Under lamp or flash I don’t want them to be too cold or stylised. I use narrow depth-of-field to draw you into someone’s face and eyes. In a way the background is superfluous to me”. In fact he has sometimes had to remind himself to draw back to a more wideangle approach to show context but will still argue with himself about: “Finding the balance between narrative and intimacy – this is one of the most enjoyable and challenging aspects of photography to me.”
Although he is a firm advocate of shooting with available light whenever possible, Alex admits: “I find that, as my style develops, I am shooting more ‘flash-driven portraiture’”, but he adds: “Crouching down on the floor in manual trying to 'push' as much light through the lens is always the driving force behind my approach.”
Singer Annie Lennox shot unposed at a table and for a more close-up, head and shoulders, portrait.
His reputation for delivering great portraits is clearly growing as quite a few of his recent commissions have gone far beyond his ‘traditional territory’ of photographing musicians. These have included actors (such as Mark Strong), film directors (such as Edgar Wright), and authors (including Jeanette Winterson and Fay Weldon). He notes: “The really big change is that my work was 80% black and white a few years ago. It was perfect for certain clients but commercially people do tend to favour colour press images. I’ve always found it hilarious that some magazines want predominantly colour photography… whereas a lot of the classic images were – and still are - in black and white.”
He adds: “For a few years now I’ve had a new found love of colour photography but when I shoot colour I look through black and white eyes, so my images are often contrasty, shadowy and ‘heavy’ – it’s just because they are tonally black and white photos in colour.”
Most of Alex Lake’s work is now shot on location. He explains: “I like studios but given the choice I’d rather work on location. In terms of portraiture there’s something about hiring a studio that can change the mood of the subject that I’m after. There is a tendency for people to want to enter ‘photo studio mode’ and I like the randomness and rawness of being on location.” In fact, often the choice of location is “bounced back” to Alex by clients and he is happy to oblige: “I’m quite happy to make it up as I go along.”
An early black and white shot from Alex Lake’s student days - it is still one of his favourite images.
Given a career that is now a decade old in terms of his serious concentration on portraiture I ask Alex what his favourite image is. He brings up an old black and white image on his computer screen and explains: “I can still remember printing off a contact sheet, choosing a frame and seeing the full-size print appear for the first time in the developer. I was completely mesmerised by that process and the chain of events that led me to releasing the shutter when I did.”
Alex adds: “Although the picture was taken in 1995 the idea of that whole process still applies – no matter who you’re shooting the split second in which you take the photo is all that matters.” This mix of applying the old techniques and alchemy of photography in the digital age has served Alex Lake well and seems certain to do so for many years yet.
- Technical
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Alex Lake’s equipment:
Cameras:
Canon EOS-1 Ds Mark III
Canon EOS 5D
Canon EOS-1D Mark IILenses:
EF16-35mm f/2.8L II USM
EF35-350mm f/3.5-5.6L USM
EF50mm f/1.2L USM
EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM
EF85mm f/1.2L II USMAccessories:
Manfrotto tripods
Bowens or Profoto lighting
A 40w lightbulb
Light coming through the window…
