Nigel Parry

[markus_staley]

I know that Nigel Parry has a wonderful rapport with his subjects, and it

shows in his work ,,, but does anyone know anything "Technical" about the way

he shoots? what he uses? film type? anything at all??

 

Thank you for any help you can provide

[tom_hayton]

Hi there

 

I read an article about Parry some time ago. Accrding to that article, he shoots with a Hasselblad 503 and uses film, because he says digital is too slow for what he does. He likes to work quickly and uses very simple lighting set ups.

 

 

He also says that he likes to get slightly above his subjects- if you look carefully at his work you can see this.

 

I'll try to dig out the article so you can read it yourself if you like.

 

Tom

[markus_staley]

Please and thank you yes... I had read some info on William Coupon a while ago that helped me understand his style,, anything on Nigel would be grand..

[derek_stanton2]

http://www.hasselblad.com/masters-2004/june---nigel-parry

 

http://www.popphoto.com/americanphotofeatures/3816/faces-in-the-crowd-the-

portrait-in-double-vision-page4.html

 

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=003V8D

[markus_staley]

Derek... thanks.. I had read all of these...

[david_jenkins5]

Hi Markus,

According to article in Hasselblad Forum 3/2000 (Nigel Parry?s portrait of Anthony Hopkins is on the cover) he uses a 503cw with a 120mm as the standard lens. He sometimes uses a 150mm when he wants to compress perspectives.

 

I?m not sure which film he using but they are very contrasty. I have his book Sharp. Amazing! In the book many of the portraits are shot against black backgrounds with strong lighting, which would help accentuate the contrast. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in portraiture.

 

Cheers,

 

David

[markus_staley]

David.. I have that book and fell in love with his work.. I was hoping he used a hassy with 120mm... might be ilford film (love that contrast)?? his style is so stunning

[david_jenkins5]

Hi Markus, if you like Nigel's work then another two photographers to check out are Greg Gorman and Albert Watson. All three are masters of the craft.

 

Not sure which film Nigel is using cant find a reference giving a clue anywhere. It does grainy so suspect it might be a 400iso - maybe Kodak TriX or HP5 Plus. In the HB Forum story he also refers to using Profoto flash units.

 

Cheers David

[rainer_pawellek]

Hi all,

 

This is the first time I take part in this forum but read it since a few month and am very impressed.

I owe a Hasselblad 202FA since a couple of month and the man (friend) who sold me this cam, as all my stuff, offered to me the book from Nigel, Sharp.....what a hit an the face.

Since, I work much more with my Hassy than with my Leica and use it even in the street.

I'm just testing it out with a solution given in this threat. A 150 with a 16E tube.

The results are nice but not as close I would have loved to bring it to Nigels work.

I must say that I use the Hassy exclusivly handhold. But what the hell, it's great to have such photographers out there to get some inspiration and we only can get better, can't we?

My photos can be seen here http://perso.orange.fr/rainer.pawellek

 

 

Thanks for this great site what is photonet

[kparratt]

Welcome to the Forum Rainer.

 

The 202FE is indeed a fine piece of equipment. (I have only older 500C/CM and EL models, but also enjoy hand-held when possible. In addition to the metering, the reason I would like to have an F model, is the possibility to use the faster F lenses, providing more scope for hand-held work.)

 

....

 

Thoughts about Nigel Parry

 

One needs to be visibly producing a lot of professional quality work for a sustained period of time to be presented as a "Hasselblad Masters" photographer, which is somewhere near being awarded an Oscar for us humble shutterbugs.

 

But Mr parry has never been a "humble shutterbug". He came up through the ranks in London, pretty much as the brightest talent on the block from the very start. So when he headed off to New York, he was already well qualified to take in on. Experience + confidence.

 

To just survive as a professional photographer in New York, in additon to technical skills, studio, equipment, a head for business and marketing, one needs more drive the anyone outside New York would ever experience. To be outstanding in New York, a few lucky breaks can certainly help, but one needs to multiply the total energy drive by a factor 10+. Then one can call in professional design and marketing teams to make sure that everyone knows who you are, and why they should have your images on the front covers of their magazines. You can be sure that his agent is in touch with the agents of the rich and famous.

 

Parry is a very creative and highly competent commercial photographer who can turn his creative resources to a variety of assignments. Technically, every final image is successful. It must be. The client is happy. Success then bankrolls investment in equipment, studio, the means to get around to locality assignments (anywhere) and the marketing costs. A seriously busy lad like him would surely not take time out to build that fancy website and the diversity of effects in his studio photography are evidence of equipment than most amateurs could only dream about.

 

That success also helps to provide the film stars with confidence in him. A lucky break > a famous face > and the door is open to more famous faces > more success > more confidence > ad infinitum.

 

He is not, though, an artist who can always be characterised by any distinctive style. He has had many differnt things going on, and has drawn from a variety of visual idioms already in place. One may see a consistency of a trick, or approach in a short streem of portraits, eg. the use of a hand in front of a face, a favourite backdrop etc. But the dramatic close-up portrait with long lens, and simple strong lighting is neither unique, nor inovative. Well done, yes, but not ground-breaking. The most notable feature in the portraits is the fun that the subjects are having with him. This is a winner.

 

That said, and whilst it would not be fair to judge the work of a busy commercial photographer against the artwork of someone like Edward Weston, I do want to suggest a comparison. Let us imagine that a small folio of never-seen-before photographs by Edward Weston were secretly discovered. If they were placed amidst an exhibition of other B&W work of the day, all anonymous, my guess this that they would be easily distinguishable. If we did the same with a hand-full unseen Nigel Parry images, and placed them amongst other top-class contemporaries, again all anonymously, there would be more guessing than recognition.

 

....

 

The revealed 503cw with 120mm lens, was of course pre-requisite to be featured in Hasselblad Forum article mentioned above. But we shouldn't expect him to give away a recipe of film, exposure and processing. Besides, this I'm sure would be selected and fine-tuned according to his initial visualisation.

 

Cheers, Kevin.