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My guest this week is Chris Bovell a professional photographer based in South London. He rose to notoriety in 2020, where he was featured on Sky Arts as the best beauty portrait 2020 out of 200,000 national entries. His image features in the Rankin 2020 series. He shares his story about his journey as a photographer. Enjoy!
Welcome to Storytelling. This week's guest is a professional photographer based in South London. He rose to notoriety in 2020, where he was featured on SkyArts as the Best Beauty Portrait 2020 out of 200,000 national entries. His image features in a ranking 2020 series. Please welcome photographer Chris Bavell. Hello, Chris, and welcome to the podcast. Hi Debbie, thank you for having me. Chris, you are an amazing photographer. How did you start on your journey?
SPEAKER_00
I started my journey as a young kid with what we call a point-and-shoot camera. And it wasn't anything that I took seriously, it was just something that I enjoyed doing. And I would take pictures of family events, holidays, school trips, and I'd always enjoy the buzz of people's faces when we went over moments that we enjoyed, you know, cheeky moments, fun moments, and it was just something that I did as a hobby. But one day I got my first glimpse of what I saw a professional camera, and I thought, hmm, I wonder what this would be like to use. And so I remember cheekily asking the person, can I use your camera? And the person let me take a few shots. I had no idea what I was doing, and I was given feedback that all the images I took were unusable, but that one moment was enough for me to get the buzz to progress and to take it further. And so I bought myself a Fine Pix Fuji film camera, and I remember trying to get myself out there, taking pictures of people's events, and it went well for a while until I began to listen to negative feedback and criticism, and that made me doubt my ability, and it also made me lose some of that passion that I once started the photography journey with. One of my formulas for taking a great photo is really just having an awareness. There's nothing worse than being at an event and not knowing what is going on. And so there are several ways that I try to do this. I ask the organizers what is happening and when, and I keep my eye out because essentially, as a photographer, you want to capture key moments that tell stories that are meaningful to people. And so if you are aware of what is happening at that time, you can position yourself in the right place to take the right photo.
SPEAKER_01
You take a variety of photos. You recently did some sports photos for a rugby club. Can you tell me some of the styles of photos that you have taken recently and some of your influences as well?
SPEAKER_00
Essentially, this is a genre called sports photography, and one of the things, particularly with rugby, is it really tests your ability to be patient but also to be very quick because there's a lot of motion and a lot of rapid changes in direction. So this is one of the photography genres that I find the most challenging but sometimes the most rewarding. I also take professional portraits, so quite often, people who need um new headshots, um, whether they're an actor or they're in business, they may come to me and ask for professional photos. I also do events, so that could be corporate events, community events, and depending on what the reason is for the shoot, will determine how I'd go about taking those photos.
SPEAKER_01
Chris, can you describe one of your favourite photos?
SPEAKER_00
It was late April, and I just became a father to a lovely boy called Samuel, and I had decided to take some lovely newborn baby portraits to proud to be displayed on our wall. And these photos were very simple, there was not a lot going on, and it was focusing on the lovely baby eyes and the lovely round baby face, and the peacefulness that comes from a newborn baby. And for me, this is my favorite photo because it has a meaning to me. It was the day that reminded me that I was now a father, I now had a life that was under my control, under my supervision, under my governance. And to me, this is my favorite photo because my son means the world to me.
SPEAKER_01
And one thing that you also do is that you have your own blog where you provide additional storytelling behind each of the photos that you take.
SPEAKER_00
One of the purposes of this blog was really to push me out of my comfort zone. Naturally, I'm very introverted and I don't really like to put myself out there. And so I determined that I need to come out of that bubble. And this blog was a way of me being able to tell stories about my photography journey, but also allow people to have an insight on what I'm thinking regarding photos and um some in some cases the processes that I go through in order to take a photo.
SPEAKER_01
So, Chris, can you tell us some more about some of your featured photos?
SPEAKER_00
Over a year ago, we had the Black Lives Matter protest, and it was quite interesting because this was the time where we're in lockdown, and essentially no one was supposed to be going out, and you were definitely meant to be socially distancing. I took a photo of a lovely lady called Dolly, who I quite recently found out is actually a famous makeup artist that was on a makeup show last year where she did pretty well, and she essentially is wearing like this lovely glistening leather jacket. She's got an afro and she's standing proud holding a sign saying, Your silence is violence. Such a simple sentence, but such a powerful one. And this was one of the photos that really featured well in my social media, and quite a lot of people were really finding it impactful. I think quite recently it was hanging proudly in a cafe in Stratham, and every now and then someone would message me saying, Chris, I saw your photo there in the calf, and it's really impactful, it really is a message that should be out there, and I'm glad that you took this photo. And that is one of the powers of photography. Photography isn't just something that looks good, but it's something that can tell a powerful message, it can challenge um society, it can literally change the course of time. Photography is a powerful tool if used correctly.
SPEAKER_01
And congratulations on your photography exhibition that took place recently as well. Can you tell us a bit more about how that came about?
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, definitely. So I was recently part of a South London exhibition, and it took place for over a week in terms of the exhibition at the Stratham Tate Library. But in addition to that, I was also able to display my work at the Woodfield Pavilion and also the Brickwood Calf. So it was a great chance for me to get my work out there and to have a variety of people from different backgrounds and images of mine that they probably wouldn't have seen if it was in a standard exhibition gallery.
SPEAKER_01
So, Chris, can you tell me about some of the exciting projects that you've worked on?
SPEAKER_00
One of the most exciting projects I worked on was something that came up through a collaboration where I wanted to showcase the beauty of black skin and natural black beauty. And so I worked with a lovely model called Jackie and I submitted it to Rankings 2020, and I was fortunate enough to be one of the few people that was selected out of over 200,000 entries, and this essentially involved me being interviewed by SkyArts, where I was essentially able to feature on national TV and showcasing my work to people all over the country. In addition to that, I was also able to feature in Rankins 2020, and we know that Rankin is a world-famous photographer, he's taken photos of many celebrities, and so it was really great to have someone of his calibre critique and praise my work. Chris, what is next for you? Well, one of the things that I want to achieve is to have my photography on billboards. I want to be driving down the street, look to my left, look to my right, and see that my clients' faces are on advertisements, my clients' faces are on books. I want to make an impact by helping others to promote their business whilst at the same time demonstrating my skill in taking great photos.
SPEAKER_01
Chris Bavell, thank you very much for your time.
SPEAKER_00
Thank you.
SPEAKER_01
If you would like further information about Chris Bavell and to see his photos, then please follow the link in the show notes.
