Harry Borden

With an awesome track record at the top end of photography, Harry Borden is the author of some of the most iconic portraits of recent times. He speaks to David Land

"In the current climate", says Harry Borden, "you have to be proactive, visiting galleries and magazines, reminding them that you are still practicing, but I'm busier this year than I was last. I've been quite prudent over the past 10 years and, as a result, the credit crunch hasn't really been too noticeable. It would be tough for a jour- neyman, but many of my jobs at this time come from friends, and people with whom I've cultivated good relationships over the years. "If you're good at what you do, and willing to concentrate on nurturing relationships with the people you work with, there will always be pictures that need to be taken. You just have to work a bit harder. Perversely, it's actually quite a good time if you're starting out now: a lot of my ex-assistants are busy and doing well." Born in New York, Borden grew up on a pig farm in Devon, when his art director father and family relocated there in the 1970s. He moved to London after attending Plymouth College of Art and Design.

"Ironically, the defining moment of my time at college came about as a result of somebody else's work experience placement", says Borden. "Hywel Jones, now a successful photographer, had been off to London for a couple of weeks to work in Trevor Leighton's studio. He came back with stories of another world, saying that it was the sort of life of an Avedon or a Bailey, work- ing every day in the studio and making fabulous portraits with studio flash.

"I was knocked over by the glamour of all this, and decided that this was what I wanted to do. I made portraits of every lecturer, the caretaker, the canteen dinner ladies, and anyone else who would stand in front of my camera.

"After college, I worked as a studio assistant for the then Exeter-based photographer Garth Blore, which was inspirational and a great preparation for the future. In the way of provincially based professionals, we turned our hands to whatever came in, from really complicated advertising still lives of tiny electronic components, to topless girls for garage calendars.

"While I was working for Garth, the legendary advertising photographer Lester Bookbinder came to stay on my family's farm. He liked my folio, said he thought I had a good eye, and pointed out a fact that I already knew in my heart: that to stand a chance of really making it in photography, I would have to move to London.

"The big decision was made easier by the fact that Hywel and Andrew Wood, another friend from Plymouth College were already there, and had a flat where I could stay while looking for assisting work and finding my feet.

"Lester Bookbinder had given me some suggestions of places to try, and gradually I began to get work with people like DavidMontgomery, Barney Edwards, and John Swannell. These people are of course big names, and it isn't easy to get to assist them, but I'd emphasise to anyone really wanting to make it that there's no point in assisting people who aren't any good: you have to assist the best, or you learn nothing.

"I learnt loads, but I didn't do it for very long. Starting out as a photographer, my first regular clients were the magazines Campaign and Marketing, but the real break came when I started to get work from New Musical Express.

"These days, no matter how talented they are, before they're given a portrait session, new photographers have to shoot live stuff, but I was very lucky: suddenly I was photographing really big names like Tom Petty, Quentin Tarantino and Tim Roth.

"For a cover portrait, the rate was £500, which then was a lot of money to me; but if the image was used small on an inside page, you could find yourself going all the way to San Francisco and only realising £75 on the trip. On the other hand, it was a great way of building up my folio and fantastic fun, and editorial work at the end of the day is principally a showcase.

"Not wanting to become typecast as a music photographer, I realised that The Independent on Sunday Review and The Observer Magazine are read by exactly the sort of people whom I wanted to be aware of my work, so approached these titles with my folio.

"Then when my work was published else- where, I sent them tear sheets. This seemed less aggressive than phoning every five minutes, but kept them aware of my current work. Top titles
always want to see that their photographers make pictures for the love of it, so I also sub- mitted occasional pieces of work other than por- traiture. In the end, the gentle persistence paid off and the phone rang."

Although not at first sight what might be thought of as a traditional photojournalist, Borden holds photojournalism in very high regard. On the judging panel for the Portraiture section of the World Press Awards 2010, he joined the Independent Photographers' Group (IPG) agency at a time when it represented Alastair Thain and David Modell, both of whom are now represented, with Borden, by Bonakdar Cleary.

"My agents, Tara Bonakdar and Seamus O'Cleary, were working at IPG at the time that I was there", he says, "and when they set up on their own, I had no hesitation in joining them. They've been instrumental in getting me adver- tising, which is very difficult to get unless you're already doing it: a sort of crippling paradox."

Roots

Borden has lately returned to his roots, buying a house in Devon three years ago, and now just has a pied à terre in London. "I've been doing a lot of advertising over the past three years", he says, "doing BT Business Broadband with Rainey Kelly, photographing the likes of Gordon Ramsay and Peter Jones.

"I'd got to a point where I was turning down a lot of editorial, and not really taking any risks. For instance, where I had photographed some- one before and was happy with the picture, I felt reluctant to photograph them again.

Awakening

"Then I was photographing Mika for Observer Music Monthly. It's a commission I would have probably turned down a year ago, because I'd shot him before and really liked the results; but because he wanted me, I thought I would do it. Halfway through the shoot, I had this realisation that this is absolutely what I love doing. I may be a good golfer, but I'm an extremely good photographer. I'm at the height of my powers, and I should be adding to my body of work, so the last few months have been a great awakening.

"I've been contacting people I've worked for over the years, saying I've had a change of approach and am up for editorial again. When you do a really good shoot, lots of good things happen as a result, and you're back in the game.

"It's very difficult to turn down advertising. It pays well, and I have commitments and responsibilities. Doing the odd ad job as it comes along enables me to do projects that I'd otherwise struggle to do without funding.

Survivors

"I am in the process of undertaking a project on holocaust survivors. It's firstly an explo- ration of my identity, as my dad is Jewish - he's probably the only New York Jewish pig farmer in Devon! Secondly, I would suggest that, in a couple of decades from now, fool- ish and sinister people will feel able to deny the holocaust ever happened. These portraits will become a small part of the documenta- tion of a unique event in modern history.

"There are about 25 images from the series on my website (at www.harryborden.com/ survivors). In addition to these, I have another 100 or so really strong ones. It's a substantial body of work, and I would like to see it take the form of a book and touring exhibition.

"If you photograph celebrities, it gives you a certain amount of status, while advertising brings material gain. I'm pleased that, at a relatively young age, I've realised these things don't necessarily make you happy. You need to be creative, and pursue projects where your motiva- tion is pure. It's about pushing the boundaries, exploring photography, and using it to great ends."

Magazine commissions

Getting frequent magazine commissions, says Borden, is heavily dependent on your relationships with editors. "Ten years ago, I was getting so much work from The Observer Magazine that you might have assumed I had a contract. Its editor Justine Picardie was instrumental in getting me to a different level, by asking me to shoot everything - even things like cars and plants."

When Picardie moved on, this led to Borden working less for The Observer Magazine, although work for The Observer picked up again when Greg Whitmore started using him on Sport Monthly and Food
Monthly. "There's always a preference to work for a newspaper that you'd buy", says Borden, "and for me it's The Observer.

"In the economic downturn, magazines pre- fer to use London-based photographers to cut travel expenses. While I'd hate to be considered a provincial photographer, and to be hired on the basis of location, The Observer and a few of the other magazines are aware that I am some- times in Devon. I have a car and set of lights for when I'm in London, and another in Devon."

Even when he has no shoots on, Borden comes to London every week, visits the magazines, and gets involved in the scene. "You can do the journey in under two hours if you get the right train", he says. "A friend of mine is involved in corporate communications for First Great Western. He emailed me about a year ago, asking if I had any suggestions to help him promote the brand. We came up with an idea for a competition where people will take pictures on the train, and I'll be involved in the judging process.

"In order to get people inspired, I've been taking pictures on the train. I'm a big advocate of public transport, in the light of carbon emissions and so on, and there's the romance of the train, and this massive lexicon of imagery of travelling on the train.

"I'm using a Canon G10 compact for this series, which is fantastic. Everything I do usually is very much locked off on a tripod, medium or large format, so it's nice to be spontaneous for a change."

In the 1990s, Borden was known for his cross processing of tungsten-balanced trans- parency film, but says now, "I'm evangelical about digital. I love that we now essentially all have the same camera, so photography is about ideas and passion, which is what it should be about; not obsessively learning soon-to-be- arcane techniques like cross processing and lith printing – all of that is just horribly dated now.

"I say to people who eschew digital and romanticise film, if the fact that you've shot on film is an important part of what you do, you need to question what your work is about. It's just a technique and, what's more, it's a technique that you're going to have to stop pretty soon, because you won't be able to get the film; or if you can get the film, you won't be able to get it processed.

"I speak as somebody who learnt all the techniques. I shot on Kodak Technical Pan, mixed my own concoctions of different developers; shot on EPT tungsten-balanced transparency film with an 81EF filter, and then put it through C41 chemistry.

"Digital is pure information. When I'm shooting material that needs to be big enough to go on a billboard, I'll use a Hasselblad H2D or H3D with a P45 back, but otherwise, I'll use a Canon 1DS Mark II.

"Techniques like cross processing and lith printing essentially just mean you're throwing away information, or losing shad- ow detail. If you really want to do silly things, then you can do them in Photoshop, but I'm not really that interested. You have to learn to get it to do what you need it to do. I'm ok on it, but I'd hate my work to be thought of as reliant on some esoteric technique.

"Printers of both my black and white and colour work have always said that they don't really have to do much to my stuff, because I get it in camera.

"I don't ever supply raw files to editorial clients. Usually I edit the shoot right down and supply digital contact sheets. Then, in a few days' time, usually at the last minute, I get a call saying which high res they require. Then I work on the images in Photoshop, very fastidiously, but I like to think not overly, because I don't want them to look too contrived.

"Advertising photographers today are less virtuosos capturing the moment, than they are people who supply the various pieces of the jigsaw. For instance, with Peter Jones and other ads I've shot lately, the final full length portrait might be made up of hands, a head, and a body taken from differ- ent shots and comped together.

Assistants

"I have full time assistants, but they tend to be freelance, so I don't have them on days when I'm not shooting. I tend to have a really good connection with my assistants. All of my ex-assistants have become photographers, and are doing really well in their own right.

"I'd rather have people that are easy to get along with than those who are technical- ly brilliant. My portraits record the relation- ship I have with the sitter on the day, and my choice of assistant is informed by that. I tend to use women, because it's a more balanced relationship. If I were female, I might use male assistants, just for balance.

"I've learned about the importance of social networking sites. A writer said to me the other day, 'No picture editor is sitting there saying, 'The next job I get, I will give to Harry Borden'; but equally, no one is sitting there saying, 'I'm never going to give Harry Borden a job'. It's about being in people's consciousness.

"A couple of years ago when I was doing a high proportion of commercial work, there were advantages to me being a limited compa- ny but now I'm interested in doing more per- sonal projects, I have recently de-incorporated to simplify things. My career probably could have benefited from my moving to New York, but my real legacy is the relationship with my children, rather than my career path in the world of photography. American GQ asked me to go on the Blue Train across South Africa, but my son had just been born so I turned that one down. Now that all my kids are at school, I'm feeling more able to travel.

"I feel that, in 10 years' time it would be frankly undignified for me to be going and seeing magazines; I want them to already know who I am. You have to constantly eval- uate your life, and think where it is going and what you hope to achieve."

Top Tips
•Be creative. Pursue projects where your motivation is pure
•If you're good at what you do, and willing to nurture relationships, there will always be pictures that need to be taken
•Assist the best, or you learn nothing
•Editorial work is principally a showcase
•Top titles always want to see that you make pictures for the love of it
•Getting frequent magazine commissions is heavily dependent on your relation- ships with editors
•If the fact that you've shot on film is an important part of your work, you need to question what your work is about