“I think that’s the only way to really do it: to continue to create.” — Nick Cosky
Nick Cosky — the owner and photographer behind Boston, Massachusetts-based Nick Cosky Photography and Three If By Air Boston — has recently witnessed an artistic breakthrough as the result of years spent honing his skills.
After founding his photography-based companies in early 2011, Cosky has grown from wedding photographer to aerial photographer to his most recent creation: night-time cityscapes showcasing Boston through an uninhabited perspective.
The images capture the city with the duality of poignancy and nostalgia, achieved through long-exposure time and by exploring the city itself.
Since returning from vacation all across Italy, Nick Cosky has not stopped sharpening and refining his perceptions and reflections of Boston and the surrounding areas. As he continues to perfect his craft, Cosky took the time to speak about his beginnings in photography, the advance of technology, aerial photography and his future professional goals.
NICK COSKY
- Based in Newton, Massachusetts
- Twenty-seven years old
- Bachelor of Arts: The Media Arts and Analysis — Westfield State University (2010)
- Founder/Owner — Nick Cosky Photography
- Founder/Owner — Three If By Air Boston
- Member — The Newton Art Association
- Member — IG Boston
- Moderator — IG New England
ON BEGINNING
My grandmother was being moved into a nursing home, so we were cleaning out her house and she had all these old cameras. They were so old — from like the 1920’s or earlier than that. I remember picking a few up and not even realizing it was a camera — just playing with it for a few minutes and being like, “Oh wow, this must be a camera. This must be where the film goes…” That just got me interested in cameras before actual photography.
When I got into photography, I was in sixth grade. And a lot of how I learned was just going around with my camera. I pretty much had it with me all the time and would just take pictures of different stuff — whether it be a park or my friends or whatever.
There was just a lot of freedom there — where you could be creative and you had more time and more energy to be creative.
That’s the most fun part of photography to me.
Then I took a class at the Worcester Center for Crafts in seventh grade. And you learn how a camera works, how to properly take a photo with exposure and all that. How to develop your photos in the dark room — which was probably the coolest stuff ever. Being in the dark room and seeing the photo appear was the coolest stuff. It really gets you hooked.
I feel like I’m not old enough to say back then I was shooting on film, but that is kind of the reality. You don’t see the photo until you actually get in the dark room later that day or the next day or in two weeks or whatever and develop your photos. The interest never really faded and eventually I wanted to do it as a profession.
ON SPORTS PHOTOGRAPHY
Watching sports as a kid — watching the NBA, I remember being like: I love basketball, I love all the sports — soccer, football, everything. But I’m never going to be on that stage. But look at those photographers right underneath the basket — how sick would that be?
I always kind of wanted to be a sports photographer, be an NBA photographer. That still would be sick; it’s kind of faded. I don’t really want to do that as much; I’m enjoying weddings and all this stuff I’m doing.
That’s what kind of got me started with videos and photos, because I thought that would be a sweet way to get involved.
And I was doing some Bruins games; I did like six Bruins games for this hockey website called The Pink Puck.
It was cool, but I didn’t get paid. It was just the perk of being there and being able to take photos with a press pass, and to have it published on the website was a huge trade-off. But it was sweet. It was pretty challenging, too — hockey is a fast-paced environment.
ON TECHNOLOGY
The way my drone works: I don’t know what I’m shooting until after the fact. It brought me back to that point where I was shooting on film, and I don’t get to see what I actually got until after the fact. That’s been fun about drones.
Now, it’s like five minutes later on Facebook, and everyone knows what you did; everyone knows the photo you took. Not even that long ago — like twenty years ago, less than that — people just didn’t have that ability. You had to wait two weeks, or more. Sometimes you wouldn’t develop a roll of film until a couple months and you don’t see your photos.
So that’s what’s fun about drones: to see what you captured, whatever it may be.
As a kid, I would develop a roll of film and it would have seven different events, like family events, because my mom hardly ever used the camera. So we never realized what photos were in it until after the fact. Like, “Oh yeah, I remember this!” because there wasn’t a million pictures of it on the internet.
ON INFLUENCES
I definitely check out a lot of photography blogs and follow a lot of photography people on Twitter. As far as coming up with new things, that’s pretty challenging. All these great cityscapes around the city of Boston that people have been photographing for decades. So anytime I can put my own spin on it is great, and I think the long exposure is kind of doing that.
I definitely get inspired by other people in the sense that I want to keep creating.
I think that’s the only way to really do it: to continue to create.
When I see other ideas, I might put a spin on it to be a little bit different, but it’s hard to do something completely new with the amount of people doing photography. All you can do is spin things a little bit differently, but for the most part it kind of is what it is. Most things have already existed.
ON BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS
It’s pretty much re-inspired me, as far as photography goes. I started doing the photos all around Boston, and wanted a way just to get some photos in my portfolio of the city for when I’m selling at these fairs and markets all over the Boston area. And it just kind of exploded from there.
I’ve been doing weddings and so many events — when you’re shooting people, it’s great and you’re in the moment and you get to connect with people.
But it’s a lot more artistic when you can go out, find a spot and have a picture in mind that you want to do.
I’ve been doing these long-exposure photos, so that’s why everything looks so empty. When you expose it for a period of time, people could walk through it and they’re not even going to be recorded because it’s like a four-minute exposure. So that’s where I get the hollow feel.
And I wound up selling them at these markets and stuff, but that’s really not the reason I’m doing it — it’s just kind of an added bonus. It’s more about going out and enjoying photography and just creating art.
And when people do buy it or hang it in their house — it just makes it ten times better and makes it all feel worth it. Because other people are appreciating what you do.
There’s a million places that are obviously aesthetically pleasing in Boston, and obviously that’s what I’m trying to do. But the people who enjoy it most are the people that’ve seen it in person.
ON CONNECTING
People like to connect on places. That’s one way people connect — whether it’s your hometown, or when you meet someone for the first time it’s usually, “Oh, where are you from?”, that type of thing.
And if they’re able to look at a photo and be like, “Oh, I remember when I lived in Cambridge in college” or whatever it may be, it brings them to a nice time in their life.
They can connect to it in a way more than just looking at it because it’s aesthetically pleasing, but it’s hitting them on another level.
It’s more than just a photo — it’s the feeling they get when they’re looking at the photo.
ON ITALY
That was amazing. That’s a photographer’s paradise over there.
Everything looks amazing. Just like the run-of-the-mill ordinary buildings that people go in and out of every day are as beautiful as the two thousand-year old churches that are carved out of granite and impeccably kept.
One of the most amazing things about Italy was the amount of graffiti — there’s graffiti everywhere, and I wasn’t really expecting that.
It’s another form of art; it was cool to see.
ON AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY
Flying a drone is a lot of fun, and the perspective you get with a drone is pretty incredible. A lot of people think they’re just a hobby, and I think they’re way more than that — or can be way more than that.
I think it’s such a new technology, you see both kind of reactions from people. A lot of people think it’s an invasion of privacy — what if it falls and hits a house? A lot of people don’t like drones. And there’s a lot of other people who love them, who think they’re the coolest things ever.
I obviously fall into the latter category.
ON WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY
I think ninety percent of it is reading relationships. It’s such a day that revolves around family and friends and if you can’t pick up on relationships and know what candid photos to get, then you miss out on a lot of opportunities.
It’s great and it’s really stressful at the same time. Certain things, they only happen once.
There’s only one first dance, there’s only one time where they cut the cake and all that. So it’s very stressful, but at the same time very rewarding because it’s like the biggest thing in a lot of people’s lives.
If you can really provide a great service for them, you can really see the appreciation.
With technology, cameras are in everybody’s pocket and they’re unbelievable. It’s like by the time the wedding’s over, there’s already been two hundred photos uploaded to Facebook.
You have to set yourself apart, you have to be quick in terms of if they want them the next day or as soon as possible. There’s a lot of customer service. But that’s like anything, I guess.
And the appreciation for your photos is the whole reason that anybody — or at least that I do — photography. Getting feedback from anything makes it worthwhile.
ON FAVORITE PHOTOS
My favorite night photo that I’ve done is Memorial Drive in Cambridge, and it looks right across the river to the Prudential Center and the rest of the Back Bay. The way the night exposure was, the water looks kind of all glossy and it’s smooth. It looks like stained glass, the texture. The red from the Sheraton has this cool red effect to it; it looks sick.
That was one of the times when I took the picture and was immediately verbally out loud like, “Oh wow! I love this photo!”
Clearly my favorite photo.
My favorite drone photo I got from pretty close to where that is, too.
It has the BU Bridge and everything the Bridge looks onto.
And then wedding photos — I don’t know if I could pick a favorite. It’s just always a good time; everyone’s always in a good mood at weddings. It can get pretty hectic for a bride and her bridesmaids and everything before a wedding, so I feel like I am pretty good at calming the storm and keeping everybody occupied and not freaking out about getting married.
And after the ceremony, it’s just party central.
So it’s stressful but it’s not too stressful. I’ve seen all kinds of brides and groomsmen and stuff like that. Sometimes it’s party time while they’re waiting for the ceremony to start; sometimes they’re freaking out and have to take a Xanax or something, freaking out worrying about the wedding.
I’ve seen a lot of different situations — I’ve seen the best and the worst.
ON FUTURE
The night-scapes have kind of been convenient with my schedule and my full-time job. I’ll have a long day of work, and what I do to enjoy myself at night is go take some photos of Boston — explore the city a little bit.
I’ve been living just outside the city for three years now, and I feel like I’ve been in Boston more in the last two or three weeks than I have in the last three years.
And it’s been great just getting around, taking photos.
When I have a tripod and a camera at night, obviously people see what I’m doing and strike up conversation. And that’s always fun to chat with people. A lot of times I’ll get ideas for different photo opportunities just from talking to different people in Boston.
I want to show Boston, and these are the people that’ve lived there.
ON GOALS
I’d like to do a combo of the two things and run my business that way. One would be selling my photography as artwork, and the other half would be doing weddings and kind of survive off that.
I don’t want to say ‘survive’ — I’d like to thrive off that if I could, but I’m in that process of building it. So, hopefully soon.
ON CONFIDENCE
Being confident enough to do it probably happened not too long ago. That feeling probably happened after I started. I started with the intention that I wanted to do it full-time and as my profession. I started it and wasn’t quiet sure that it would work — it’s pretty tough to start a photography business and keep it going, with all the amount of people out there doing it.
And we’re at a time where everybody’s got their cousin or an uncle or something that does photography. So it can be a tough business — to keep business and get more going. But after the first two years, I’d say.
You make mistakes, you figure out what works, what doesn’t work. You build momentum.
Written By: Matteo Urella / September 2015
Photography:
