Meet the Creatives: Matthew Joseph
Each week we talk to a leading member of the Movidiam community about their professional journey, their industry insights, and how they have worked with Movidiam on innovative projects. This week, it’s Matthew Joseph, award-winning people-focussed advertising photographer & director.
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Hey Matt, welcome to Movidiam’s ‘Meet the Creatives’ series!
Hello! Thank you for having me…
What do you think separates you from other photographers?
I’d love to say ‘my style’, but not only is that cliché, it is also very hard to justify yourself. I think the most honest answer is ‘my story’. My story isn’t a particularly tortuous or Hollywood Film inspiring one, but it is my own. In my opinion it is the only thing that we all have — our story, our unique journey — all the twists and turns that no one else has. The people we’ve met, the places we’ve seen, the highs, the lows, successes, failures, likes and dislikes. This is what we all have to offer the world, and as soon as we can work that out (it’s a continuous process), and apply it to our creativity — we have something to offer the world.
Can you tell us about your kit and your workflow? What camera are you shooting with and what does your post-production process look like?
My kit changes quite a lot and it’s actually quite a common question — which I often answer with the snooty ‘it’s not about your kit, it’s about what you do with it’ line…. alas, people still want to know and I get it, it is interesting — I also want to know what others use!
So most of my work is based around DSLRs, and has been for years. That has almost exclusively been Nikon and their most recent offering, the D850, is my body of choice, accompanied by prime lenses (I use zoom lenses about twice a year!). Mirrorless is coming for good, I believe, so I have recently made a side step (not complete transition) to the Nikon Z7 system and am working out how I can integrate that into my practice. It’s not the finished article in my opinion, so I’m looking forward to what comes out in the next few years. I have also used the Canon EOS R (as I made a film for them about it) and the Sony A7s III a bit too.
Digital medium format has been a big part of my work over the past few years — shooting much of my portrait work, personal projects and certain ad jobs where I’m ‘locked off’ and don’t require too much movement, on Phase One. I’ve had a big love/hate relationship with that camera but as I’m attempting to slim down my gear collection I am likely selling that system this year and will possibly rent when it’s really necessary in the future.
Post production always starts with Capture One. Everything goes through that as it’s the best software out there for converting RAW files, grading colours and working in bulk with large amounts of images. I also have some very complicated requirements from certain clients for digital workflow and file exporting — which (when you’ve worked out how) Capture One is very skilled at. I still use Photoshop for tweaking finer details as there’s nothing that beats it for removing a boom arm or detailed dodging and burning. So it’s most likely to be 80% Capture One and 20% Photoshop, for the majority of my work.
A lot of your work is lifestyle focused. How important is great casting in achieving your goals?
It’s VERY important. I’ve had shoots made really difficult in the past by bad casting, and then — by the same token — you can get one model within a group who absolutely brings it to life and saves the day. Then you have to be careful that you pay the rest some attention and use that outstanding model to get the best out of the others. Some models actors can be super annoying — this often comes with age and experience. I’ve had others who I genuinely feel like I want to go to their house for dinner. Good casting is very rarely about photos. For me, as a Lifestyle photographer, it’s about the moment, it’s about the connection between the person and the product or scene, and it’s about their interaction with others — being able to draw authentic emotion (or as close as possible). My ideal talent is a mix between model and actor; super professional, laid back and fun to work with. This combination is extremely rare, but when it works it makes the job so much more fun. Often, if they have a bit of experience behind a camera— more common than you think — then it can help, because they understand why you’re asking such things.
Sadly all of this usually requires a full on casting where I’m in the room and ideally get to work with them for a few minutes — this is extremely rare due to budgets, organisation, logistics and time constraints.
Let’s chat about shooting for Movidiam on the Craft WW / Mastercard Asia image library. There were some incredible images in there! Can you tell us about your experience of getting that brief through Movidam?
Yes as far as I’m aware, the client/agency approached Movidiam to pitch for fulfilling the brief and luckily for me, they found my site and saw me as a suitable contender. It would be fair to say there were some challenges along the way with their being quite a few opinions and expectations from the client/agency but Movidiam made it happen through very stringent budget management and great on-the-ground production which gave flexibility to achieving the daily demands. They were a great team to be a part of and it was a really tough ask logistically, which made completing the project all the more satisfying.
How did you approach the brief to make sure it fit with the brand guidelines?
A lot of constant communication. I’ve been trying to become less of a ‘yes man’ over the past few years and to practice being a little more assertive with my ideas as a creative photographer. However, this was a good example of a brief where being a ‘yes man’ kind of worked. Being flexible and being able to achieve a lot of different looks and feels with very minimal crew and equipment, in very short spaces of time were just a few of the skills needed to pull this off. A lot of the job was convincing the client that I could do it — getting them to believe in you. I’ve had it before with Asian-based clients that they need to see what they want you to shoot, already in your portfolio. A constant chicken-egg conundrum for many photographers! However what I think sealed the deal was digging up a random test-shoot I shot 3 years previously in Hong Kong. This basically pushed me over the line in convincing the client I was ok shooting around Asian culture and then it was a lot of back and forth with the lead creatives to make sure the brand guidelines were hit (key colours etc), the style was applicable, the content and then adding cultural sensitivities into the mix too.
You’ve also recently worked on a charity project for PODO about people in rural Ethiopia suffering from a foot disease. What was the inspiration for this, and how do you value this type of project?
This type of project is hugely valuable to me: as a person, a human, a creative, a citizen of this world etc. It comes back to the first question — this has since become a part of ‘my story’, which adds to how I may relate to someone or see something in the future.
It came about because I saw a talk with the leading scientist behind the project. Then we got talking, realised we had a lot it common, then I basically said ‘I have a camera and a vision — how can I help?’. It grew from there really, and the inspiration at its foundation was still ‘how can I help’.
Making a living from photography is really hard work but it’s an absolute privilege too. I also feel you have a responsibility because you have certain skills at your disposal — whether it’s a natural gift or a talent you’ve crafted for years — but these skills can be used for so much good. With PODO it’s all about communication. No one really knows about it — and there are so many millions of sufferers worldwide. My mission was to ‘bring the problem to the West’ in the most powerful and impactful way I could think of. By using my skills to transport the message, it’s my hope that awareness breeds funding, and a thirst to help fix what is essentially a simple problem.
How important do you think good personal branding and social media output is in the creative industry? Is that difficult to balance with the other aspects of your business — e.g. client satisfaction, social responsibility, etc?
I personally think it’s very important — but different photographers have different opinions on this. I think the key is to be authentic and sometimes the ‘social’ part of ‘social media’ makes it difficult in knowing where to be brand/work-focussed and where to be more relatable and ‘social’. Ultimately, I think social media is an important part of getting yourself out there now — we live in a time where it’s more difficult to be spotted and remembered than ever, but at the same time it’s easier than ever to put yourself out there. Use what you have, don’t expect people will just ‘find’ you. I think this should all tie in with client satisfaction and social responsibility — ideally it’s all part of the same flow.
I see that you are moving more and more into motion. Is it possible to work in both mediums at the same time, or is there always a compromise with one taking precedence over the other?
It’s a balance I’m constantly trying to work out. It’s stressful trying to get both across on the same shoot as, inevitably, one part will suffer, but if the client allows the right amount of time (that is realistic) and the budget for the correct crew then it can work. Learning to let go of the camera to a DOP is crucial, though I still love shooting myself sometimes. I’ve taken on some projects in the last year just as a director and that’s been a really interesting curve for me — being so technically hands off. There’s definitely parts about being able to control the overall vision and have it executed by your team, that I love. But getting the right crew is absolutely fundamental to the success of that.
When creating video, a director rarely shoots the footage themselves — do you see this changing in photography too?
No — not at all. I know it does happen sometimes and I’ve had assistants release the shutter when we’re locked off on certain scenes and I’m taking a step back to view from the monitor, but I can’t really see it ever changing completely — to the point where the photographer doesn’t shoot.
What are some of the challenges of a multi-country shoot?
Logistics, language, expectations and differing cultural tendencies and attitudes. Some countries you think are going to be great and they aren’t — then others really surprise you. In lesser developed countries you generally have more people hanging around looking for something to do. This can go two ways: 1 — super enthusiastic crew who work really hard for you. 2 — too many people turn up on set and are fighting over jobs, so you don’t know who’s there for what reason.
Other than that you’re organising kit lists and castings on the in-air wifi, and everything being last minute and completely reliant on the flights not being cancelled and the weather holding out, the right gear turning up etc. All part of the fun!
You shoot a lot with Phil Bradley — how important is a digi to a professional photographer?
It depends on the way you shoot, and what you’re shooting. But ultimately, digis have become really important mainly because, on the client side of things, they have expectations for immediacy now — everything has crazy deadlines and they want to be able to visualise the layout and copy, or be sent mood boards at lunch time etc. So as much as they help the photographer out by having full control over exposure, highlights and shadows, sharpness and can update you whilst you’re shooting (and adjust settings remotely to compensate) — they are super helpful for a client. Sometimes I work with separate digi-techs and then operate lighting crews, but sometimes the crew has to be small and nimble. Phil is an all-round first assistant for me, so he can digi for me. He understands how I shoot, my quirks, is an expert at placing a peli-case beneath me just at the right time and height as I’m backing up into an awkward angle, and importantly he’s a good drinking buddy (!).
In an era when everyone is a photographer, how do you maintain your USP? Do you think platforms like Instagram are changing photography?
I constantly tell myself (and others) “don’t let me be the guy who reminisces on the ‘good old days’”. I try to remind myself of that as much as possible. Keep looking forward, and occasionally backwards. Looking side to side can be helpful but also distracting. Just be you and keep on pushing and it will come slowly. Again, it comes back to your first question again!
