Ive always worked professionally in photography, all I ever wanted to do growing up in the recession hit 80’s Midlands was be a photographer, my early influences being ads in glossy magazines, notably at that time cigarette ads, although Ive never smoked, I was very attracted to the ads, the concepts behind the image, the often intricate and perfectly executed photographs fascinate me. I got my first camera for my 10th birthday and as much as a result of lack of careers advice and guidance I found my way onto a Diploma course in photography after I left school. I knew I wanted to shoot advertising and that was about as much of a career plan as I ever had. After study I went into assisting, mainly car work and general advertising stuff in London before I eventually started to get my own shoots, my big break I guess was shooting for package Holiday operator Thomson whose commissions sent me around the world a few times and although not always super creative jobs allowed me to build a solid location based personal and advertising folio.
I had little or no interest in photography as art, apart from occasional reference on commercial shoots it just didnt feature but shooting my own images prolifically I always felt there was more to it them a results based ending which is what advertising photography was really all about. When (pre digital) you spent most of your time looking for now looks, using film stocks, developing and print processes along with camera and lens combinations in pursuit of a new style no one else had and be able to repeat it for paying clients its very hard to take totally pragmatic approach to image making thereafter. However as my interest in photography expanded, as in photography in pursuit of an idea rather than just an image, gifts of photo books, notably Gursky Photographs 1984 to the present lit the fuse that ultimately led to this point with me studying the MA.
Whilst I have been an avid collector of photo books and very interested in photography as art for a long time now I still struggled to understand and certainly explain my own practice. Having been asked to place images in the occasional gallery and having some success with sales I never felt my work was particularly informed, it still felt too close to advertising work, I knewI had a lot to say, just didnt know how to say it I guess.
From a career point of view its gone OK, I’ve earned my living solely from photography from leaving study to now at 51 and I know how lucky I am to have been able to do what I love but I find my personal practice satisfies me more now and also provides reward of a non transactional nature.
So my (rather long) answer to the question is a reverse situation, I’m looking to move away from commercial and into art very much as Nadav Kander has done very successfully. An advertising photographer I always respected, he’s transitioned into art but also fostered a commercial art based presence which has enabled him to secure interesting commissions as a result, an example being the Obamas People project commissioned by the N Y Times
Nadav Kander- Obamas People
https://www.nadavkander.com/portraits/obamas-people/single
Kander now exhibits and speaks widely but also cannily still shots commercially for ‘arts based’ clients like Netflix, National Theatre, Amazon Prime which would be my absolute ideal personal scenario.
Going the other direction, ie an arts based photographer coming into commercial I struggle to think of many to be honest because it depends where you draw the line of when they became an artist. Gursky is undeniably an artist but started as an advertising photographer in his fathers studio in Dusseldorf, became the artist we know but shot commercially for Fifa and F1 since.
Andreas Gursky, Fifa World Cup Germany 2006
The approach of Kander and Gursky resonates with me because they have been successful in taking their art full circle and back into the commercial domain. As much as I like to tell myself otherwise, my personal practice cannot help but be informed and influenced by my advertising work, certainly from a technical point of view, I cannot declare an image a success unless it is technically perfect (ie how I had prescribed it in my head) and sometimes knowing exactly what will happen before you press the shutter can prevent you from having those happy accidents and indeed experimenting which is essential unless you wish to become stale as old bread. By the same token knowing what is technically bad but provides a beautiful aesthetic, ie lens flare, light leaks etc is great and can be part of your commercial repertoire but by the same token can become prescriptive when it doesnt occur by accident or natural circumstance
So in short I think its very difficult to truly move from one sphere to another, without the technical expertise and understanding images wont always be successful in the commercial sphere, equally the in depth knowledge of technical, advertising and commercial photography demands can certainly impede the creative and artistic process but practice informed by both can result in truly wonderful things and I would hope to be able to achieve this balance one day day as Kander has.
Refs:
https://www.nadavkander.com/portraits/obamas-people/single
https://www.artedio.com/andreas-gursky-fifa-wm-2006-poster-edition-lithograph