Vernon Trent and The Art of Seeing

Vernon was born in Romania in 1967 and began his photography career in front of the camera as a model. His grandfather was an amateur photographer who documented every moment of his childhood in pictures. He took numerous photos showing him laughing, crying, playing, sleeping and so on. As he grew older, He accompanied his grandfather on his photographic excursions watching everything he did, learning how he did it. He says that he wasn’t sure that he understood everything, but when he first looked through the viewfinder he began to realize how it all worked.

At the age of nine, as his interest in photography grew, his father recognized his hidden talents and bought him a camera. Vernon fondly recalls the words spoken by his father when he gave him his first camera

“After gold, comes this camera”

He understood that the camera must have been very expensive and handled it as he would a newborn baby. As Vernon puts it:

I still have the camera, a Rollei 35, which works as though it were brand new. I started to explore my surroundings with my new camera and joined a photography circle in my home city in order to gain contact with other photographers and exchange experiences. As a bonus, they also had a dark room. What more could I ask for? I remember that my prints were always discussed in our weekly meetings, sometimes as good examples, sometimes as bad. The feedback I received helped me a lot, especially in the sense of composing, framing and perspective. We came to realize that I had a particular talent in relation to darker motives, a specialist use of shadows as a main or supporting photographic element, to create an atmosphere even with boring subjects. Looking at my own work I can see that I have started to develop a style of my own; dark moody compositions, with blurry elements and unusual
perspectives…the beginning of a passion.

As Vernon’s passion for photography grew so did his skills, when many children were still playing with their toys Vernon was getting ready for his first exhibiton at the age of 10. Colours Magazine spoke with Vernon about his interest in photography and the journey through his photographic career, from holding the Rollei35 to using DSLRs, from shooting architecture to photographing nudes. What follows is an account of the interview Veronon had with Colours Magazine.

CM: Having your first photography exhibition at 10, how did it feel, what was it about and have you got any images from that first time?
VT: The photo circle I was a member of used to organise exhibitions on a regular basis to showcase their activities and promote their talents to the public. I was very excited when I saw my name on the list but was nervous, wondering if my work would be good enough – you know that feeling of self doubt you get when doing something for the very first time… Oh my! There was a vast selection of prints, 31 in total, and below you can see 3 from the first exhibition.

The feedback was very positive and my Dad rewarded me with dark room equipment. My own dark room – Yay!

CM: You have published books, you take excellent photos run a successful photography forum, if you were to name 5 things which attributed to your success what would they
be?
VT: In photography, from my point of view, there is no golden rule for success, but I
think there are some elements that one can only learn through experience in order to reach ones goals, whether this be through public attention, financial success or just the self satisfaction to have done things which are admired by the public or friends.

Learn, learn, learn – there is always something more to learn. There are no set
limits.
Use what you’ve learned, try to improve upon it and make it better.
Listen to feedback, good or bad, even if it seems to be of no importance at that
Be open to try something new, broaden your horizons.
Share your experiences.

CM: From architecture, to product photography to doing nudes? Why the need for
change, did you get bored with what you were doing, were you not satisfied and could not find the passion or were you simply looking for new challenges. Has change been good to you?
VT: I have been told that I have an insatiable hunger for new things, trying new ways and techniques to explore and extend my own boundaries. The photographic genres were all challenges for me, fun and frustrating, but necessary. I love changes. I love to explore new things and I love to be good at what I’m doing…who doesn’t? Changes are normal; changes are good and encourage a creative mind as well as preventing boredom. No one wants to be served the same meal
everyday!

CM: Why black and white, and then why this specific type and style of black and white. What draws you to do this sort of work? Do majority of your photos end up in black and
white or do you do color as well?
VT: The choice B/W or color depends on my motive. There is no specific preference for that. Some shots look good in color, some in B/W. It’s all about the motive and the message. I must confess that when I have a subject, I know what kind of photograph it will be, as I already have the shot in my mind. My specific type of B/W is my style; the “VT Style” that is easily recognizable as my work even from a distance or as a thumbnail. If you look at my portfolio you’ll find B/W, split tone and color shots. The fact that the majority of the shots in my portfolio are B/W is just a coincidence.

CM: Let us talk about your photographic technique and how did you learn it. Were you self taught, or did you get formal education and training. Can you recommend any resources, books on photographic technique and post processing that you found extremely useful and would like to share with those of our readers who would being inspired by your work would like to learn more about it.
VT: I would say that 90% of my photographic related knowledge is self taught. The
remaining 10% is inspired by the work of others. Especially the dark room work, I mean, you can read a lot and know all the steps and techniques but it’s not the same as when you see someone doing it.
It’s hard to give some references, as the interests of the photographers are widely varied, but I find that the basics are very common for every photographic genre. The timeless suggestion would be Ansel Adams trilogy, “The Camera, The Negative and The Print,” as well as, “The Ansel Adams Guide: Basic Techniques of Photography, Book 1 and 2,” written by John P. Schaefer. From my point of view, Ansel Adams’ approach to photography is universally applicable. Another good resource for learning is Andres Feininger’s “Principles of composition in photography,” which although quite old-fashioned and conservative in our modern times, is still valid. Once you understand how the whole thing works, you will be able to use the knowledge

CM: Please share with us your inspiration, the ideas that go behind creating your style of photographs. Where do you look for inspiration and ideas that go in creating your specific style of work?
VT: My inspiration is my life, my family, my friends and the things around me. A piece of paper folded in an interesting way, a friend lost in thought or a song that I like very
much. Music plays a big role in my inspiration… I often listen to music and visualize pictures in my mind that suit it or the feelings that it creates. Then I shoot them; make my version of the song I’ve listened to, one verse – one shot. Many of my shots are named after music titles; they are my “visual melody”.

CM: Since having started out, have you changed much in terms of photography technique and in terms of how you work?
VT: Of course. There have been a lot of changes, the way I approach a subject, compose a shot and all of the seemingly insignificant things that, in the end, result in improving
my knowledge, my style and workflow.

CM: Which other photographers work do you really admire and what aspects of their work have you developed further and incorporated into your style?
VT: Richard Avedon and Duane Michaels have influenced the way in which I catch
expressions and compose shots… although in contrast, Avedon used a white backdrop whereas I use mostly dark backdrops/backgrounds to create my shots. As for nudes, Helmut Newton’s eye for catching the grace of a nude and Ted Preuss with his stunning palladium prints. Furthermore, not only inspirations in nude photography, but also for being wonderful people, are Zoe Wiseman, David Aharonian, Dave Rudin (to name a few) whom I have had the pleasure of working with. Although I am not a street photographer, I admire my friend Mark Kitaoka for his ability to single out and isolate a solitary person from a crowd of hundreds and catch their expression. Rui Palha and J.J. Hoffmann are another two whom I admire for the simplicity and honesty of their photography.

CM: Your approach to photography, when you have been doing it for years, and not just doing, but doing so well, how do you keep things fresh. How do you adapt your style and
approach so that things do not get boring or monotonous and still present a challenge to you and keep you motivated?
VT: As mentioned previously, I love changes and challenges. They keep me busy, refresh my mind and allow me to follow new paths, explore myself and my creativity. I also like
to experiment with how different genres can be mixed, how I can put more emotion into a shot, how I can reach an audience and how I evaluate the feedback I get through my exhibitions and online activities. There is always a lot to do and to experiment with… which results in new techniques,
new styles or a stronger, more efficient workflow.

CM: You have two books published with your work
1. – “Twelve Shots” – A Heartfelt Compilation by Vernon Trent,
2. – Second is the series Abstract Emotions.
On your blog you describe ‘Twelve Shots’ as- Twelve Shots is a heartfelt compilation – a book that describes my unmasked passion, moments which are deeply personal and haunting. Would you please like to tell us more about the book Twelve Shots?
VT:
“Twelve Shots” was intended to be a Christmas gift for my friends. I ran through my collection intending to select a few shots but ended up with around 60… too many for a calendar, which was my plan I had in mind when I started the project. I had a hard decision in narrowing down the 60 shots until I got the required 12… but after doing that I then felt that the calendar was too empty with only the shots and the months. It didn’t have that “spark,” so I decided to add a poem to each shot, give it an “emotional flow” and change the project from calendar to a small coffee-table book. After I had published the initial front cover, I received so many emails enquiring about purchasing a copy that I decided to make it available to the public. Being a gift, I donated all of the profits from the book sales to a photo club dedicated to teaching children photography and keeping them off of the streets. The shots published in the book are special to me, taken on my travels around the world far away from home, as well as in my local vicinity of with some very talented models.
So that’s the story behind “Twelve Shots”.

“Abstract Emotions” is a collection of photos from the past year’s exhibits. Any specific photos that you really like and why [again would like to show photos here from AE2007]. AE2007 was a very successful “tour”… a touring exhibition across many cities. It had a very good mixed selection catering to everyone’s tastes from landscape to portrait, from nude to macro, from abstract to still life. The feedback was immense. For those who missed the tour, I decided to make the book. My favorites from the show are listed below:

CM: High and low points in your career, did you have any, would you like to share those
moments with us.
VT: There weren’t really any low points, but there was some frustration in the beginning when I was still in the process of learning film developing and dark room printing. I suppose one notable low point was the loss of my online content at sharpshooter.de in 2000. Due to technical issues at the data center, the whole server failed and almost 14,000 images with comments, thoughts, tips & tricks were lost. The provider had no backup system in place and so the files were unrecoverable. All I had was my own backup and that was out of date. Another low point, the blackest day in my photographic career, was the theft of my entire collection of equipment in 1995,
cameras, dark room, everything… As for high points, I must mention my very first exhibition in Duluth, GA, USA which was very exciting and the audience was unexpectedly high. The complete sale of the
exhibited collection at the reception of my Munich exhibition in 2002 was another high point.

CM: What is in your camera bag and what sort of a post production set-up do you have?
VT: Most of the time my camera bag contains two prime lenses, a 50mm and 85mm, along with 24-105 and a 10-22 zoom lens and a Sekonic light meter. When I’m not carrying my bag, I use a 28-300 zoom lens. My digital camera at the moment is a Canon 40D. When I shoot film, I use a selection of equipment such as, a Hasselblad 503CW or 500C/M with 80mm/2.8 Planar lens, Agfa Box cameras, an old Pouva Start or my very first camera, the Rollei 35. Finally, the content of the camera bag depends on the shooting purpose, therefore it can be heavily loaded. The digital post production is made on a dual 20” screen DELL workstation, Capture One Pro for RAW developing and Adobe Photoshop CS3, which is my favorite image editing software.

CM: If you were to choose, what is the single most important piece of equipment in your line up in addition to your camera.
VT: A light meter. An indispensable tool if you want to manage the light.

CM: Since you have been using Digital SLRs for quite a few years now and you shoot quite regularly, you must have shot thousands of photos. How do you store and archive them?
Storage and backup must be a huge concern for you, how do you organize and store your photos and if you have to access something from your archives, how easy is it for you to find a particular photo. I would appreciate if you can provide some information in detail outlining your storage strategy and what software/hardware do you use to make matters efficient and effective.
VT: Oh yeah! This is one of the most important things every passionate photographer should consider. The huge amount of data which becomes progressively larger with
every passing year really needs meticulous organization. I use a Dell NAS with 2TB storage space (Raid 5) and iView MediaPro as digital asset management software. For the “quick and dirty” search and management I also use Google Picasa. My folder structure is named by shooting date. Such a folder structure allows me to search for an image without using the search function in iView MediaPro, since I know approximately when the shot was taken. A very good and recommendable resource for DAM (digital asset management) is “The DAM book”. Check it out at http://www.thedambook.com/

CM: Where do you want to go with your photography, what are your plans for the future of your blog, your website and forum any projects lined up that you are working upon?
VT: At the moment I’m working on optimizing my digital workflow to transfer the classic processing results into digital. In particular, the toning process is something I really like and the results are more than satisfying. As for my online presence and activities, I need to put some more work into my presentation website, www.vernontrent.com as it is still under construction. A new shop system is also something I want to implement in to my website and I aim to have this done sometime in the beginning of next year. Besides the activities mentioned above, I’m preparing for my next exhibitions in Europe (Amsterdam and Düsseldorf) as well as in the USA (Fresno, CA and San Francisco, CA). Two new books are also in the “pipeline”, a fine art/artistic nude book and the Abstract
Emotions 2008 book.

CM: Any last comments that you would like to share with our readers, any words of advice to those who are just starting to take photography seriously, any to dos and not to dos?
VT: The digital “invasion” offers the best opportunity to learn, as we can see the results immediately, right after the shutter has been released. This also allows us to save a lot of money as there are no film or processing costs, which tempts many photographers to just shoot away like a machine gun, thinking, “oh well, one of them will be OK”. This kind of approach is well suited for sports or action photography, when things are happening at a fast pace, but nevertheless, time should still be spent in composing and framing a shot in a creative way. “The art of seeing” can be improved in a way that it becomes an “own brand,” which makes every shot remarkably unique.
Amateurs worry about equipment, professionals worry about money, masters worry about light,
I just take pictures…