Richard Gray

“Many of tomorrow’s professional photographers will have started out with mobiles in the last few years”

As one of the early advocates of mobile photography, Richard's name is now almost synonymous with iPhoneography in London! Although he shoots with big and small cameras, his passion for iPhoneography is perhaps most exciting as he's constantly experimenting with new apps and always eager to learn more. A true professional who produces some great work which is available on RooM.

You’ve been an amateur photographer for 25 years but how did you get involved with mobile photography and end up becoming the UK’s first iPhoneography course tutor?

I got involved with mobile photography when someone Facebooked me about Instagram in October 2011. I was sat at my desk, I picked up my iPhone, took a picture of something pinned to my wall and wacked on one of the filters. The most banal thing immediately took on a sort of drama. I was immediately hooked. Two years later and I’ve posted 1,682 photos on Instagram. The way the course came about was: I did a short workshop with David Graham at the National Portrait Gallery and I thought: “I could do this”. And I was taking a big-camera course at Kensington & Chelsea College and knew they did a wide range of really interesting subjects and thought they might be open to the idea. They really liked it: they realised mobile was the new access point for people to get into photography. The course ran three times at the college and now I’m giving the same introductory course and a new advanced course with the British Journal of Photography.

You recently did a session at the Photographers Gallery in London with our very own @davidangell where you both offered advice about the mobile photography industry and various apps. How would you describe the general vibe about mobile?

Things have changed quite a lot in the last couple of years. And in many ways the genre has grown up quite a lot. We’ve moved on from slapping filters on everything and are now taking a lot more considered approach. Some people are doing some amazing high-end art with mobiles, while others are really taking street photography to a new level with mobiles. The boundaries between mobile and big-camera photography are also blurring as people use more and more extra bits and pieces on their mobiles, such as add-on lenses, and as mobile photographers start experimenting with big cameras. And I think mobile is finding some great talent that otherwise would have been lost to photography. I really believe many of tomorrow’s professional photographers will have started out with mobiles in the last few years. Of course, many people, like me, are now trying to make a living in mobile now too.

You’ve just launched Click_London along with @thepastamaster, @italianbrother, @ikebana_jen, @eurokeith, @mattdelmar, @natal13d, @rich__, @robinLDN and @stepyuk. How do you all know each other, how did the group come about and how would you like to see the group evolve?

We know each other from Instagramers London and from my classes. As always happens with these things, a number of the Instagramers wanted to break away and set up something on their own, so they approached me because they knew I already ran my own Meetup group for my ex-students. So we used that as the starting point for a new group, Click London. While many other groups are built around an online presence, our focus will be on real-life events, so meetups, photo walks, exhibitions, workshops, etc. We’re also going to be completely community-focused. Who knows how it’s going to evolve -we don’t have a master plan, but the main motivation is to have fun with our photography, enjoy exchanging ideas and be good for our members.

“I was immediately hooked”

Taking a photograph with a mobile device is one thing but when it comes to editing - knowing which apps to use and how far to “push” an image - it’s quite another. Do you have any tips to help people work out what kind of edit to do and which apps to use to make the most of their images?

One of the changes we’ve seen recently in mobile is that people are now toning down their editing and choosing more subtle filters. I guess it’s a cyclical thing. When we discovered Earlybird and Gotham a couple of years ago we couldn’t believe how they transformed our dull mobile photos. But now after seeing our millionth Earlybird, we’re looking for a less heavy-handed edit - and for something more original. Especially if you’re looking to sell stock photos, you need to go easy on the filters. The main things buyers are looking for in a photo is a good story and a compelling composition. Of course, a small number of buyers will also want something with a particular mood - and you can achieve that with editing sometimes. My biggest selling photo is actually fairly heavily edited (using the Drama button in Snapseed), but the main reasons it sold were because it had a good subject and composition. So I would encourage people to go beyond the filters and use apps like Filter Storm or Snapseed to take more control of their editing. Filter Storm even allows you to create custom presets if you find you’re doing similar edits repeatedly. So it’s like you can create your own filters.

There are obviously a number of different photo platforms and Instagram is almost synonymous with mobile photography in some people’s minds but which are your favorite platforms at the moment and why?

I’m all over the place with the platforms. I’m going to have to rationalise soon as it’s too much work! Instagram has a very strong first-mover advantage, which is its huge user base. Everyone’s friends and family are all there, so that’s naturally where a lot of people go (and stay). But like a lot of people, and especially as a professional photographer, I am concerned about Instagram’s TOS. And they’re saying that ads are on their way too. It’s also quite a limiting platform. A platform with more advanced features that I use a lot is Flickr. I like that it connects up the big-camera and mobile worlds, it uploads at full res and it comes with a great web interface. I also use Oggl for Hipstamatic shots, and Eyeem sometimes for rectangular images, and I’ve just joined VSCO. I also just launched my own mobile photography website, so maybe I’ll give all the other platforms up one day and just post there! Lol.

Mobile photography is here to stay but how do you see it evolving in the commercial arena and for you personally?

Commercially mobile will always be good at photojournalism. If something happens on the street, someone is already there with a mobile camera. Of course, lots of brands are using Instagram’s power users to distribute photos of their handbags and mineral water to millions of people. But I don’t know of any brands who have really analysed the effectiveness of this sort of junk-mail business model. It could actually backfire for some brands if people become unhappy about being force fed photos that have not been quality controlled. It’s quite a blunt marketing instrument so I doubt it has much of a future. I think good mobile photographers will start finding more success with specialist mobile agencies, such as RooM, or commissions where the quality of their work (not the size of their followings) will be valued. For me, I’ve been commissioned to do a few shoots with the mobile recently which I’ve really enjoyed and would love to do more of that. I’m really excited about the possibilities with Click London too.