Lisa Devlin
LISA DEVLIN : “I want to show that love matters, even if it's just on that one day. I want to believe that there is beauty in the world, that people can put their differences aside - that we can come together to celebrate not hate..”
by Eric-René Penoy
Any plans for the future you would like to talk about ?: I feel like I'm ALWAYS planning ahead. Before I finish an event with Photography Farm, I'm already working on the next one. Europe is busy with photography education and I'm always slotting in amongst some great conferences and workshops. Right now I'm working on a new version of our Spring event. It will be called Thrive and is a two-day workshop taught by 6 mentors who are all strong in different areas. Our emphasis will be on shooting weddings and developing businesses. Farm is always about nurturing and growing and the Spring is the perfect time to put on an experience that is designed to inspire folk for the year ahead.
Where do you come from? Give us details: I come from Northern Ireland. I grew up through a time commonly referred to as The Troubles. This makes it sound like a mildly irritating annoyance. In fact, it was a civil war, it was a relentless, omnipresent force that we all dealt with on a daily basis. Bombs, bomb scares, shootings, riots, rubber bullets, barricades, no-go areas, the military, and the paramilitary... this was all utterly mundane and normal to us. Which is incredibly sad. Perhaps more than most I felt the effect of living in a sectarian society. My father was a Roman Catholic and my mother has been raised a protestant. The separation of the two religions was supposedly the thing that all the fighting was about and so I grew up not really belonging anywhere.
My parents' marriage did not survive and I'm sure that if I really analyzed it there must be a connection to the fact that I've spent my career photographing weddings. I want to show that love matters, even if it's just on that one day. I want to believe that there is beauty in the world, that people can put their differences aside - that we can come together to celebrate not hate.
What are you the proudest of?: Photography Farm. It started in 2010 with small classes in my home and now it hosts events with 200 + attendees. When I started, workshops were not as popular as they are now but I was being emailed questions from other photographers every day and I figured there was a need to gather people together for learning and community. 2020 will be our 10th year and over the years, we have had a great time and also had a part in the careers of many successful wedding photographers. I'm pretty proud to see people take what they learn at Farm forward into their own businesses and then to pass that on through their own workshops or other photography events.
What kind of jobs did you have before your career took off?: I've not really had any other proper jobs. I went straight into working in the music photography industry and the early part of my career was spent traveling the world working for record companies and magazines. I 'fell' into weddings when my agent got married and asked me to shoot it. At that point wedding, photography wasn't at all cool like it is now. It was all very traditional and staged. I told my agent that I would only shoot it if I could do it like a magazine story, a behind-the-scenes. I was incredibly surprised to find that I utterly loved photographing her day. I think I'd been working with pop stars for so long, people who were treated as special every day of their lives that to work with someone who was treated as special for just that one day felt very magical to me.
If you could interview a creative person (past or present), who would that person be? Please explain your choice.: Andy Warhol - Can you just imagine if he was alive today and on Instagram? He would be the most followed human on the planet. Outputting art utilizing the latest technologies and all the while mixing with celebrities and having THE best parties. He'd be so great to gossip with and so inspiring to chat to. His Factory in the 21st Century would be the world's most creative hub for Art, Photography, Cinema, and Social Media.
Do you think that creativity involves putting your heart and soul into your work?: YES! I 100% agree, if you are not prepared to do this, then think of another job. You have to be open-hearted and soul-searching to be a good wedding photographer for a decent amount of time. You could fake it for a few years but eventually, it would just feel like a job and it's not hard work, despite what it might look like on Instagram. All of us out shooting weddings just want to take that one photo that completely and utterly defines the word - love; that 100% shows exactly what that feels like and you can't do that if you keep your own emotions out of the equation.
“The creative process is not linear, it travels in peaks and troughs.”
What is the best advice that you have been given?: As a female photographer, I actually get given a lot of advice on how to do my job at weddings. I don't think the men get this so much (correct me if I'm wrong!) but at pretty much every wedding, someone will offer me advice on how to use my camera, how to shoot, or what to shoot. "That will never come out, you are shooting into the light", "Your flash isn't on", "You should take a photo from over here, it looks great on my phone".
I'm approaching my 20th year as a wedding photographer, I can't think of too many careers where you'd be given so much unsolicited advice on a regular basis, it makes me laugh so much! I guess it's because many people feel like they know about photography and I always just smile and say thank you.
The best advice that I've actually ever been given as a photographer was from Martin Parr when he was teaching a workshop at Photography Farm. He said, "take pictures of yourself every day". As a society, we tend to take photos of our special days, weddings yes but also days at the zoo, holiday days, graduation days, birthdays, and yet you'd probably remember those days even without the photos. It's us every day where memories can get lost. Take photos inside your home, take photos on ordinary days, in your car, with your family, with your people, at your kitchen table. That's where photography creates a legacy.
Looking at what you have created in the past, would you change anything today?: No. It's all a journey and you should see progression in your work. Nobody starts out brilliant. One of my favorite ways to see this is to pick a photographer that you admire - go to their Facebook page - open up the photo gallery - go to the last picture that they posted in their timeline gallery and you will see left and right arrows - hit the left arrow. Give it a try right now! It will take you right back to their beginning. I've been through many creative phases and experimented with techniques. Fashions come and go but the heart of what I do has remained the same. I've always been about the stories.
How do you deal with creativity blocks?: We ALL get these and I've been in the game for a helluva long time. Of course, there are points where creativity can feel more stagnant than at other times. If I feel like I'm heading for a creative funk, I have a few techniques that will always dig me out.
OPEN A BOOK. I adore photography books and have so many that one coffee table wouldn't cope. I like music and fashion photography ones. Music photographers are great for inspiration on arranging groups of people and fashion for working with couples or brides.
WATCH A FILM. This will never not inspire me. Seeing how a cinematographer brings a story to life, how scenes are constructed, and how narrative is used will always make me want to shoot.
SHOOT FOR FUN. Grab your camera and go out to shoot just for the heck of it. Sometimes if I've been shooting nothing but paid work for a while I can feel like I'm not as creative as I could be. So I will shoot without a paying client and just for me. This soon frees up some creative space in your brain.
INSTAGRAM COLLECTIONS. Yes, sometimes I just need a break from looking at other photographers' work but actually, Instagram is packed full of inspiration. I save images to Collections to refer to when I need an inspiration shot. They are usually not wedding images but instead, they could be editorial, documentary, art, portrait, or just a mood that appeals to me. By having them readily available in collections, I don't have to scroll through the main feed - as often that can be the worst place to be if you are feeling blocked. You can end up feeling that everyone else is nailing it and that you should just give up.
The creative process is not linear, it travels in peaks and troughs. Once you understand that, you can accept that the blocks are just a part of the process. It's how you deal with them that matters, not that you have them in the first place. They are there to remind you to stop giving in to comparison, stop traveling down a particular path, just figure out your way around the block. Try a new approach - even if it utterly fails, some of the best art and photography have been created from mistakes.
What is your typical day like?: Possibly what I love most about this career is that I do not have a typical day - it would kill me to be traveling to the same place to do the same job every working day and yet most people have to. To have an income from a creative job is one of life's greatest privileges and I'm deeply grateful that I've managed it. I'd love to tell you that I wake up in my beautifully boho-styled bedroom, roast some obscure coffee beans, and then sit in my sun-filled garden contemplating my day. In reality, I usually wake up to complete and utter carnage and I run around for several hours before collapsing into bed with only enough brainpower left to watch an hour of trash TV.
If you could add a question, what would it be?: Thanks for asking me to do this Eric. It's been a challenge and it's been thought-provoking. These questions are deeper than most that I've answered in interviews. I hope enough others get on board and I look forward to seeing the interviews on your site. I like what you are doing for the industry and can't believe that we've never met.
Who would you like to read from? Can you also help me to get in touch with this person?: Rebecca Carpenter - https://www.instagram.com/rebeccacarpenterphotography
ABOUT THE ARTIST
DOB :
LOCATION: BRIGHTON
OCCUPATION: WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER WORKSHOP CREATOR AND MENTOR
Copyright : Lisa Jane.
CONVERSATIONS AND CLASSES TO INSPIRE PHOTOGRAPHERS AND ARTISTS.
WHERE TO FIND THE ARTIST?
INSTAGRAM: /devlinphotos/
WEBSITE: https://devlinphotos.co.uk/
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