{Background} Hello, my name is David Hutchison. I am an Arts Graduate, a native of Scotland, and currently live in a small town in America's Mid-West. I took my first paid photograph when I was seventeen and thereafter struggled to make any sort of living as a semi-professional photographer. Some years later, I attended Edinburgh Napier University and, on completion of the Photographic Studies degree course, began working with a news photo-agency based in Glasgow. After leaving that agency, to work in a highly successful Edinburgh partnership, I began working solo. In this, I worked throughout the UK for national newspapers and many national magazines before concentrating solely on the corporate field to work with many of Britain's leading blue-chip companies, providing photography for their PR requirements, in-house magazines and Annual Reports. In brief, this work involved:
Studio and Location Photography for the internal and external requirements of many Corporate & Governmental clients.
[Sample]: Scottish Power plc + Tullis Russell Ltd + Standard Life + British Airways plc + Bulmers Drinks + Benson & Hedges + Apollo Leisure + National Museums of Scotland + Scottish Enterprise + British Coal + Highlands & Islands Enterprise + L.E.E.L.
Location Photography for a wide range of National Magazines and Newspapers throughout the UK.
Magazines [Sample]: Campaign + Sainsbury's Magazine + Marketing Magazine + Circuit Magazine + Network Magazine + IPC Magazines Ltd. + Computing. Newspapers [Sample]: The Times + The Sunday Times + The Guardian + The Independent + Daily Telegraph + Financial Times.
Provider of Stock Photography to Pictor International and News & Feature Photography to Camera Press for world-wide syndication.
Photographic Consultant to many leading companies such as Scottish Power plc (a member of a team of individuals specifically formed to re-style internal publications) and Tullis Russell Ltd. (lay-out and overall design of sequential Annual Reports).
A small window into some of the above ~ Past Photography One, Two and Three ~ may be seen on my YouTube channel.
With this extensive professional background I have taught photography at tertiary level (becoming a member of an Award Validation Team) and have been an invited Visiting Professional lecturing on a wide range of subjects to university undergraduates, college students and schoolchildren.
{Currently} Following my move to America, I became a published novelist [see HutchWrites] and at the same time I was able to explore a more personal – more satisfactory – approach to photography, one far beyond commercial constrictions. Well before becoming a professional photographer, I had been drawn to the internal structure of an image rather than its external elements, and prior to digital photography this was realised initially in film grain and movement. Latterly, I have used digital imaging as a tool to further explore nature and reveal a deeper aspect of my subjects. Some of my images use little or no digital enhancement; in some this is extensive and – using a combination of lighting and movement – several images are realised wholly in-camera [see image below, and others in the gallery].
Proving the saying that a picture is worth a thousand words (or, at least, the few hundred above) this image reveals a much deeper aspect of my subject. Interestingly, as I have always been drawn to film grain as an expressive tool in photography, the pixels here have taken on a grain effect and under close inspection appear to be strokes of a paintbrush. For me, one of the very positive aspects of digital photography is that it is possible to take many 'no-cost' shots, in comparison to the costs of several rolls of expensive film. That last is a great benefit when seeking an in-camera image, because the shooting is more or less blind, but the results are instant and may be finessed to suit.
For anyone drawn to technical aspects, the approach I used in this photograph was to vary the distance from the subject, the speed of the camera pan, the shutter speed, and the power of the rear curtain flash. In other words, a seemingly unpredictable approach (although one based on experience). Ultimately, in remaining open to, and welcoming the unknown – at the same time, defeating the ever-present, often stultifying, technical side of photography – I believe an inner beauty of my subject has been revealed.
eMail: d.hutchison[at]photovisuals.com + Instagram + Facebook + F.A.A. Greeting Cards + YouTube [Photography & Writing]