An advertising and fine art photographer working out of London, Martin Brent has shot all over the world for advertising agencies as well as shooting travel assignments for a variety of clients like Speedo, Adidas, Landrover, Swiss, HSBC and Sony Ericsson among others. When it comes to his personal work, Brent is always on a lookout for scenes and events that occur unnoticed at the periphery of our vision.

You took your first image at the age of 6. What got you interested in photography at such a tender age?
My mother always let me use the family brownie whenever I wanted to. I guess that was the initial spark, but I became seriously interested in photography at the age of 10 after a family friend showed me his cameras and what they could achieve.
 
We understand you spent a lot of time experimenting with hand colouring and toning in the darkroom in your early years. How much did this help you in becoming the photographer you are today?
That’s correct, I spent hours in the darkroom, often being late for my next lesson and rotting my school uniform! It helped an enormous amount because the first and most important thing I learned was that there’s no such thing as a quick fix. Time and care has to be taken, effort expended. Photography appears to be so instant but terminologies like snap, click and shoot are misleading.

Being able to shoot film, process it and print it myself was also a massive assistance because by the time I was 14, I knew the characteristics of 20 film types and processes.

Where does Bob Carlos Clarke rank among the people who have influenced you the most as a photographer?
He has to be right up there because his work inspired me to shoot. Yes, his images were frequently of semiclad young ladies which no doubt was of interest to a young lad! But I loved his use of monochrome, his composition and simple lighting to create such powerful images. His death was a great loss to the field. It’s tragic, he never realised how much he was loved in his profession.

Photography appears to be so instant but terminologies like snap, click and shoot are misleading.

What do you love the most about your job?
First and foremost, it’s simply taking photographs! Meeting new people comes in second as you meet the most diverse range of folk in all kinds of crazy situations. As photography is quite an intimate process we become very close to our subjects for the short time we are with them. It can be a really intense experience and you learn a lot of interesting stuff.

I love getting a sketch from an art director, working out how it can be done and then producing the work. These days there's a lot of discussion now with clients as they play a bigger role when budgets have to be agreed upon before we finally shoot. So it’s extremely satisfying to see the final image on a billboard or magazine ad.

You recently won the 2010 Sony World Photography Award for your photo series ‘Dirty Mouth’. Can you tell us some more about it?
The images were created for the UK customs and National Health Service. A lot of cigarettes are bought everyday ‘under the counter’ which people simply assume are smuggled to avoid the considerable duty. However, a large portion of these are counterfeit and actually contain a disgusting array of ingredients that isn’t tobacco. We’re talking bugs, dirt, faeces, rodent and plastic.

The message was extreme and so extreme images were required. Yet, it had to be very simple to cross all cultural boundaries. The items in the models’ mouths were real. The smoke was real and although I’ve used post production to build up the bugs, what you see is essentially ‘real’.

How special was it to win this honour as compared to your other achievements?
It’s very special indeed because this competition is truly international and attracts a massive number of entries. The judging panel had extremely respected individuals and I felt very proud standing on that stage in Cannes!

As an advertising and fine art photographer, how do you strike a balance between the two genres of photography?
I don’t have a massive problem now separating the two because I genuinely shoot for pleasure. When I shoot to please myself and not a client, the work is naturally different.

Realising that people liked to have my work on their walls and were prepared to pay for it actually came as a pleasant surprise. Although, it wasn’t until Eyestorm asked if they could sell my ‘Tree Divers’ series that I entered this sphere. I get tremendous excited when we sell a piece. I produced a 2.2 metre reverse acrylic for Victor Felix Gallery in London which sold well at the affordable art fair in London.

Can you tell us more about your fascination with vintage lenses?
I’ve always been an equipment fanatic. I love cameras and have always experimented with different lenses, films and cameras. But when digital really took hold, I found my options reduced overnight to just a few platforms. Digital is amazing; the 1DSmk3 is an awesome beast as is my Phaseone system (used on a Contax 645). But I felt more could be done back in the day without always relying on editing tools like Photoshop.

Essentially I treat digital captures as I treated my films. If I want an effect, I achieve it largely when I am shooting. There’s really no excuse not to, especially using lighting. I’m no luddite. I’ll use anything that can generate an interesting aesthetic. I’ve no problem with CGI but what I really yearn for is simplicity in the process to have a more or less finished shot, the moment the shutter is released, as was the case when I was a kid.

The only way we can influence the digital image at the taking stage is by modifying the image hitting the chip. So you have to look at what you’re shooting through. For me using vintage glass on a modern chip created a synergy that is hard to define. Clearly beautiful results can be obtained but what I found interesting was that any old lens simply won’t do.  You still need the resolution as a bad image is a bad image afterall. So it took a long time and a lot of money to find and purchase a set of lenses that worked for me. It’s an investment that I will never regret.

You have mentioned that your photography draws inspiration from unintentional symmetry. Can you please elaborate some more on that statement?
Unintentional symmetry was a phrase I actually invented about six years ago when I was trying to explain why I was photograohing what appeared to my friends (we were on a group ski holiday) to be an extremely mundane scene. I explained to them that what I liked most about the image was the fact that random and quite separate elements that had been placed into the scene clearly without regard for each other, had now found their own symmetry. In that instance it was Zurich airport, the planes on the apron, the service vehicles, runway markings and windows of the terminal all came into symmetry. And once you spot it you’re constantly on the look out!

I love locations, I love to travel, I love beating the odds and obstacles to come back with the image.

Are most of your shoots restricted to a studio?
No. On the contrary, I spend most of my time on location, although it does go in phases.  It was always the location element of the job I enjoyed most as an assistant. I worked as an assistant on car shoots for a number of years but in the end the prospect of being in the studio for 10 weeks at a stretch became quite depressing. It may sound silly bearing in mind the studios I was working in were truly huge but I became almost claustrophobic. I love locations, I love to travel, I love beating the odds and obstacles to come back with the image.

Can you tell us some more about your first book The In Between Places?
It is a work in progress but essentially after years of shooting locations, destinations and happenings I found that the part I was actually interested in were the edges. The journey there and back, the car parks of the ‘attraction’, the backstage- the best way I could describe these places was the ‘In between places’. Celtic mythology talks of ‘the In Between Places’ but mine is far more literal. I like to photograph the places that really are ‘in between!’

In your opinion, how crucial is the role of printing in photography?
I think it is absolutely critical. The image on a negative or on a screen has to go onto a medium where it can be shared easily and simply, incorporated into a document or an exhibition. It has to be printed and how that image is printed will have a huge effect on its final presentation.

	Quick six: Your Favourite Camera: Leica M9 digital and Fuji GX6X17 film Your Favourite Shoot: It keeps on changing but I loved the Speedo shoot last year. Your Preferred Location: Tough question because every location has its plusses. If I have to choose I’d go for the USA for its diversity but I guess I’m cheating! Favourite Photographer: Guy Bourdin, William Eggleston, Andreas Gursky and David Bailey. I like them all for different reasons. Most memorable story: My goodness there are so many! Most involve victory over adversity. I could write a book about our adventures in Jamaica and Mexico. Every shoot is memorable but one thing that does come to my mind was a shoot in the outback of Western Australia. The shoot was really nice, although we had to cover an epic distance to get to our subjects and time was tight. We were extremely fortunate to get to some really remote places. We were to travel past Kalgoorie to shoot on a sheep station. We really are talking middle of nowhere and people thought we were crazy driving out that far but it was all a big adventure to us. The journey was very very long after flying to Perth from Sydney. As we were tight on time we didn’t have the luxury of breaking up the journey which was a mistake because it took forever to even dent into the journey. It was a very long travel and there really wasn’t anything to see on route except this place called Meckering where you’ll find the strangest and most remote museum of photography in the world! (Take my word for it, it’s there!!). We had basic instructions where to find the station. There was only one road so we couldn’t really get lost and eventually Woolibar Station rolled into view. We met the owner Tony, a solid western Australian sheep farmer, who asked if we wanted to have a look around ‘the place’. We agreed and Tony walked us around the back of the house where a little yellow Cesna plane was parked. Five minutes later we’re flying across the outback. It was just surreal! Having spent literally hours upon hours following the black asphalt with red dust running down the sides of the road without a lot to see, the landscape suddenly looked gorgeous from above. Splashes of green against the bright red earth, the odd water hole, miles of Tonys fences stretching into the distance and his ‘place’ was the size of the English county of Essex! Tony and his family were amazingly welcoming. They didn’t know us from Adam but I enjoyed my time with them immensely. I doubt I’ll get back out to the station again, so it will remain a unique and enjoyable if not surreal experience. Current photographers you like: My favourite advertising photographer has to be Nadav Kander.

Photos by Martin Brent | Fotosocial

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