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HollyMcGlynn Fashion photography looks incredibly glamorous from the outside, but takes a lot of hard work and dedication. Photographer Holly McGlynn tells PN how she got started and shares the secrets of her success
Photography News: Welcome to PN . Can you start by introducing yourself, please, and telling us a little bit about what you do? HollyMcGlynn: I’mHollyMcGlynn and I’m a fashion photographer. I mainly shoot fashion editorials for magazines and campaigns for brands. My work is feminine, feminist, colourful, poppy, flashy, fun, and being mindful of the role I play in shaping the media women consume, I try to cast diversely, both in front of and behind the lens. PN: Howdid your journey to being a fashion photographer start? HM: At a gig in Berlin where I was spending a year out after graduating fromuniversity in Dublin. I got so frustrated I didn’t have a camera to capture what I saw that I went out
the next day and bought one. I went from taking photos all day every day, to getting a job as a stills photographer on a filmmy flatmate was working on, to applying to do anMA in photography at Goldsmith’s andmoving to London. I then went fromproducing fine art projects and exhibiting them in galleries in Dublin and London, to taking a side step into fashion photography and spending the next eight years working my way up from shooting fashion events, to street style, to campaigns for Levis, to editorials for Glamour USA and here we are 12 years on from that gig in Berlin. PN: Have you had any training to be a fashion photographer? HM: None in fashion photography specifically but as I mentioned
previously, I didmove to London to do anMA in photography. However, I truly believe photography is something you need to go and do, not study. Studying was the route I went down, it’s a route a lot of people go down, and that’s fine. However, to become a good photographer you just need to go out into the world and take photos. PN: What camera kit do you use? HM: I shoot on a Canon EOS 5DMark IV and nine times out of ten I’ll use the Canon EF 24-70 mmF/2.8LMark II lens. If I had to shoot with just one lens, that's what I would choose; I love the versatility. PN: You seemto be happy in the studio as well as shooting on location, so can you tell us a little about your lighting techniques? HM: I always shoot with flash. Never say never but I can’t imagine a future where I shoot using natural light only. On location I’ll use battery-operated flash heads. I expose for the sky then fill in the model with flash. It gives this vibrant, hyper-real effect I love. In the studio I play around with lots of different light shapers from really soft using a parabolic umbrella to a hard light using a magnum reflector. I use colour gels a lot too. PN: Who inspires you? HM: Ellen von Unwerth is my favourite photographer of all time. I love how colourful, flashy, and cheeky her work is. Jamie Nelson’s work is as skilful as it is funny, and I love that about her. I think a sense of humour in fashion photography is often overlooked, some people take fashion too seriously. PN: Do you have a colourmanaged workflow, fromcapture through to output? HM: I use the new SpyderX from Datacolor to calibrate my computer screen for editing and retouching my photos. (For more information on the Datacolor SpyderX and stockists please go to spyderx.datacolor.com) Because a lot of my work ends up in print, a
FASHION PHOTOGRAPHER HOLLY MCGLYNN
ABOVE Behind every glamorous- looking shoot is months of preparation
calibratedmonitor means I can trust that the colours I see onmy screen are how they’ll look on the printed page. Colour is such an important part of my work so getting it right is crucial. Datacolor has a lot of products to help photographers manage colour throughout their process, but the SpyderX is most effective for my particular workflow. PN: Do you do your own post-processing? HM: I signed with an agent earlier this
ABOVE Holly describes her images as ‘feminine, feminist, colourful and fun’
38 Photography News | Issue 71
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