Artist in Focus | August 1, 2007

Travel photographer Philip Lee Harvey refers to a Robert Louis Stevenson quote that he feels neatly encapsulates his attitude to his work. “For my part I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.” But more than that, Philip feels that it captures why most of us choose to travel. “It’s as much about the feeling as the destination itself. People want to have amazing experiences, want to stand in awe-inspiring places, regardless of where that experience is had, or that place can be found.” And it is this that informs the work of one of Getty Images most successful travel photographers.

Location: London.

Birthplace: Canterbury, Kent, England.

Getty Images Collections: Stone, The Image Bank, Taxi.

Odd personal fact:

“From the age of seven to seventeen I competed in motorcycle trails. Ultimately, I was sponsored by a bike-wear company to travel around the country doing tricks on my bike: driving over cars, oil drums, rocks …anything really! It was easy to practice growing up on a farm in the Kent countryside and it was a great thing to do at that age, but I gave up when I moved away to college and found new obsessions.”

Awards:

“AOP, Creative Circle, London Photographic; Royal Photographic Society; John Kobal and Dive Photographer of the Year …although at the time I couldn’t dive! I’d been commissioned to shoot a police diver, I just floated on the surface using a medium format camera in a waterproof box and underwater lighting.”

What made you want to be a photographer?

“I went to Norwich School of Art to do a degree in graphic design, but after the first year I knew I couldn’t give photography up. To be a really good designer or Art Director you need to focus solely on design while commissioning other people to do the shoots – I didn’t want to do that.

“I’d been taking pictures since the age of thirteen. At that time, I was all set to go on a rock climbing holiday to the Outer Hebrides when I developed tuberculosis, so as a consolation my father bought me a 35mm Nikon EM. It suited me straight away. I was also very keen on painting and drawing, but I lacked the patience for it and often found it frustrating – photography brought an immediacy; I saw it as a more instinctual discipline. That’s not to say that I’m not prepared to wait for the right picture: you still get that adrenaline hit when you press the shutter release after sitting on a mountain for two days just to capture that moment when the light is perfect.

“At college, during the early nineties, I was drawn to documentary work and photographed a lot of the demonstrations of that time, such as the anti Gulf War marches and the Poll Tax riots in London. I also did some work in Northern Ireland. But I think I learnt pretty fast that if you want to do that work you’ve got to have a message – I think you have to believe you’re taking those pictures for a reason.

“When truly documenting events there is obviously a need for degree of impartiality, but I think the photographer still needs a reason to be there, more than that is just documenting events for the sake it, there needs to be some humanitarian or political motivation behind it – some sense of purpose. I was driven to capture other things.”

How did your career develop?

“By the time I left college I knew I wanted to be a photographer. I started assisting in London. I was full-time with Frank Herholdt and then freelanced, working with Macolm Venville and Pete Seaward. At the same time I was always shooting my own work. I was a very impatient assistant and was lucky to work for some very talented people so I learnt a lot very quickly. After assisting for two and a half years I started picking up editorial work. At that point I gave up assisting as I figured the only way to develop my photographic career was to give it 100%. I was fortunate to pick up a number of awards in the early years and I also managed to pick up an agent quickly for advertising work.

“My early work was inspired by painting and colour theory, much of it was saturated with colour and cross-processed and quite often out of focus. It was very influenced by the impressionists and fauvism, and I was interested in the work sculptors such as Giacometti. I picked up some big Ad campaigns because of it, including Kodak.

“At the same time, I was trying to travel, and I wanted to get more involved in that. In reality, the bright out-of-focus photography I was shooting enabled me to make it appear as though I’d travelled extensively, as I’d recreate the mood of a country in a studio set up or a field in Kent. However, this approach was too technique based and I knew it was short-lived: by becoming caught up in trying to win competitions through these experimental techniques, I felt, wasn’t being true to myself, so I decided to totally overhaul my portfolio. Thankfully, by then I’d earned enough to fund a trip to Bali and Java, which allowed me to do this.

“Every year since then I’ve managed to do one or two trips away to focus on my personal work. Also, fairly early on I picked up regular work shooting Conde Naste Traveller when it launched in the UK. That was on the strength of an exhibition of my work from a trip to Argentina – the Conde Naste work gave my travel portfolio a significant boost, which in turn generated more advertising commissions.”

Who or what are the major influences upon your work?

“There’s a photographer called Sam Abell, he works for National Geographic. In 1990 he had an exhibition in New York called “Stay this moment” at the International Center of Photography. It was about that moment when you take a picture, a moment that feels so right that you almost don’t want it to end. That definitely spoke to my feelings about photography.

“The other reason I’m particularly drawn to him is that he very much lives the photographic life. He puts himself in situations within travel because he enjoys that lifestyle – in a way the whole thing, of which photography is just one part, is a package. Similarly, in my work I’ve had the chance to do things, to witness things I wouldn’t have otherwise. For instance, I’ve photographed voodoo ceremonies on a trip to Haiti and snake charmers in a village in India. Photography opened the door to this, it gave me a reason for being there, a legitimacy within my own mind.

“While having moved away from the documentary photography of my early career, the work of the Magnum agency is still influential on my work, just as much in fact as fashion photography is – which should come as no great surprise since the photographic world is not as polarised as when I first started. Then you were either an advertising or an editorial photographer, that distinction has now gone to a degree, which I think is very healthy. The change started during the eighties when Art Directors starting commissioning people like Don McCullum. He shot a landmark ad. for the Metropolitan Police in London featuring a skinhead spitting to camera with the line ‘Could you be a policeman?’. At that time, a lot of the advertising imagery was so overworked, so well crafted that it lost its spontaneity. From my perspective, the McCullum shoot speaks to my earlier point about being drawn to photography because of its instinctual aspect, because of the emotion he recognised and recreated in that image, and hence this kind of work is a great influence on me.”

Favourite picture (yours/someone elses)?

“Again, it would have to mention Sam Abell – his National Geographic image of a fisherman in Newfoundland. It’s a fantastic photograph, it documents what this fisherman does and yet it has a creative, sculptural quality to it. It almost looks too good to be just documentary, but it is. And he’s found that composition working in an extreme environment – many photographers would have said, ‘the weather’s too bad, I’m not shooting it’. I believe it was Abell’s father who said to him words to the effect, ‘there’s not such as bad weather, just different weather. Just go out and do it’. That was the way he worked.”

Photo Magazine | August 1, 2007

by Gary Inman

When Philip Lee Harvey reels off the countries he’s worked in, it has three very different effects on me. Firstly I’m consumed by a raging envy. My eyes turn green when I realise this man has travelled to countries I know nothing about. Jealousy is washed away by an internal tidal wave of inadequacy. What have I been doing for the last three decades? I think

to myself. And finally when I’ve come to terms with my own comparatively miserable existence I’m left with nothing but respect.

Photographers, writers, any professional you care to name don’t get sent to these inhospitable, difficult and demanding places unless he’s 110 percent certain he’s going to come back with the goods. And when you see the “goods” Harvey delivers. It’s hardly surprising the art editors and creative directors trust him. His images and commissions are so varied it’s difficult to describe a specific style, but every shot is a cocktail of warmth, understanding and quality.

Giving me a shred of hope is the fact that Harvey, despite undoubtedly having an “eye” for a shot has to work hard at satisfying his clients. He doesn’t just swan in, wave his hands, shoot ten rolls and flounce away leaving nothing but an invoice. He diligently prepares, researchers and practices for his demanding jobs. To illustrate this is my favourite Philip Lee Harvey story. The tale of how he prepared for an assignment that would see him living through and documenting a killer Siberian winter.

North London isn’t known for it’s minus 47 degree Celsius winds so Harvey convinced the local supermarket to let him and his assistant acclimatise in their cold store for hours at a time. Talking the manager into that must have taken levels of charm and persistence few photographers possess. To be able to do it is one thing, to want to do it is something completely different.

Image Magazine | August 1, 2007

Voodoo is a fundamental of Haitian Society. Image talks to Philip Lee Harvey about photographing the Caribbean state.

Haiti was the world’s first black led republic. It was also the first state in the Caribbean to achieve independence in 1804. You’d be forgiven for thinking that such a forward-thinking state would be on the up, reaping the 21st century benefits of tourism and international travel. But add endless poverty, violence and political instability and you get the poorest country in the Americas. Haiti has witnessed US invasion, various military coups and attempts at democracy. UN peacekeepers and most recently renewed rebel uprising and environmental disaster. What has always been present is Voodoo–a religion finally officially recognised in 2003.

An unusual coupling of African religions and Catholicism. Voodoo was a reacton to the suppression of religious beliefs and practices of enslaved Africans. It is today, practised by Haitians from all walks of life. It was this fundamental element of Haitian culture and brought photographer Philip Lee Harvey to the Island.

How did you manage to get access for the Voodoo shots – did you have some persuading to do?

A commission on Haiti for a travel feature – you can’t really do it without doing Voodoo – I negotiated with a guide for contacts with Voodoo priests. If you get his permission, that counts for everything. It was a financial negotiation too. With every conversation the price goes up. They really try it on. Eventually we cut out the middle men and got it sorted. When the priest gave the nod, then me being there was OK full stop.

Do you tend to work with a particular commercial outlet in mind or do you try to free yourself from commercial considerations with this kind of work?

I’m lucky in that my work tends to have no distinction between my commercial and personal work. It has become more and more like that. The briefs get looser. There seem to be more restraints when you’re not doing something that’s your forte. It was for Condenast Traveller. I met with the writer. I tend to know the emotion I want to create, rather than the actual pictures. Voodoo is an integral part of it, but it’s not the whole of the story. I’d always wanted to do it. It was a life experience.

Do you work with a kind of coverage template? How much do you follow your nose when on this kind of job?

The logistics mean that you have to follow your nose a lot. There will sometimes be a hit list of things to look at. When you get there I have to make my own decision. Some things can be written about beautifully but can’t be photographed. I’m looking for emotion. Time sometimes means that I get a hit list that can’t be fulfilled.

Were there any specific precautions you had to take whilst getting to grips with the Haiti trip – were you warned about any potential aspects of it?

Not really. I know it was going to be challenging. Bolivia is another one. Central and South America is always hard. There’s not the love of the camera. It’s not like India, people don’t come out to you. Bad press has made it more difficult. I’m not there to be judgemental. I’m there to show my version of the place. But the tension in the area does come across in the pictures. There was a tension and anger on the streets. I had to work very closely with my guide. You won’t forget your visit to Haiti. There was a lot of generosity but also a degree of sadness. A lot of time was spent listening to peoples’ complaints. You can also get hit by bribes to get through roadblocks. Let your guide do the talking.

Hollywood has always portrayed Voodoo as violent and dangerous. What was your real-world experience of it?

The poorer the country the safer you are equipment wise – there’s no re-sale value. I give Polaroids to people I shoot. It gives something back. It eases the way over difficult situations.

When you’re doing this kind of work, what’s your essential photography luggage?

The kit I use is the same wherever I go. I shoot on Hasselblad. I’m not a fan of 35mm travel photography. I’m not into digital. The way I work at the moment doesn’t suit it. I can’t rely on batteries. I need lots of gaffer tape!

What’s your worst ever travel photography nightmare?

Quite often the situations that are most tense stick in the memory. My worst nightmare hasn’t happened yet – that is I haven’t come back without the film. I once had a Cobra thrown at me when shooting a snake charmer. Things happen that are tense because of a lack of understanding. You adjust really quickly, by day four or five it changes. In Haiti we were on horseback. We had a storm and had a river crossing to do and I’m no horseman. It creates an atmosphere that you have to get through. Arm wrestling a Siberian fisherman was another interesting moment.

What made you get into this line of work in the first place?

I have always been into exploration. I was always into art and photography – it was part of my upbringing. It’s always been natural to be outside. From an early age, holidays meant photography. It’s exploring with a reason. My first love is photography and I love being outside. It’s doing something you passionately believe in. My idea of a great holiday is doing what I do. It feels right.

Do you have a whole separate approach to your lifestyle work?

In some ways it’s a brain shift but often it’s similar. You’re making environments. I still work handheld and on the same kind of kit. There’s a much bigger team. I don’t like large crews. I’m not a Winnebago photographer. There’s lessons I can take from travel and the lifestyle work tends to be out of this country. Most of it is available light but I do have to make it work so I do light as well. With travel I’ll work early and late and I tend to do the same with lifestyle. I like and understand that kind of light. The lifestyle came about because people liked my travel work. Travel has been influenced by lifestyle and other forms of photography. It stops travel being a genre on its own. It’s healthy.

Are you optimistic about being part of the industry as a whole?

These are people that will take pictures for brochures. Fine but that’s not what I do. I prefer to encourage people to travel generally. To make people want to go places and it has to be sustainable tourism. If people can’t show you where they went on holiday on a map then they haven’t actually travelled there at all. I see parts of a country that I wish people would want to see. Hotels sometimes discourage people from going out. Eco-tourism is an interesting development. Looking after the environment that gets people to travel there in the first place.

LPA Insight | August 1, 2007

Here we feature the first in a series of three interviews with the internationally-renowned photographer Philip Lee Harvey. Before we take a look at two very different location shoots in Haiti and in Libya, we meet the man whose 15 years in travel photography have taken him to more place around the world than most people can name.

“I’m a travel photographer in widest sense”, says Philip Lee Harvey, whose stunning images of over 90 countries have appeared on the pages (and covers) of Conde Nast Traveller, the National Geographic Traveller, The Independent, the Sunday Telegraph, Tatler and Vanity Fair. His driving passion is the spirit of why we travel and the emotion we create by moving across place and space. A travel photographer for 15 years, Philip trained as a graphic artist before spending a brief stint as a photographer’s assistant. “I didn’t spend too long as an assistant, though” he laughs. “Too ambitious!” I ask him if he thinks his graphic design training was an interesting start to a career creating images. “Yes”, he agrees. “I’m still interested in simple graphic imagery.” This becomes clear when looking at some of his strikingly simple yet powerful landscapes and portraits. As you might expect from someone who spends two thirds of his year travelling to far-flung locations, Philip loves everything to do with the outdoors. He is especially interested in travel as exploration and is passionate about the history of exploration itself. “If I’m going somewhere new, I’ll research the history of exploration and photography in that area,” he says. “For instance, when I go to Antarctica, I’ll look at all of Frank Hurley’s work from his trips to the area and I’ll research Shackleton’s expeditions.” Philip is keen on visiting the most remote places possible, finding them the most interesting and photographically challenging. “I like to go as far as possible North, South, East and West,” he says. The list of places he’s seen is enough to turn me green with envy. I would expect such a widely-travelled person to be able to come up with a top ten of places he’d still like to visit. When I ask the question, though, he is momentarily speechless and says he couldn’t possibly choose. “At this time of year, it would need to be somewhere snowy – I love snow”, he says. He names Siberia – “an amazing place” – but no sooner is the name out of his mouth than replaces it with others, unable to choose. It seems that, no matter how long you spend exploring, there is no end of places to yearn for. So what’s next for this travelling travel photographer? Amongst a packed schedule, he is particularly looking forward to one forthcoming project. “I have an exciting trip planned for later on this year, to catch the monsoon going across India. As a yardstick I’ll look at the history of previous work done by photographers there.”

“I’m keen to do more exhibitions. I’d like to do a book at some point, but I don’t want to do it too soon. I want it to be a really good retrospective of what I do.”

We’ll be staying in touch with Philip over the next couple of months, when we’ll bring you the stories behind his fascinating images from Libya and the Sahara. The stories are almost as amazing as the photographs themselves.

HAITI “Travel photography isn’t always about tourism and filling hotel rooms. It’s also about informing people”, says Philip Lee Harvey. He travelled to Haiti with his assistant on a commission for a travel magazine and feels that it is important to show the character of this fascinating and misunderstood country. “Haiti is largely forgotten by the rest of the world,” he explains. ”Economically and strategically, it is not important to anyone else. However, it has a powerful colonial history which has left a legacy of beautiful hotels which could provide the infrastructure for a new wave of sustainable tourism. At present, tourists tend to visit Haiti as a stop-off on Caribbean cruises. They drop anchor and visit an area of beach which, unseen to them, is fenced off from the rest of the island. Elected islanders come to greet them and offer a ‘traditional Haitian’ welcome but the tourists don’t see the fence and certainly don’t see the island – and islanders – which are beyond. They leave with no clue as to Haiti’s true identity or issues.” Before Philip visited Haiti, he read “Bonjour Blanc” by Ian Thompson which discusses his extensive experiences as white man in Haiti. He met Ian, who said “You’ll never have seen anything like Haiti.” As soon as Philip arrived, he knew that Ian was right. On this job, he allowed himself more time than usual to prepare and to integrate himself, wanting both to feel comfortable and for Haiti to feel comfortable with his presence. Haiti is an amazing, historical place which was firmly on the tourist trail from the 1920s right up until the 1980s. Cole Porter wrote songs there and Graham Greene wrote novels there. Nobody these days knows much about Haiti’s history and politics. For instance, how many people know that Haiti shares an island with the Dominican Republic? Haiti is the poorest country, per person, in the Americas. It has had a range of leaders over its history – including the infamous Papa Doc and Baby Doc – but all have been overcome by jealousy and greed. It was the first freed black slave nation and had such great hopes but now it has become corrupted by greed and is ignored by the rest of the world. Philip explains what he hoped to achieve on the trip. “Travel photography can achieve more than selling hotel spaces. It can encourage people to go and spend their money to achieve sustainability and build up some of the poorest and most beautiful places in the world.” Capturing the power of voodoo was one of Philip’s intentions when shooting on this trip. Voodoo is a foundation of Haitian life and history. It unites people in a belief of death and the afterlife. Historically, slave leaders tried to stamp voodoo out as they knew it could unite slaves and give them the strength to revolt. The Haitians ‘hid’ voodoo in Catholicism so that they could practice it unobserved. As a result, voodoo now has a lot to do with Catholicism; participants dress in white and the ceremony begins much like a Catholic mass. “I spent a lot of my time trying to arrange how I could get access to a voodoo ceremony” Philip remembers. “This involved negotiating with the priest, building trust and the exchange of a bit of money! “During the ceremony, a home-made, ammonia-based drink is taken and the proceedings become more and more fuelled by this drink. The enclosed room fills with the fumes and the atmosphere gets heady. The worshippers get incredibly involved in the ceremony. They really believe and it is this, much more than the strength of the drink, which sends them into a trance-like frenzy in which they are visited by Baron Samedi, the leader of the afterlife. Voodoo followers believe that, when a person dies, they must take their evil spirits with them. If they don’t then their closest living relatives must rid themselves of the spirit by falling into a deep and violent trance. The ceremony reverberates to the strong sound of a rhythmic drum which assists the trance. Eventually the subject falls to the ground in a kind of fit. “Ceremonies are held on special occasions only – when we were there it was All Saints’ Day – a huge event. However, voodoo is in the people’s lives every day, governing their decisions. This fatalism could be said to hold them back but it also gives them an bond and unity which is important in a country so poor. Voodoo holds them together. “As the day wore on, the people became more fascinating but also more volatile. The alcohol took effect and the spirits that they believe in started to appear to them. We stayed for nine hours, around the edge of the crowd of people (partly to get enough height to shoot clean images but also to keep out of the way of trouble) before it all got too much. A woman told us that she wanted my assistant’s head – but not the rest of him! That signalled the fact that we should be on our way.” This was an important travel story for Philip to tell. It was about the place itself and travelling within it, not about tourism or sales. Philip says that people should travel to see places such as Haiti. “I hoped to demystify voodoo,” he explains. “It isn’t scary. People in Haiti need help, it is a sad country. You can’t know until you’ve been there. In the end, the story I was shooting for didn’t run as the situation in Haiti became too volatile; the country is constantly in and out of civil war. But the Haitians want people to know what they’re going through. They feel ignored.”