The bigger, the better
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PEROU!
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In Perou's book quality is everything, and
along with using a Hasselblad to achieve maximum resolution he's
also taken to setting up a portable studio in some strange places
to exert the control he's after.
Although his style is striking, there is no pinning
UK-based photographer Perou down to any one genre, and that's
exactly the way he likes it. "I have both film and stills agents
who represent me around the world," he says, "and different people
are always finding me different things to do. I rarely turn
anything down, and I love the variety: if I was spending all my
time shooting something like fashion, for example, I think I would
end up being terribly bored."
At the moment Perou is involved in a project where
he's travelling to a number of large Levi stores around Europe and
setting up a portable studio where ordinary people who have just
invested in a pair of jeans can have their picture taken wearing
their purchase. Music, portraiture and fashion are all areas the
photographer regularly explores, while he's done a series of
personal projects that have involved subjects such as clowns at a
Bognor Regis convention ("I hate them, but it was important to
confront my fears') and his client list stretches from American
Esquire through to Oxfam.
It might all be something of an eclectic mix, but
one thing that does tie Perou's output together is a focus on
quality, and it's the reason why he's primarily decided to work
with medium format kit rather than 35mm-style DSLRs.
"I've used medium format cameras for years," he says, "and when I
switched to digital I made the move to Hasselblad. I eventually
moved on to a Hasselblad H4D with a 50 megapixel back, and I
absolutely love it.
"If you are working with a DSLR and a zoom with a
wide range than it's almost too simple: I like the discipline that
a camera like the Hasselblad imposes, and it also sends out a
message to the person you're photographing. I had a shoot with
Justin Timberlake recently, for example, and he's quite into
photography and he noticed my camera and started asking me about
it. On that particular shoot it was crucial that I had some
credibility behind me because I wanted to photograph Justin
apparently being blown up by a propane gas cylinder - a real
in-camera shot not a composite - and it was important that he saw
me as someone of quality he could trust. If I came across as
someone who was just playing at things he would certainly have
refused to be involved with the shoot."
This search for control and quality in a picture
extends to the portable studio concept. "There are an awful lot of
very poor pictures taken in clubs and at live gigs," he says, "and
that's usually because the photographer is working with low level
light and in difficult conditions. I started out by setting a
portable studio up on the dance floor of a fetishist club, and I
would pull people out and shoot portraits on the spot. They were
amazing subjects and very photogenic and yet I could have wasted
the opportunity by producing low quality pictures. "I will also
sometimes take bands into my studio and set them up so that they're
playing a gig there effectively just for me. It means I can use all
of the control that a studio will give you and yet I'll still come
away with an image that has the feel of a live
performance."