Welcome to 10.Q Interviews.This section usually features interviews to Humanitarian, Cultural & Travel Photographers, their work and photography.

This week in 10.Q Interviews, Brian Hirschy:

“Brian is a working photographer living in China who has a passion for teaching photography, participating in the growing photographic community, and doing good rather than complaining in an effort to give back. In late 2009 Brian helped start a company that facilitates one-of-a-kind Lumen Dei photo tours throughout Tibet.

Brian’s passion is unique photos of unique places and people while distinctly focusing on lighting techniques and the humanity, uniqueness and creativity that is found in every culture. Brian especially enjoy showing the dichotomy of modernization and it’s effects, both good and bad, on those cultures experiencing it for the first time.” [More about Brian...]

1. Tell us about you and your photography. What got you started in photography?

First of all, I live in China and run Lumen Dei tours on the Tibetan plateau. The bulk of my photography is the 6 major minorities that share this space. We love the diversity that exists in this place and we love living in China. My photography is a combination of a few things I love – lighting and travel. I often described myself as a studio photographer who happens to live in a semi-remote corner of the world. Because of the love for these things it was only natural for me to combine the two. Due to the fact that where I live is a popular photographic destination, I feel like I’ve seen just about every kind of photograph that could come out of this place – I try to approach my photography from a different point of view. I try really hard to approach it not from the over-simplified and nostalgic view of a westerner, but of that of someone who lives here and is viewing, whether I like it or not, what is actually happening – whether it be poverty, modernization, or cultural change.

I owe a lot of my direction into photography to an old Canon AE-1 that my father owned. When I was a kid, I would go into the attic and dig this AE-1 out of a storage box and unwrap it from it’s leather case just to look at the beast. I’d then just go around all day like I was a famous professional photographer or a private eye under cover. The sound of the shutter flap on the AE-1 is still embedded in my mind as one of the most beautiful sounds in the world. It was one of the coolest things a kid could play with while growing up, or at least it was for me.

After graduating from high school I worked at a summer camp. Among my jobs was that of the camp photographer. I spent an entire summer photographing hyperactive sugar-high’d kids with no parental supervision doing dangerous things. At the end of that summer my boss, who was a former photographer, pulled me aside and told me that he though I had a natural eye and that I should consider pursuing photography as a major. Honestly, when he told me that my first thought was “Yeah right! I’m going to college to get a REAL job.”

I lasted one semester in college studying for a “real job.” I ended up graduating college with a business degree but spent the majority of my time there working on what I really loved -graphic design and web design. I almost always was friends with people who would let me borrow their cameras, since I lost the Canon AE-1 somewhere on top of a car shooting long exposures of a meteor shower, which I have yet to forgive myself for.

Long story short, I’ve always been around photography in one way or another. After many years of working around the world as a designer, programmer, and web developer, I stumbled back upon photography. Ever since then photography has been eating into my desire to do the other things.

2. How did you get into Culture/Travel photography? Where did you get your vision for it, and what are your dreams?

After graduating college, I moved to China for a while to work for a friend who was designing high-end Tibetan rugs. While living there, I travelled quite a bit. I spent 2+ months traveling through the Tibetan Autonomous Region where I simultaneously feel in love with culture and travel, and China. Once that bug has you, it’s really really difficult to think about working behind a desk again. Furthermore, I was there long enough to be exposed to the social, economic, and cultural diversity that exist in a place like this. The seeds were planted.

The desire to actively pursue cultural and travel photography kinda came out of the blue. I was “trained” by an amazing landscape photographer but was always drawn towards portraitures and lighting. As I was starting to get more and more into photography, my wife and I pulled the trigger on moving overseas to start a web design/design/art studio of sorts that would train minorities to enter into developing/modernizing economies. It was what we knew and how we thought we could make a living as well, but along the way, we started to realized that photography fit the bill more more and more. By the time we had moved, photography made more sense and was what I was more passionate about.

From the time we moved back until now, I’ve spent significant time training locals how to photograph their own culture. I also started a company that facilitates multiple yearly Lumen Dei tours throughout the Tibetan plateau and provides jobs and stimulates the local economies all while fleshing out what it looks like to live as a photographer in this culture.

My dream is to see unique ethnic photography being produced by ethnic photographers as well as to further a career in doing something I love all while giving something back to the community we live in. Our goal is to provide unique experiences through culturally and socially responsible photography – and to just keep doing what I love!

3. How do you see the Cultural/Travel photography industry today? Is it exciting to be a part of it?

I think it’s very exciting to be a part of – if it wasn’t I wouldn’t be a part of it to be honest. Culture and travel photography are doing some amazing things in that they are raising awareness of culture, society, modernization, and humanitarian issues. I’m so proud of the work that photographers have done in Haiti for drawing awareness to those needs. This field of photography inherently has the ability to create change for good – and that’s an enormous draw for not only me but others I talk to in the industry.

Overall, I think the industry is healthy and changing. You are seeing massive interest in photo tours, photo workshops, and travel and cultural photography sources on the net. These things are good but come with some new territory.

I’ve noticed that more and more people are chomping at the bit to be labelled as “travel photographers” without a whole lot of consideration of what sacrifices come with the name. People see shots from remote places, remote cultures, and remote people and wish they could be “lucky” enough to have this job. Honestly, I’ve spent a lot of nights scouting photo tours in extreme sub zero temperatures. I’ve spent weeks without bathing or eating something that looked even remotely like food. I’ve been very sick in remote places at high altitudes. I’ve been in some really crummy positions because I’m “lucky” enough to have this job. As much as I truly love it, it can eat your lunch.

Furthermore, cultural and travel photographers either live a long way away from ‘home’ or they are consistently packing and unpacking, living out of a suitcase, and in general living a pretty grueling lifestyle. I wrote a blog post a while back that talks about the personally less glamorous side of the travel photography that talks about “when it just plane sucks” [here] that attempts to discuss some of the times people don’t think about.

Making your living as a travel/cultural photographer is really difficult. Most of the people I know who are full time travel photographers make the majority of their income through other means – whether it be book sales, workshops, ebooks, seminars, stock sales, iphone apps, web design, NGO work, or long term work with established clients. So much of a persons living is made on the peripherals of the industry, and I’m not sure how many would-be travel photographers are cautiously aware of that. In the last 4 months, personally, I’ve done quite a bit of web work for clients in the states, worked for an NGO, and done design work for local businesses – all while managing to plan 6 Lumen Dei trips.

In my opinion, a dark part of the industry that still exists ,especially where I live, is that of photographers hiring out a service to take them to remote places of the country for amazing shots of the culture without any regard for the social, political, and cultural impact they have on those people. They return home, publish a book that eventually ends up in the 50% off bin at Barnes & Noble and the locals never see a dime of that money. What was the point?

The alternate side that I’ve been really proud to see, from what I can tell, is a distinct shift in giving back as photographers rather than always taking. Guys like Marco Ryan, Mario Mattei, Matt Brandon, David duChemin, Gary Chapman, and Gavin Gough are prime examples of people who trying desperately to give back something to the people they photograph as well as the industry as a whole all while making a living with photography. Not only that, but they are all good examples of people who have other irons in the fire that enable them to do what they love.

4. What are the characteristics that a good cultural photographer needs to have?

Humility, respect, awareness, sacrifice, the ability to be uncomfortable – the same characteristics that make someone a good cultural learner. Maybe more so for us photographers because of our deep desire to capture the culture in it’s purest sense rather than to just experience the culture like a tourist might. It’s never appropriate for us to break known social and cultural rules to get a shot. I can’t even count how many times I’ve not taken a killer shot just because I sensed a person was uncomfortable There seems to always be that internal tight rope between being a respectful observer and being a photographer in this field that I’m not sure exists in other photographic fields.

5. How much do you travel every year? How do you manage your family time?

Lately I’ve travelled quite a bit, but we don’t have kids so I’m free to do so. This year I’ve been on two extended trips inland through the Tibetan Autonomous Region and also through Kham. I’ve been to Thailand, Hong Kong, and Malaysia within the last 8 months. Travel in SE Asia is cheap – my wife and I try to take advantage of that fact.

Because of the nature of our business on the Tibetan plateau – we usually have 4 tours a year that are about two weeks long. Each one of these scheduled tours include almost two scouting trips that can last from 4 days to two weeks. All together than can end up being quite a bit of travel.

As far as balancing it with my family, I don’t have kids so it makes it (from what I hear) exponentially easier. My wife and I end up going on a lot of the trips together so that makes it somewhat easier to manage. On a less obvious level, I have to balance my travel with my tiredness. If I’m tired from traveling all the time and I start to be snappy to those around me, and worst of all, my wife – I know I have to pull back. The good news is that the right amount of travel for me rejuvenates me but doing it too much turns me into a real grouch.

The rule of thumb for me is that this whole business comes second to my wife. I feel like it’s easy to say that but the implementation is always difficult. My wife and I talk about what my travel schedule looks like and she has significant say in what I do and where I go. Getting her involved and giving her firm veto power is one of the smartest things a travel photographer with a family can do.

6. Who’s been an inspiration for your photography? How do you stay inspired?

There are so many people that inspire me as photographers that it’s actually hard to name names right off the bat. Honestly, I get inspired by people who are hustling and don’t pretend to be something that they aren’t. I get inspired by those that take big risks in not only their photography but in business side of photography – those that are putting themselves out there. Being ourselves is the greatest asset we have as photographers – it really inspires me to see people doing just that.

To be more specific, Zack Arias is a huge influence of mine and just a solid guy. He’s one of the nicest people I’ve ever had the pleasure of spending time with and just a real down to earth guy who knows what failure is like, knows how important family is, and knows the value of hustling.

Other guys that really influence and inspire me are Shaun Menary, Matt Brandon, David duChemin, Eric Dacus, Stephen Hunton, Philip Thomas, and Brett Harkey. These guys come from all different backgrounds in photography and all have their heads on their shoulders. There is such inspirational value in knowing who you are as a photographer, but maybe even more value in knowing who you aren’t as a photographer and these guys inspire me in that way.

I stay inspired a lot of ways. I pay the most attention to people who are just going for it and hustling to get where they want to be not only as photographers but as human beings. There is something about the human spirit that makes us turn our heads and applaud someone who is hustling – just going for it. It’s a beautiful thing. On top of that, I actually read quite a few design blogs that help my photography. I spend a lot of time talking with other photographers about their visions which helps refine mine and really inspires me to keep going and to get out and shoot as much as I can.

My biggest source of inspiration is my wife’s art. My wife is a stupid good painter. I myself not being classically trained in any sort of art, her images push me to understand composition and technique in ways that I don’t think I would be challenged to do otherwise. Furthermore, my wife strives for excellence but paints entirely for herself – “just because she loves it.” Very inspirational.

7. How do you normally approach people from other cultures? What are your limits at the moment of shooting people in need, or in a complicated situation?

Utter humility. I think my perspective has been drastically changed now that I live with the people that I photograph. I’m forced to respect them because I spend time with them and live life with them. I’m a strong believer that a photographer has to “pay” for a shot in the sense that a cultural exchange usually needs to happen- a conversation, a smile, an attempt to communicate, sitting with someone longer than you wanted to, letting them understand you as a foreigner, sharing nasty food with them. Not only does it allow a photographer to be accepted into a situation, but it’s just a part of giving back as a photographer. Plus it makes your shots better – I promise.

It really is complicated because you can’t always successfully navigate that “giving back” line. I’ve taken pictures of people without them knowing it and I’ve even angered some people by accident. There are some days that having a 30 minute conversation with someone just to get a decent shot just isn’t worth it to me – so I ‘take it.’ It’s so hard to walk that line, but the attitude of giving back needs to always be there somewhere.

To answer the question directly, I usually always approach someone if I want to take their picture and they are approachable. I usually start a conversation with the person before I ask if I can take their picture and I often times show them pictures of other people that I have seen that day. If I can’t speak the language I’ll often times sit with them and watch or do whatever they are doing as a sign of respect. So what if they say I can’t take their picture?

8. Is social media/Internet important in promoting your work? What are some downfalls of social media?

I participate in social media to be part of a community and to view, discuss, and understand other photographers work and viewpoints on the certain issues. If social media didn’t do one single thing to help my career, I’d still fully participate in it.

That being said, I’d be foolish to say that it’s not a powerful community and networking tool, which in turn has a positive affect on my business and has brought about some amazing relationships. The Lumen Dei tours we run with Gavin, Matt, and David are all promoted within social networking circles – blogs, twitter, forums, etc. In that way social media is a huge component of our business and marketing.

The opposite side is what we see happening more and more. You have some photographer who randomly follows 1,900 people on Twitter in order to have 300 follow them back. People know when you are being fake. I believe another downfall of social media is how it can seemingly replace the face-to-face networking that has been so important in my photographic career. Some of the most important business opportunities I have ever had have come from spending money and time to go meet with someone. I think that twitter is unfortunately starting to replace that in some ways.

Nonetheless, social media is truly awesome. It levels the playing field in so many ways for people who don’t have the money to market themselves to get out and do just that. It’s absolutely amazing to participate in a truly international community of photographers. Think about it – I’m sitting here writing an interview for a guy who lives in Iraq while I’m sitting in Western China.

9. Tell us about the last piece of gear that you deemed important enough to buy?

You gear heads are going to hate me for this, but the most important pieces of gear that I own is are a super low temperature down sleeping bag and a 800 fill down jacket. I know, I know… it’s not some sexy lens, light, or camera body, but hey… what good is a dead photographer? And no, this response was not produced under duress via David duChemin.

10. What would be your advice for a photographer who is just starting out in this field? What is the biggest obstacle you see facing new photographers who want to work on this type of photography?

My number one bit of advice is to be realistic. Be real about who you are as a photographer, the skills that you have, the weaknesses that you have, where you are going, and what it’s going to take to get to where you want. Photography can take a lot from you and it’s important to figure some things out before you are too far down the road financially and relationally.

I think everyones obstacles are a little different. My wife and I don’t have kids and debt, so those obstacles weren’t mine when we decided to do this. That being said, I think a big obstacle that a lot of photographers don’t expect is the pure business side of the industry. I spend more time writing proposals, writing emails, discussing business on skype, figuring out tour costs, talking to government officials, and doing a budget than I do behind a camera. Business doesn’t do itself and as narcissistic as it sounds, if you aren’t getting paid for something you aren’t going to be around long.

www.brianhirschy.com

Brian in Facebook

Brian in Flickr

Twitter: @bhirschyphoto