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NIGEL LINACRE AND ANGELA HEYLIN, PUBLIC RELATIONS CONSULTANTS, LONDON
NICK GEORGIADES, PERSONNEL DIRECTOR, BRITISH AIRWAYS, LONDON
JOE FARMAN, SCIENTIST, CAMBRIDGE
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Nicholas Sack photographer
AN EYE FOR DETAIL
British Journal of Photography, 31 October 2001 Timothy Benn Publishing
He started out expecting to become a journalist, but Nicholas Sack was lured away by the camera. Dawn Sumner finds out more about his corporate portraiture
For the last 15 years Sack has applied his love of shapes and structure to his work as a business portrait photographer, producing portraits of some of the world's top professionals. 'Space, shape and lines offer a sort of order out of the chaos that is around us. In business portraiture you need a strong element of design in the composition. It takes an average of three minutes to read a business magazine. The reader has to be arrested quickly by both words and images,' explains Sack. With business portraiture, the photographer has to work very quickly, often with no time to recce the location before the shoot. The subject will probably want to be photographed in his or her office or the boardroom, and Sack has to make the best out of the location. 'You can make lines and shapes out of the most unpromising material. I always open people's drawers and cupboards to see what props they have that I can use.' When asked to photograph the personnel director of British Airways, Nick Georgiades, it was suggested that Sack should take him out on to the runway so that he could use a real aeroplane as a prop. 'I knew I didn't have that much time, so instead I got him to sit and hold a model plane. It is nice to mess around with reality - a grown man playing with a toy.? Sack found his way in to photography by accident while studying for a degree in transport planning. 'I was introduced to the darkroom by a friend and that was it, I was hooked. I skipped classes all the time to go out and take photographs.' His interest in photography and his role as editor of the student magazine directed him towards studying for a postgraduate diploma in journalism. Although Sack felt sure he would become a journalist he still found himself drawn to photography, and was hired on a freelance basis to take photographs for a business magazine. Many of his clients come through word of mouth, and his well-established clients include Reed Business Information and Centaur. A great observer of the finest detail, Sack is careful to examine every part of the sitter's mannerisms and hand gestures that play a part in the closer, more intimate portraits. 'I observe people to see what they do naturally. Often you sit in on the interview with a journalist. This gives me plenty of time to look at people's gestures and behaviour. I then get them to recreate that for the camera or I suggest something.' One of Sack's most powerful uses of shape and contour in a portrait is evident in his photograph of leading British scientist Joe Farman, who is famous for discovering a large hole in the ozone layer while working with a British Antarctic Survey team. When Sack photographed Farman, he was drawn to the lines of his face, and his peaceful nature. 'He was an interesting character: he had spent a lot of time in solitude and it came over pretty quickly that he was unfazed by the distractions of urban living - he seemed to be off in some calm world somewhere. I wanted to use the lines and contours of the chart to reflect the lines of the face, but I don't think I could ever have captured the peace that surrounded this man,' feels Sack. He does not think that it is possible to relate something deep within a person through a photograph: 'I think it's a bit of a myth that photography can reveal something so personal to the sitter. If we are lucky some magic from the person shines through, but really it is the job of the writer to get under the skin.' He sees photography as more of a descriptive tool. 'Things that are revealed on the surface can be more interesting than what's underneath. We should celebrate what things look like rather than trying to reveal what is under the surface.' Sack uses a Nikon F3 and FE, and also a Mamiya 645 Super. Most of his work is done using his SLR, and he prefers to use a 35mm lens for environmental portraiture and a 105mm lens for the tighter 'big head' shots. For most of his sittings he uses Multiblitz studio flashlights, bounced into umbrellas. This allows him to use a slow film such as Ilford Pan F Plus or Delta 100 Professional. 'I am not a great fan of grain, I like to see smooth tones,' he explains. Although Sack mainly works with colour transparency, he feels that b&w portraiture is neglected, and so he tries whenever possible to shoot in both. As well as a strong use of lines, shapes and textures in his work, Sack enjoys experimenting with the head of the subject in different parts of the frame - a preferred spot being bottom right-hand corner of the picture. 'I learnt that from Arnold Newman. His seminal book 'One Mind's Eye' was a great influence on me; it contains many environmental portraits and he uses the corner of the frame quite a lot'. Another huge influence in Sack's work has been American photographer Lee Friedlander. 'He has an amazing sense of geometry and composition. When I first saw his urban landscapes it felt like an electric shock running through me. His way of looking at things was so new, almost like a collage with his use of so many different planes and surfaces.' A lot of Sack's work is for large financial institutions, and people often think that this is dull work, having to take pictures of men in sober suits. 'I want to get rid of that myth. As a photographer, you feel privileged to have access to some amazing buildings. The old Midland Bank building in London is fantastic, and as a member of the general public you would never be allowed in to see such wonderful architecture.' In the 15 years that Sack has been a business portrait photographer he has learnt to take a more minimalist approach to his work. 'When you are first exploring with techniques, you tend to cram everything in to the frame. As I became more confident I was less afraid of leaving blank space in the picture. This space gives weight and balance to whatever else is in the frame.' Sack has always been open to the ideas of other photographers, reading as much as possible about different ways of working. 'Photography is one of those things where you could never say, "I have cracked it". It is a lifetime's mission, a wonderful adventure, and after 15 years I feel as though I am only one quarter of the way through,' he explains. On a continual quest to know more, Sack has begun to photograph landscapes and cityscapes, and he hopes to put together an exhibition of this work. There is no doubt that Sack's love of geometry will have an influence in this new project too.
Copyright BJP 2001
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