It’s not easy getting hold of Sue Bryce these days. The Kiwi-born photographer who was last year named Australia’s Portrait Photographer of the Year (and NZIPP’s Overseas Photographer of the Year) has a daunting schedule for the first months of 2012 including presentations in Las Vegas, Seattle, Canada, Brazil and Hong Kong.
But behind her growing global reputation lie years of hard work — and the stubborn self-belief to stick with her own style through years during which ‘glamour’ had fallen out of photographic fashion.
“I’ve always specialised in glamour — so I was never going to be a wedding photographer or do family portraits or babies,” says Bryce. “Glamour was the biggest thing around when I started out, but then it sort of died.
“So I was trying to keep my own style alive and at the same time integrate and evolve my brand when glamour had become a dirty word. It was like ‘Glamour? Really?’ But I had to keep persevering. Then all of a sudden it’s done this big loop and now I get, ‘Wow — where have you been?’ So I waited a long time but I never wanted to be anything else. Portraiture was it for me.”
Although her career included a short stint in commercial fashion, Bryce didn’t take to the industry. >
“It felt difficult, shallow and didn’t pay well. Portraiture pays better and I got to connect with real people who really loved what I was doing.”
Fans of her work are now in plentiful supply as the fickle tides of fashion have turned in her favour; re-embracing a style that ruled when Bryce first kicked off her photographic career in New Zealand.
“I was 18 when I started working and at the time glamour was the biggest genre in the world. And I’m a girly girl — I like make-up, hair, jewellery, shoes… so it was natural I would be drawn to that.”
Her entry into the world of photography was via the retouching room at Chromatech, then Auckland’s biggest professional lab.
“They employed eight artists and my mum was artroom manager. That was before the advent of Photoshop and I spent four years there doing retouching work: airbrushing, dye blending.”
By then she had already explored other career options.
“When I left school I did hair and make-up for two years, then graphic design. But I didn’t really enjoy any of that. Then when I started at the lab, I bought a Minolta X300 and started to shoot… ”
Most of the artroom technicians were either practised or wannabe photographers, notes Bryce, but it quickly became her full-time focus. After leaving the lab, she moved into what she describes as a ‘dream job’ — working at a Ponsonby photographic studio.
“It was the ultimate, a job as a paid photographer. I turned up at 10am in the morning, did my shoots and left at five. It really was a fantastic job. Through it, I learned everything about my trade and, meanwhile, got paid to build this incredible folio. So by the time I left to go out on my own 10 years later, I had my style and my folio.
“I think it’s the greatest gift you can be given — to work in the industry before you try and start your own business. So many young >
photographers want to go over the top straight away. They don’t realise how hard it is to > sustain an income and build a portfolio, and get paid at the same time.”
Making the leap into self-employment was still a big learning curve. Looking back, Bryce is proud she was able to build a portrait business from zero up to $20,000 a week as a single woman in her home garage. But, she says, there were a million challenges.
“Firstly, that most creative people have trouble running a business. It doesn’t have much in common with taking good photos. You have to learn about marketing, selling, accounting, managing staff… The challenge is in being all those things at once. You are the creative, the technician, the marketer, the salesperson, the business owner. Not many people can tick all those boxes.
“I probably learned more in my first two years of business than [I had to date] in my whole life.”
Helpful advice was then hard to come by and employing a business coach proved of limited value.
“He gave me some very basic business advice like save 20 per cent and pay yourself 10 per cent, but he knew nothing about my industry. Today, I know of at least 10 well-known Australian photographers who educate and do talks and have websites dedicated to helping you run your business better, so that information is now very accessible.”
It was when she took on a business partner and they combined brains and experience that things took off.
“I taught her about my industry and she taught me how to save and make money. That’s when we became successful. We were a powerful team, we both brought strengths where the other lacked. I couldn’t sell my work or save money. Business is just common sense and I lacked fundamentals on money management then.
“It was one of the greatest lessons I learned and you can teach yourself to manage money.”
However, she reckons Australians are more open about sharing information than Kiwi photographers who seem a bit more concerned that, in educating others, they might cannibalize their own market.
“It’s just a way of thinking, but I don’t really believe you can teach people all they need to know in a two-day workshop. You might give them some skills but improvement takes time. At the end of the day you don’t wake up a better photographer, you have to work at it.”
Her own photographic journey has been one of ongoing refinement.
“There are certain things that now have a higher hit rate when I’m shooting. For instance, I can’t be tripped up on body type any more. I’ve photographed over 5000 women so I think I have a pretty good grasp on what body types move well, [or] which look good in a particular pose.
“I’m more experienced, I don’t let older clients run over me like I did when I was younger. I have more control in my studio and more control when I’m shooting. And I’m definitely more into service than I was when I was younger.”
The essence of her style has changed little.
“When I look at older work I’ve done, it doesn’t look too different to what I do now.”
It’s all about showing women at their best, not faked up but looking how they want to look,” says Bryce.
“Glamour can be a misleading word. It suggests you need to be styled or over-styled. But everyone looks beautiful in their own way — in their own clothes, their hair done the way they want it. You don’t get heavy make-up if you don’t want it. People just want to feel really good about how they look and that is really easy once you start shooting.”
She always asks how people want to be photographed and then helps create the sort of images they love or those they most identify with.
“No one gets manufactured. You can’t clone people and you have to listen to your clients. If you’re not listening, you’re probably missing the opportunity to give them what they want. If you’re just cookie cutting — stamping out the same sort of shot — you’ll just get average sales.
“I want to create a product of desire in terms of how people want to be photographed. I want it to be about them. I want them to get excited about and invested in the shoot prior to them being here — turning up knowing they are creating something they want to own, their dream shot.” >
Her enthusiasm for her craft is catching and it’s something she encourages others to
embrace. During the seminars she gave at last year’s NZIPP conference in Rotorua, Bryce stressed the need for passion about every aspect of business, not just the creative part. For her, it was a discovery that changed her mindset about the business of photography.
“I never really understood what people meant when they talked about working with passion. How do you get passionate about doing tax returns? Then I read this amazing book by Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now, in which he defines passion as enthusiasm.
“So when you’re really excited by what you do, it translates into this energy, a positive presence that I think everyone is drawn to. And it’s easy to be enthusiastic about my work because I love it.
“I love creating images that make a woman look beautiful and I also love creating a business model and designing a brand… and yes, you can do accounts enthusiastically. I can get excited because I’m making money and business is great — and the more excited I get about what I do, the more infectious it becomes and along the way I realised that ultimately enthusiasm is the secret to everything.”
All of which is summed up in a saying that Bryce has displayed in her studio for nearly a decade. “What we vividly imagine, ardently desire and enthusiastically act upon must inevitably come to pass.”
These days, her enthusiasm for growing her business is starting to generate some serious payback. Talent, she says, will get you so far — but not as far as ambition.
It was ambition that prompted her move to Australia three years ago with aspirations for developing a more international profile.
“On a personal note, I am 40 years old and don’t have children. My business is my baby. And as much as I enjoyed building my studio in New Zealand, there is only so far you can go in a small country. Australia has 22 million people and it was a natural progression to take my business a step further.”
It’s been a slog but being dubbed Australia’s Portrait Photographer of the Year is certainly proof she has made her mark — and not just across the ditch. When Bryce spoke to D-Photo she was off to host WPPIU classes in Las Vegas before going on to Seattle to feature in photographer Chase Jarvis’ CreativeLive online broadcasting series. Not surprisingly her workshop focuses on glamour and in it she shares a lot of what she has learned over the years — including the secrets of feminine posing, hair, and make-up, as well as her ‘powerful marketing techniques’.
It is, she says, another step in boosting her global recognition — and perhaps cementing her reputation as the ‘guru of glamour’.
This article is from D-Photo issue 47. Get your copy
here.
Author: Vicki Jayne
I really enjoyed listening to Sue Bryce, I found her quite amazing . I love her photographs and would love to have a portrait of Victoria photographed by her.
I was very inspired by Sue and her story , both being kiwis I felt very drawn to her and took time to listen and watch her videos . I found her to be very honest and she believed in what she did and could do.
Sue could take any type, shape , colour , tall or short women and make them look beautiful . She had a excellent rep ore with her subjects and I felt she stayed in the moment with them through the entire procedure of their portraits in such an honest and dedicated way.
I would definitely use her techniques for placement of subjects if I was to ever to do child / mum photography in a studio set up but for my portfolio I am taking photographs of children in their environment, running around and playing with their toys, books etc. I wasn't going to be in any of the images with my kids but I thought this research definitely helped me and I got some great ideas from Sue for future projects.
This is my shot of glamour haha Tamati in the bath looking right at the camera in a very cute way.
The bubbles I think add to the glamour they look sparkly like some expensive material . My image is slightly out of focus but I feel I captured a dreamy pose from Tamati.
