by Miserere

  

Haje Jan Kamps from PhotoCritic was July 2009’s F-BoM. We put on our clogs, buy a dozen tulips, and head off to enjoy some gouda with Haje while getting a few answers to our questions.

Thanks for agreeing to chat with us, Haje! Why don’t we start off finding out how you ended up in the U.K., passing through Norway, after starting off in Holland (where you were born)? (But first, tell us how to pronounce your name!)

My name is pronounced like “Higher” but without the last R. Or perhaps like “Hiya”, the greeting commonly used in Liverpool, much to my confusion when I lived there. My globetrotting ways are entirely unglamorous, actually – I was born in the Netherlands, but was dragged off to Norway when I was 5 years old or so. My dad’s a petroleum engineer, so he goes where the oil lives – my parents have done a lot of moving about, including stints in India and Trinidad. Without us, sadly, but it’s great for going on holiday, of course!

I ended up in England by accident, actually. At the time about 10 years ago, I was working part-time in a petrol station, with aspirations of being a writer. Petrol station work is intensely boring, but that meant I had a lot of time to spend in my own head, coming up with characters, plots, etc. I genuinely planned to just continue doing that: Writing the Next Great Novel, and working at a petrol station. My parents – but my mum especially – wasn’t particularly enthralled by that idea, and proposed I’d go to University.

I was going to Folkehøgskole at the time, and met someone who became a good friend, who was from the UK. Around the same time as the discussions with my parents about uni were taking place, he was filling in his uni forms, and that gave me an idea. I went to my parents and said “Ok, then, I’ll go to uni… But only if I can go to the UK”. I had expected them to turn it down, but they were rather enthusiastic about it, actually (quite obvious, in retrospect, with their globetrotting ways), and so I applied, got accepted, moved to Liverpool… and now I’m still in the UK!

How many photos do you take with your iPhone each day, and how long will it take you to start a blog about it?

At least 5 on average, I think, but I doubt I’ll be blogging about it specifically. I have done a couple of posts about the iPhone’s photography capabilities, of course, one with 100 great examples of iPhone photos, and an interview with the fantastic Sion Fullana, about how he manages to get such great results. Ultimately, however, the iPhone has a pretty rubbish camera, and while you can do pretty cool stuff with it, it’s never going to be a huge part of my photographic aspirations. It’s great for always having a camera in your pocket, however, and I do use my iPhone to show off my portfolio of photos to potential clients.

Tell us about your stint making money as a photographer. Would you go back to that?

Never. In my more inebriated moments, I liken it to prostitution. Sex, like photography, is amazing and great, but only when you’re in the mood – as soon as people start paying you for it, there are demands for quality, and you have to take photos to a deadline, not when you feel an irrepressible urge to go take pictures. To be honest, I hated it with a passion.

The problem is that when I’m working at my most creative, only one out of a thousand photos comes out well: I’m experimenting, playing, having fun, and learning all at once. Some times, I can spend hours shooting and never walk away with a single shot that I’m happy with. It’s still worth it, because I’ll have a deeper understanding of photography and why some things work and others don’t, but I challenge you to have that conversation with the bride… “Yeah, I know I took 6,000 photos at your wedding, but none of them were any good, so you can’t have any pictures”. It just wouldn’t work.

In a commercial setting, as a commercial photographer, 0.1% hit rate is completely unacceptable. You need closer to 10% – or better. Much better. As a result, you drop your creativity, and use the techniques and tricks that you know are effective. The problem is that you’re falling into cliches, and just doing the same old thing again and again. It’s dreadfully boring, but what’s worse is that you end up not taking pictures for fun anymore.

I have a lot of respect for commercial photographers, they deliver amazing work… It’s just not what I’m cut out to do

I feel the same way; once you’re paid to do something, and have to do it on somebody else’s terms, I just cannot imagine it being fun anymore. And speaking of jobs, you recently quit yours. How do you pay the rent?

I’m a writer! Currently, I’m working on several exciting books about photography—a ghost-writing project, and another book which will be published in my own name. I can’t go into details about either book, but I’ll announce the latter in due course, of course In addition to book writing, I take on other writing tasks for various agencies, and I do the occasional job from Elance.com.

How cool! Maybe you’ll send a copy over to EtL HQ so I can review it (ahem, ahem)…

In my F-BoM post I highlighted my amazement at the amount of time you seem to have on your hands. Are you the most organised person in the World? How do you do it? I’ve been thinking of getting a divorce so I can free up some time for the blog…

Well, considering it has taken me 6 months to get back to you on this interview, I guess that answers your own question I think my thing is just that I’m like a heat-seeking missile: I find something that excites me, and I go after it like a blood hound until it is completed. When I’m in ‘Ooh! Excited!’ mode, I can go for 20 hours a day without sleeping and with a minimum of food and drink, fuelled by excitement and adrenaline. That’s generally how Things Get Done in Haje-world

Is there a particular style of photography you like? Looking at your Flickr page I see a bit of everything. You seem like a jack of all trades.

I like photography on two levels: On one side, photography is a fantastic technical achievement: If you stop to think how incredible it is that we can use electronics, pieces of metal and chunks of glass to capture light… It sounds like science fiction! But I also really enjoy the artistic side of photography. It’s doable, to be documentary and very literal in your photography (“this is a picture of a bench”, “This is a picture of a goose”), but it’s also possible to go beyond that, and create or capture scenes which have an inherent artistic quality.

My photographic style is whimsical at best, but I do enjoy a challenge, I think that’s why my Flickr stream comes across as rather ADD Having said that, my two favourite photo styles are concert photography and street photography.

That would explain your latest book, Put Another Dime in the Jukebox, a how-to on photographing live music.

What is the goal you set yourself when you started your blog, and how has that goal evolved?

My very first post on the blog was about how to create a macro extension tube out of a pringles can. That post went insane, got me on Slashdot, Digg, StumbleUpon and Reddit, got me commissions from Make Magazine, and eventually was the reason that my first book was commissioned, too.

The blog started off being about DIY things to do with photography, but I eventually realised that I wanted to cast my net wider. It’s my blog, after all, and I can write about whatever I want. These days, the strapline to the blog is ‘Doing cool stuff with photography’, which is a pretty decent description. I write about fun techniques, photography ideas, things that inspire me, and all that. I try to avoid writing about equipment, because those posts are so quickly ‘old news’, and I don’t want Photocritic to be a news-driven site at all. That’s partially why the articles aren’t dated (you can find a date when something was published, but you’ll have to search around a little). That’s not a coincidence; basically, I’m hoping to write in such a way that an article written today is valid next week, next month, and next year, too. That way, I’m building up a reasonably big portfolio of articles that are worth reading whenever you fancy exploring and learning new things about photography.

The idea of a timeless article is how I tackle my Philosophical Ramblings, but sometimes I do get excited about photo news and just have to share it. Or give people my opinion, which they never ask for. Maybe you are a better human being, Haje

How do you find themes to write about?

The themes tend to find me, I think—an idea that pops into my head, a question in a comment on one of my posts, or a statement someone makes on Facebook of Twitter that makes me think… And if I feel I have something to contribute, I’ll write about it.

Do you think there’s anything new to discuss in Photography? People fixate on the equipment, but the principles driving Photography as Art are still the same they were a century ago. Is there anything new to say?

I really don’t care about equipment, it’s the least important aspect of photography… I still think that people are doing a lot of amazing things with photos, though, and I like the idea of collaboration, inspiration, and learning that the Internet offers people. I understand your question, and no, I doubt there has been much ‘new’ that hasn’t been done before. But just because there isn’t much new to say, there are always different ways of saying them, and I’d love to think that I have a way of explaining things that people can understand.

Now you need to live up to your blog’s title: What makes a good photo?

I did a post a while ago titled how to win a photography contest, which explains a lot of the things I feel strongly about. Basically, a good photo has vision, passion, and tells a story. It doesn’t have to be technically perfect, but if it isn’t, there has to be a damn good reason for it. A great photo does something unusual, makes you think, and challenges the way you look at the world. A truly great photo does all of these things and makes it seem as if time slows down. What you are looking at echoes something that speaks to you strongly. I’m sad to say I’ve never yet taken a truly great photo

Great photos are overrated—I take about one a day, and look where I am. I know it’s hard to choose, but show me a photograph you took that you’re very proud of.

I’m proud of a lot of my concert photos, and I think there are some gems among my street photography work as well. If I had to pick one, however, it would have to be a street-photo style photo I took in Vietnam last year (see below). I brought a Canon EOS 450D and a 50mm f/1.4 with me—and nothing else—for 3 weeks, and the resulting limitations were a challenge… But it also means that you eventually know your equipment extremely well. You don’t have to fuss about with changing lenses (I didn’t bring any others), lighting equipment (I didn’t bring any), Tripods (again… Didn’t have one) etc. It becomes a very pure experience, and when you occasionally get a good shot, boy does it feel amazing.

I have to agree, that is a winning portrait…even if it’s not B&W

After touring Scandinavia, where will you go next with your yellow motorbike? Let me know if you make a stop in Boston!

I would love to, but my yellow motorbike has gone to pastures new, I’m afraid. I wrote it off in a roundabout a couple of months ago, by parking it unceremoniously into the side of a peoplecarrier (what Americans would call a minivan, I believe). There’s nothing left of the bike, and I escaped with a slightly squashed knee, luckily! I’m waiting for my insurance money, and hopefully I’ll be able to buy another bike for new adventures!

Oh no! That’s so sad, although I’m glad you’re OK.

Has anyone told you that with a beard you look a bit like Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi?

Haha, no that’s a first, thank you

What inspires you to pick up a camera and shoot?

You know, I honestly have absolutely no idea. Sometimes months go by without touching my camera, other times I just can’t put it down. It varies a lot, but it depends on what I am doing, I suppose. I was working on a book in the Netherlands over Christmas, and had left my camera at home – I got the urge to take photos, and it was hideous to not have my camera in arm’s reach…

Thanks, Haje! We wish you the best of luck in your freelance future. And please keep your blog running with Dutch efficiency

Thank you!

  

  

All photos: ©Haje Jan Kamps.