Menu Zoeken

Andrew Boag

Andrew Boag. Geboren in 1969, Director communications agency Twofish.
Australian born Andrew Boag studied marketing, communications and strategy. He was head of PR at Canon Europe in Amstelveen for eight year before he joined Twofish Amsterdam in 2006.

'We use photographers from all across Europe. Photographers from Germany who are extremely good in product, automotive photography. Or we work with celebrity photographers in the UK or guys that are more in the British, celebrity, pop area. We have an international focus. There are some good product and commercial photographers in the Netherlands who we use extensively.'

'The British are extremely good talkers and communicators. They are usually very interested in the media and the celebrity area. Guys like Rankin or Andy Earl, they know everybody in the industry, all the top musicians and artists. The Germans tend to be very – as the stereotype is – technical, sometimes lacking a bit of soul. So if they do a photo shoot of a Porsche, they do a brilliant job. They are technically on the edge of what is possible. So we use guys like Richard Walch, also for extreme sports, like snowboarding. He is unbelievable; he is beyond anybody in how far he can push technology. And then you have everything in between. You got classic Dutch photographers who do product photography, some really good guys, solid. Product photography sounds boring, but technically it is very difficult. If you ask a normal photographer to shoot a product that will take him all day to set up lighting and it will still be wrong. Whereas with a good product photographer they can do it in an hour and half.'

According to Andrew the impact of the digital revolution on photography differs: 'At the very top end of commercial photography it has probably made somewhat less of a difference than in other areas. If you are doing a commercial photo shoot that takes a week and you have set ups that last for 5 hours, with stars, make up, lighting, props and wardrobes. When it is about the one shot or a couple of shots that will be a campaign, the big brands, will still spend 10 to 50.000 euro a day on a photographer, at that top commercial level.

Digital has affected the advertising industry a lot at the low end.
You have things like the stock libraries where you can download images, and that is only possible because they are digital shots. And if you are doing websites or basic lay out things it is extremely cost effective. You don't have to commission the work, and you can see it before you buy it. At that end of the spectrum of commercial usage, which is the bulk, things have changed immensely.'

'There used to be a lot more money in photography for agencies and a lot more money for photographers. Because it was a black art. Film, retouche. People could not take a photo of that caliber. Now thanks to guys like Canon nearly everybody has an EOS camera. Clients have the idea that they understand how it works, about what can be done, what is possible. So they tend not to value it as much.'

Is film going to push photography into oblivion?
'A couple of years back, I remember a friend of mine showed me streaming television across the web. I found that pretty mind blowing. People are used now to watching moving image and expect moving images. Five years ago that was not the case, there was no bandwidth. There is a different expectation. That has changed the news industry and photojournalism in the sense that there is a demand for moving images and not for that one still image, the one iconic shot. We don't get the paper once a day, now we log on every half hour to see what is happening. It is a continuous feed of information.

In the advertising area it has become less expensive to produce video. Only three years ago some big brands were spending near two million euro for a TV commercial. Some companies maybe still are, but that is vanity I think, because the technology is there to do it for a fraction of the costs now. Final cut is on nearly every computer. You have HD shooting from photo cameras, which rival Arri's. The technology is there and a lot of people are tapping into it.

Technology partly drives creativity, partly it breaks it down, commoditize it. People complain it is not like the old days, but that is what happens. '

Social skills? 'That is decisive, absolutely, sure. It is about the photographer client relationship and about the ability to communicate with the subject. If they are good communicators, they are good at both. I mentioned Richard Walch, extreme sports, just water and snow. And this guy is unbelievable good communicator and he is just so engaging. He convinces you that the project you give him is the most amazing project in the world. And you know he will not let you down. He will break his back to do better than you expect from him.'

'The problem with a lot of creative's is, that they come back with ten brilliant, creative ideas, but they are all totally off the briefing. They may be genius, but they are not on the brief. So in the commercial sector you need someone that can understand the brief and then go much further with the concept, That, that is pure gold dust.'

Will computer generated imagery replace product photography?
'A lot of car manufacturers already provide CAD based drawings, which you can drop at any angle into a background. It is not always possible though. For example, it is not possible with motorcycles, because the manufacturer does not own a lot of the visible parts, like the suspensions. In their CAT drawings those parts are missing. So you cannot use them.

I think product photography and high end commercial photography for certain sector of the industry will always be valuable. Because some brands are primarily image driven, particularly in fashion. The way it works is that they shoot a set of key visuals for the season or the year and those are the emotional key image they use on all their material. Fashion brands are all about the image. It has been like that for over a hundred years and it is not changing But in other areas it might not be so important. It depends on the industry.'