Action sport photographer Scott Needham is the kind of guy that’d make airlines rethink their frequent flyer rewards programs – he’s yoyo’d around the globe to capture the finest surfers, skaters and snowboarders at their game so many times over the past decade that he’s covered more distance than your average space-exploratory shuttle mission… well, almost.
But apart from swanning around exotic locales to capture indelible images of athletes at their peak, Scott has also been responsible for some of the most striking ad campaigns the action sports industry has seen to date – meaning the poor bloke is also a regular on fashion shoots with scantily clad bikini models as part of his photo gig too. If you’ve ever spotted the photo credit of SNP5000 on a killer shot and wondered who was behind the lens, here’s the fellow you were after…
Q: Your website folio is divided into sections like action, travel, portraits, fashion and commercial work. Which would you consider your forte?A: Sport + lifestyle would be my strengths in that it’s what I do. Photography was alluring to me as it was great to have more than mental images of the surf trip you just returned from, or the mountain you hiked in the snow. Doing what I like to do, the lifestyle, and capturing it is a long held passion for me. It tells a story.And I have the memories in the back of my head.And in the back of my camera.Pretty cool for rainy days and getting nostalgic.
Q: What model camera kick-started your love affair with photography?A: Any Kodak point and shoot camera. Load the film cartridge and you were off. Then waiting a week for the film to come back from the chemist [pre 1hr labs]. We were kids and the torture of waiting so long to see photos of us flicking our skateboards off the top of the ramp. Every day,after school,we would go by the chemist to see if they had arrived. I think the Leica rangefinder intrigued me the most, though Nikon was king when I first began professionally. Hasselblad was for wealthy Austin Powers types it seemed.My dad had three cameras but wouldn’t let me touch them!
Q: Do you get excessively excited about new equipment/ new tech gear on the market?A: In some ways, yes. It’s always nice to see a new flagship model, but with technology so out of control, the never-ending upgrades, programmes, patches and firmware becomes tedious. The basic principles of photography haven’t changed at all -- and that is light, frame and composition. Technology is now beyond our needs as image-makers, and I actually miss BC [before computer] photography workflow. If anything, photography as I know is in a state of creative decline in that the classic images we've enjoyed for so long are now computer generated images, re-worked or re-created. It’s not often you'll see iconic imagery like we used to. Nowadays everything is branded and/or sponsored to death,leaving little room to breath.
Q: How did you get you first break into paying photo gigs?A: I used to skate a lot and shot skate and music photos, as I loved it. I worked in restaurants/cafes just to save for a camera and film. When images were published I would be paid an editorial payment. The payments have remained largely low. In fact, they’ve hardly changed since I first began.
Q: So you’re not filthy rich then? Maybe just with life experiences! What's been your most memorable assignment?A: There have been a few for different reasons. Some for the innate beauty of a place, others for the people involved. I’d have to say that 2 weeks off Madagascar in a sailing boat with little fresh water or food, and we had to fish to eat was a challenge. The fact that we delighted in last remnants of chocolate and baked these hash cookies didn’t help our cause either. Stories exist but I can’t kiss and tell…they’re lost at sea!
Q: Worst work experience?A: Anytime you land in a foreign land and your bags and are in a completely different foreign land. Letting British airways check my camera bag in the hold, saying: "Don’t worry, we’ll take good care of it!" then being summonsed by Heathrow ground staff to pick up all the camera pieces below the plane on the tarmac as they didn’t actually have something soft at the other end of the baggage slippery slide...
Oh, and the one time my camera wouldn’t sync with flash. I did a group portrait and when the film came back it was black. Canon sent a letter of apology to the client explaining their poor repair work. Drowning a camera in water housing isn’t pretty either.
Q: You've done heaps of bikini shoots yet seem to have avoided the creepy surf photographer stereotype -- nothing excessively busty or sleazy. Has that been a conscious thing?A: Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder... each to their own. I look for more enduring, timeless beauty in things. Ultimately, what we see as typical nowadays was, in fact, risqué 40 years ago so, it’s really contextual and relative to the times we live in. Helmut Newton was considered sleazy. Now, and since his passing, he is considered a pioneer, capturing the power of woman and defining beauty. Conversely, nowadays every magazine cover is exactly where playboy was 40 years ago, yet it is considered normal. In fact, Playboy has fallen off in that its genre is no longer men’s but fit for mass consumption. Sex sells at Wal-mart too!
Q: Ever get sick of being on the road?A: Post 9/11 I’d have to say it is harder in every way. Plus the Internet has changed a lot for everybody - you can explore the world from your computer... A virtual know it all.
Q: What's next for SNP5000?A: Going surfing, having a family and learning a lot more. I think I forget more than I learn. Who knows where we’ll be in five years…