Jason Ierace – Gun For Hire

Finding cool stuff online is like making rapid fire but unrelated connections in your brain – one second you’re thinking about puppies and the next you’re contemplating life on Mars. How does it happen? Random. But interesting. Stream of conscious. Starting out with lord only knows what at this point, I skipped across photographer Jason Ierace‘s work when someone suggested his piece “Anna” is a brilliant example of how not to fuck up a fashion video.

The Aussie photog (who studied photography at UWS in Sydney) has been shooting since the early 90s, but walked away for a few years to concentrate on graphic design and creative direction. About six years ago he decided to get back into the game full time, and, while his graphic/creative work is probably stellar, we can all be thankful that he decided to get back behind the lens.

Why does he shoot?

I love the mixture of the technical aspects of photography and the creative aspects, he says. I love toys and gadgets and making beautiful images with them.

Photography is ever changing and there’s a lot of great stuff out there, so I just do what I do for now and move on to something else next. You can’t be too precious about it. You’re basically a gun for hire most of the time, as Helmut Newton once said.

Equipment?

Mostly Canon kit, but I love shooting on different Polaroid cameras that I have collected, Hasselblad gear and I am LOVING my new Fuji X100 right now.

Favourite thing to shoot?

Beautiful girls in beautiful locations…

How do you prepare for a shoot?

I guess I just flick thru books and magazines, trawl the internet and get inspiration. I guess it really depends on the job.

What are you listening to on set?

Ha.. I try not to put my iPod on shuffle on a shoot, that’s for sure. I think it would scare everyone. It depends on the shoot and the people, but mostly I put on upbeat, fairly inoffensive tunes that that everyone likes to listen too.. I’m not a music snob.

When you’re not behind the lens, what are you getting into?

I pretty much spend my time surfing. Checking the surf, playing with and trying knew boards, hunting for surf. Travelling up and down the east coast of Australia looking for waves. I live in Sydney’s northern beaches and it gets pretty crowded. It does my head in sometimes, so I need to travel out of Sydney for a bit of sanity.

Worst shoot experience?

Usually its dealing with the weather, but I guess my worst experience was shooting a bunch of celebrities for a magazine, and my laptop died. Luckily it was only the display so managed to salvage everything and get a new laptop by the end of lunchtime, so we continued… a little nerve racking tho.

Favourite shoot experience?

When you get a great model in a great location and everything goes smoothly and you get some great pics. I shot this girl down the south coast of Australia. It was for Quiksilver and they only really needed 1 shot. We shot for a few hours, the light was great, the beach was amazing and the model was insane… so perfect.

Who inspires you?

I’m really inspired by many people. There are so many great photographers around at the moment and it’s my peers that really push me. I’m really inspired personally by a lot of stuff that came out of the 60′s and 70′s.. I would have loved to be at my peak in those times. I like the simplicity and elegance of everything back then.

People like Sam Haskins really inspire me as it was the ’60s and ’70s when he really made a name for himself. I had the pleasure of assisting him a few years back .. quite a few times… he was amazing. Shooting fashion for Harpers Bazaar at 80 years old. A legend in my eyes. It was sad to hear of his passing not so long ago.

What makes a perfect picture?

There are so many things, but a perfect picture to me is something that when you look at it, it creates an emotion or creates a story from that one image.

If you could shoot anyone/thing, what would it be?

There are sooo many people I would love to shoot, from celebrities to some of the super models from the ’80s . My list is extensive, I cant just name one…

What projects are you working on right now?

I have lots of little things going on now… but I’m still just playing, experimenting and having some fun with it all.. after all, you cant take this industry and yourself too seriously… look what we do for a living.. its pretty fun.

If your images could talk they’d say…

Wow that was fun making this shot, lets do it again. ha.

In five years I’ll be…

5 years older and 5 years wiser…. I feel like I’m still learning every day …