“Show Notes”
Marcus started as a bass guitar session musician. He did this freelance for about ten years during the 90s. So, in his early 30s, he had a change of direction. He got hold of a camera and thought this was what he wanted to do next. He realised that as a session musician, he was always playing other people’s ideas, while with photography, he could be much
morecreative.
Marcus then went to university to study photography. While studying, he worked as a session musician and photographer. He moved after university to be an assistant in the fashion and advertising world at the end of the 90s.
Marcus then moved to hair and beauty photography in the US. His sister was working in that world, and he went over and joined her. So, he ended up in New York, doing beauty and hair shoots. Then also for advertisers. He did this until the financial crash of 2008, when it all started getting quieter. IN 2010, Marcus was offered a post as a university lecturer. They wanted to start a fashion photography course and asked Marcus to run the course. This was the first time Marcus had ever had a job interview. Marcus was a lecturer for about ten years. He said by the end he was missing doing his photography.
He wanted to stay in Bristol and decided that he would go into branding photography and set up his business about 6 years ago. He also does some teaching and has lots of ideas for this going forward. Marcus still does music. His band (sub-jagger) have just done their last gig. He is also part of a wedding funk band.
“Show Transcription”
Sam: Hello, Marcus, how are you doing?
Marcus: I am very well, Sam. And how are you?
Sam: Excellent. Sorry, caught me drinking water. Excellent. Thank you, Marcus. Very, very good. Right. And like with the other show where you interviewed me, my guest today is Marcus Ahmed, photographer extraordinaire. So welcome Marcus to the show. Must be unusual for you to be here.
Marcus: I made a special effort. I didn’t know anything. And now you told me it’s not even being videoed.
Sam: There we go. So, Marcus, where do we start? So, so when did your photography career kind of start? When did you first kind of move from that amateur photographer? Amateur to professional even.
Marcus: So, yeah, Sam, thanks for asking. I came to photography quite late, really, in my mid 30s. Before that, yeah, before that, I was doing an another creative subject, albeit I was a musician before that.
Sam: Oh, of course you’d said that. Yeah. OK, so and you’ve done that literally since leaving school.
Marcus: Yeah, really. You know, just about I started playing bass guitar and that’s my instrument of choice when I was 10 years old. So, you know, coming up now, I’ve been playing still playing bass. So I’ll be doing it for like 50 years. So, yeah.
Sam: Wow.
Marcus: You know, funny enough, not really that young as far as some musicians started.
But young enough.
Sam: I mean, in terms of a bass, if you’re much less than 10, you won’t be able to reach the bloody thing. Let’s be honest.
Marcus: It’s quite a big instrument, big old fat strings. Yeah, yeah. So I started off doing I was a chess musician, moved up to London and I was employed to play and play on people’s records.
Sam: OK, so were you with freelance or were you with just like one studio sort of thing?
Marcus: No, it was freelance, Sam. Yeah. So basically you’d be contacted mainly by producers of the record. They come and say, OK, using this band. They need a bass player to come and play this on. Or I might do a jingle or something like that, you know.
Sam: And that was your whole work, was it, for that time?
Marcus: Yeah, I did that for pretty much full on for about 10 years. Yeah. From, you know, early 20s up to about mid 30s. And then. Yeah. And I had my own band as well, and we had a record deal. So, yeah, it was all good fun. Rock and roll and all that kind of thing was it was all it’s cut up to be cut out to be.
Sam: Excellent. So so what it won’t you say your band? So what kind of what era are we talking with your band? When was their kind of peak? Yeah, kind of popularity talking 90s was that.
Marcus: Yeah, my band was in the mid 90s. Yeah, classic mid 90s.
Sam: OK. Yeah. Yeah.
Marcus: Right. Yeah. And but I I got hold of a camera, you know, quite a nice camera.
I was I bought a friend of mine and I suddenly thought, thought this is what I want to do next. And I think what I realized with doing music, I was always playing in other people’s records. And what I wanted really was a bit more. And I thought, I’m never going to be a singer. I know we’re going to be a songwriter. But I saw with this camera, it was an opportunity for me to go and be in control and have my own ideas and just doing my own thing. So that’s when I got that, I said, oh, this this is be a great my next step. So I really delved right into it. No messing about. I started off, did my sitting guild, which is like a night course, did that about six months. And then just to see how if I was any good and my tutor said to me, oh, look, you know, you should go to study this. Take it further. You know, you could have got an ability for this.
Sam: Sorry about that. Meat delivery.
Marcus: Well, literally an alligator, an alligator, if I’m sure.
Sam: I don’t know pork chops.
Marcus: Oh, very nice. I like very nice. Oh, he’s gone again. I quite like anything to do on this. I do. Do you want to carry on or do you want to start again? It can be quite of editing on this for you so far.
Sam: Or just carry on. It’s fine. So, yeah, you did you finish what you were saying or did I cut you off?
Marcus: No, I think you cut me off.
Sam: It was so you were basically you’d been saying that you were college. Yeah, you were. Yeah, that’s it. So maybe Karen from the college.
Marcus: But yeah, OK. So, yeah, I went to college at Bournemouth to do my National Diploma, which is a great course to do down there because it was very vocational, it’s very industry focused. And then after that, I did my degree for three years in Brighton, an editorial photography degree, which is basically, you know, photography of magazines, journals and that kind of thing. And it was all.
Sam: So I mean, so you were four years training. You did like a sort of intro course for a year and then a three year degree.
Marcus: And two years, two years as a National Diploma as well. So about five, six years in total.
Sam: Whoa. So the National Diploma was after the degree.
Marcus: The before the degree you do it before. It’s like a course intro into a foundation. That’s the word I’m looking for.
Sam: So how are you funding all of that? It was like, were you still being a musician?
Marcus: And yeah, I’m looking back and I find it’s a good question. I was still doing music. I was doing TV shows and stuff like that, still doing music. And also I was working because I’d worked as a session musician. I knew just, you know, I had to get there and start working straight away. Start selling myself with photography.
Sam: Right.
Marcus: You know, I sort of knew how to do it, really. So, yeah, soon as I was still I was working all the way for universities.
Sam: OK, so you were while doing the training, you were also getting jobs as a photographer and working as a session musician as well.
Marcus: Yeah. And, you know, the college was fine. The university quite encouraged that. They had equipment you could borrow. They had dark rooms you could use. So it worked out well. Yeah, and that’s how I started. And I guess the other piece to that puzzle, I did then go and assist, went back to London and assisted for another four years and top of that as well.
Sam: OK, but that’s paid the assisting role.
Marcus: Yeah, yeah, that’s paid. Totally paid. Good money. OK, so you say, OK.
Sam: OK, that’s interesting. OK, so then so when when was it that so we’re talking when you finished the assisting, what sort of when are we talking roughly? Is that kind of end of the 90s then?
Marcus: Exactly right, Sam, you’re looking at the end of the 98, 99. But did this come up there because I yeah, I remember starting and I was shooting, you know, but mainly what I was shooting there was fashion.
Sam: OK, so when you were assisting, it was all fashion. Was that London based fashion photography then?
Marcus: Yeah, it was an advertising, mainly really, really huge campaigns advertising.
And my own work was fashion as well. So I was working for magazines, you know, not for party any money. But that was the thing at the time is all magazines. You know, there’s loads and loads of magazines around.
Sam: Yeah, yeah.
Marcus: I’m sorry. And the weekly period, you know, Sunday Times magazine, the color something like that, you know, garden style guy. They all, you know, what is the mainstay of photography in those days?
Sam: OK, so then you what happened then? So you finished your assistance, you felt you’d prepared, but you’ve done a lot of training here now, Marcus. You’re ready for the world. So where did you go then?
Marcus: Yeah, I well, I started to think about money.
Sam: I’m not surprised after all of that.
Marcus: That’s right. And I started to realize, yeah, you know, in the fashion game, for me, anyhow, there wasn’t, you know, I was enough money to sustain or make a career out of it.
So I all that, all that period, I’ve been my been working. My sister is a hairdresser, as you know, she’s been on the show.
Sam: Yeah.
Marcus: And I was my portfolio of work that I photographed for her. And I suddenly thought, well, why don’t I just shoot more hair photography, hair and beauty? Because it’s more commercial. I enjoyed doing it. And you got paid better for it. She was she was working over in America. So I basically went over there, you know, I stayed there when I could start showing my portfolio around. And people were very receptive, receptive to it in the hair industry. They sort of looked at my portfolio as being I remember the word they used. It’s very edgy, edgy portfolio. But of course, it would be because it was fashion and hair at that time was sort of a very sort of traditional way.
Sam: Very staid sort of thing. Very, very standard shot.
Marcus: Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, they can just put over there with a sort of bit more edgy work. They loved it. And yeah, so I started working in New York. And I was also doing I was working printing as well. I go to I hire a lab and I do colour printing for photographers in New York as well, so I was experimenting with that. But yeah, I do my own photo shoots and then started working for a lot of hair magazines and then eventually working in L.A. and other places and talking around America, working, doing yeah, for advertising for hair, for Weller, Colliston, people like that.
Sam: OK, interesting. How long were you doing that for?
Marcus: Guys, it’s like a timeline, isn’t it? That
Sam: It is.
Marcus: Yeah, I started my studio in London at that time as well. That was good. That was in the background. So I had all my gear and I come back and, you know, if I need to refresh myself, I’d be at the studio or do a shooting in England. I’d have that even though it was a small studio. And I remember, yeah, it was about 2008 and it all started to go quiet with that big crash. Did we in 2008? Atlantic. It’s all started to get a little bit tricky. So I’ve had about I think was was it 2010, mid-2000? I got offered a job teaching at university in Wales, in South Wales, University of South Wales.
Sam: How did that come about?
Marcus: I knew one of the lecturers.
Sam: Right.
Marcus: At this university, he’s a documentary photographer and they had a really, really strong documentary photography course there. And they wanted to open up a fashion photography course, fashion advertising. And he knew I was doing that. And they wanted the course to be what they call vocational based, which is very industry focused as opposed to being theoretical. And, you know, research, they wanted to be more. And so I basically that’s what gave me the edge because I was obviously very industry based.
Sam: Yeah.
Marcus: So, yeah, so I knew that I knew this university, the course had in Newport was really had a really high standing. So, you know, I thought this could be a great opportunity and also to settle down and, you know, get a house, get a dog and all that kind of thing.
So I came down to the West Country, came down here, went to university and it was the first university, the first interview I ever had for any job whatsoever. So I really know in order to do really. But lo and behold, I got the job.
Sam: There we go.
Marcus: And yeah, I’m one of the people who said to me, do you realize you are now a senior, they’ve made you a senior lecturer. And I goes, no, what does that mean? And they had to explain to me what a senior lecturer, oh, my lord. OK, that’s quite a lot to take on. But there you go. So I did that to a senior lecturer of fashion photography for about 10 years. I did that. And then, yeah.
Sam: OK. Yeah. And so what what made you move away from that?
Marcus: I was missing doing my own photography. I was missing my own photography, really, you know. No politics involved, you know, cutting down courses. It was all you know, it was a sort of curve to it was great. And then it started. Yeah, it went down just like with any job, really, I guess. But I wanted to do my own photography. And so, yeah, that’s and then I thought, what can I do? I could I could go. I didn’t want to go back to London. I couldn’t go back to London and start doing fashion again. There was not much fashion industry down in Bristol where I live. So I discovered this idea of branding photography. This is about six years ago. And I thought, wow, this is me branding. You know, that seems like a mix between fashion and advertising. So I thought, yeah, OK, let’s give that a go. I didn’t fancy doing weddings. Kids, I’m putting on kids. I’m not really very good with kids. So that was my option.
Sam: OK, excellent. And I’ve been doing it ever since.
Marcus: Yeah, that’s right. And of course, the teaching as well, the teaching side of it was I still carried on doing that and teaching beginners and other professional photographers.
Sam: Cool. Excellent. Well, I that’s an interesting run through marketing. We’ve covered a broad spectrum there from. Yeah, for a long period of time from bass guitar ring up to.
So do you do much music? In fact, yes. So thinking of that, do you do much music still?
Marcus: I do. I played. I got my own band we’ve got coming up here. I don’t know by the time this podcast would have gone out, I think we might have done one of our probably our last gig with Subjagger. We’re making a documentary about it’s a film crew coming in, making a documentary about it. So that’ll be a lot of the way for that band. And I played a wedding band as well, a funk wedding band. So I’d definitely be carrying on with that.
But yeah, and moving forward to look into the future is I’m moving now much more to the education side of my practice. And I’m I’m doing workshops and I’m doing it in the UK, in Bristol and also master classes in a retreat in San Miguel in Mexico next year. So I’m sure I’m going to hear more about that as time progresses.
Sam: Excellent. So what are you? You kind of taken me ahead there on what’s next for you. So answer that question already. That’s no problem. I let you off with that one. Yes. So so all exciting stuff. So I think, you know, kind of gradually moving over towards Mexico and things are running everything still from Bristol.
Marcus: I eventually I definitely would like to live in Mexico. I like the sun. I like the weather. I like the sun and, you know, do some traveling around there. It’s a great, you know, the way it’s connected to the whole South America. There’s so much to explore there. Yeah. That’s why I like it.
Sam: And how’s your Spanish?
Marcus: Good. I say not good. It’s not good. Bueno bueno. It’s surprisingly I’ve been learning Spanish now. I do it every day. I do my dog walking. I do it in the headphones. You know, I listen to it and talk back to it. And so I’m doing it for a year and a half now. Every day I’ll walk the dog. So 40 minutes to an hour. And yeah, I surprisingly, I can even though it’s a repeat, repeat, repeat. I’m sort of getting a grip to Spanish and Mexican Spanish a little bit easier than maybe. I don’t care about my Spanish, but yeah, I don’t really know.
Sam: But it’s different. Yeah, like I mean, Mozambique and Mozambique and Portuguese is different to Portuguese, Portuguese. Luckily, they say the words separately, which is a lot easier. Because when you hear it in Portuguese, in Portuguese, there’s every word is like a big, little, little, little, little. Yeah, they separate them out nicely.
Marcus: It’s more phonetically composed. Yeah. OK, there you go.
Sam: Excellent. So your dog is fluent in Spanish now.
Marcus: My dog is fluent in nothing except chasing squirrels and eating treats.
Sam: That sounds very familiar. Excellent. Well, thank you for sharing all of that with us, Marcus.
Marcus: My pleasure. Really interesting.
Sam: Lots that we didn’t know and lots that I kind of feel lots that we’ve had little snippets of that we kind of, you know, get a fuller picture of, which is very nice. And listeners, of course, you don’t want to miss any shows. So the key to not missing any show is getting the newsletter. The newsletter will arrive on your doorstep every single week with details of the show, details, the Facebook group details of how you can be a guest and lots more. What’s in there keeps varying. And if you’ve got ideas of what you’d like in the newsletter to do, tell us. But do subscribe to it. Go to shoot to the top .com and there you can find all the shows, subscribe, blah, blah, blah, all of that sort of lovely stuff. And Marcus, I will see you next week.
Marcus: See you next week, Mady. Thanks for chat.
