Too many times has the above phrase followed “fair play” or “good luck” etc…so i thougt I’d write about what I’m up to at the minute!
Here in Stuttgart, I’m Assistant to Roland Halbe, an Architectural Photographer.
The job has 2 sides; the actual assisting, and then the follow up work in the back-office.
While assisting, I get to travel with Roland to shoot different projects. So far I’ve only been to Munich and Rome. The tasks here are carrying around a suitcase full of equipment, changing lenses, noting and numbering images taken, moving things out of the way, commenting and advising (on different angles etc), and sometimes you get to be in the photos (I was in the New York Times last week!). Sometimes you’re up real early to get dawn shots, but the days are shorter now than in summer. Its fascinating seeing the assembling of an image and how he composes certain elements with the experienced knowledge of all things camera (aperture, lenses, exposure etc).
In the office, theres a team of photoshopers who clean up/stitch images, then they come to the assistants (2 of us, so while one is traveling, the other can work in the office..then swap).
We are essentially the publicists for the buildings, sending previews to publishers around the world, who get back to us, and we keep track of which images are published. Also here, we clean the equipment, update memory cards, charge batteries; basically stay on top things.
Overall, everything is very very organised and efficient…I like!
It was tough at first. I think every job is in the beginning, but throw in a wickedly organised computer system and all this through German, and things are a bit harder!
I’m getting the hang of it now…I’m on me way!
