Gary John Norman
INTERVIEW
"Today his pictures are just as likely to turn up on the BBC website, iPlayer or on promotional material for any number of large international companies"
H
is teachers were simply lost for words when Gary John Norman said he wanted to become a photographer. ‘They didn’t know what to say to me, what advice to give because it just wasn’t seen as a career option,’ he says. So he left school and applied for a job in a local clothes shop because he didn’t want to go to college. ‘The owner asked me what I wanted to do and when I told him he said that he wasn’t going to give me a job in Lowestoft because he said it was important that I followed my dream.’ Gary says he’s been back to say thank you because it was this decision that put him on track to an international career as a photographer that has taken him around the world - one of his specialities is yacht racing. For 10 years he lived and worked in Miami, his work has graced the covers of some of the very best magazines and he’s shot the images to front high profile advertising campaigns for the likes of Florida and the British Virgin Isles tourism. Today his pictures are just as likely to turn up on the BBC website, iPlayer or on promotional material for any number of large international companies. One of his recent computer video shoots is also being shown on prime time TV and even in cinemas, too. However, despite the glamour and high life wherever he was in the world there was always a yearning to come back home. Which is why he now lives in Harleston, conveniently close to Diss railway station and runs his international business – he regularly commutes to Dubai and Florida - from here. In between times he teaches photography students in London and has also recently started regular sessions in DSLR for beginners, Photoshop and Wordpress in Pulham Market and at The Cut in Halesworth. Coming up soon is a two-day practical course on landscape photography too. It’s quite a contrast, but says Gary, the world of photography has changed enormously since he started out. In the so-called old days there were darkrooms, chemicals and an element of alchemy to photography – and there were also magazines who’d pay handsomely for the right shots. Today new camera technology and computer programmes have done away with many of the old skills
along with a change in magazine readership, too. But says Gary, that’s brought new opportunities and with an eye ever towards the horizon he works hard to create images of the future – the sort of stock shots that everyone wants on their website. ‘I’ve got an agent and some of my shots sell for not that much but I’ve just sold one for the price of a small car.’ Even so he had to work hard to build up a solid reputation. ‘I was always interested in boats and went to a specialist magazine and asked for some work. They were covering the Henley Regatta and had already commissioned a photographer to do the work but I asked to go along just for the experience. ‘I was very eager and spent three days there and they loved my pictures so much I ended up getting the cover and page spreads inside,’ he says. This set him up for lots of work with boats on the south coast but then, having wondered what next, he ended up getting involved in horse photography. ‘I went for an interview for a new equestrian magazine and they said: ‘You can ride can’t you?’ and I replied: ‘Of course’. ‘The next two weeks were spent doing a crash course in horse riding as my first assignment was in the >>
For more information about Gary’s courses, visit his website at www.garyjohnnorman.com
19