Doing as her mother told her launched Fay Looney into an awesome photographic career.
“She rang me up one day and said ‘there is a little job in the paper for six weeks selling school photography to country schools, you should apply for it.’ So I did what my mother told me and got the job.”
The job was selling photos for an Australian Company to schools throughout New Zealand.
“It was a new school photography company that came into country in the late 70s. They wanted sales people to go to the schools and put things in place for the photographers to come along and take the photos. I come from a sales background so I joined as a sales person.
“Then they asked me if I would like to do the photography because normally they had husband and wife teams that worked for them because of the large roll schools. The husband did the classes while the wife did the individuals.
“They didn’t realise there were so many small schools in NZ that really didn’t take two people to shoot. So they asked me if I would like learn and gave me the job of doing all the little schools.
“I had a quick two weeks in Sydney learning how to shoot their format of school photography and it grew from there.
“I started on the Wanganui River Road and there were four schools there. The biggest school had something like 20 kids I think. So I travelled the periphery of NZ and up and down the middle doing country schools.”
Over the next two years Fay spent many hours clocking up the kilometres as she got to explore the beautiful countryside with her camera and met some memorable people.
“When you get efficient after a couple of years the realisation is that I could probably work for myself so they turned up and said thank you for coming to work for us but your job has been terminated now. It didn’t really surprise me as I was doing big schools on my own which was unusual. So fortunately I had prepared for that as I had seen it happen to other people.
“First I sold the idea to a lab in Bulls which belonged to a friend of mine Graeme Platt who had the Bulls Pharmacy. He had a processing unit there and they took me on but after a year I went out on my own and had my own school photography business. That’s really how I got into it. People then started asking me to do their weddings, do this and do that so it evolved out of there really.”
Fay strongly believes success is about making the most of your opportunities and is still surprised as to where her camera has taken her.
“I was always interested in horses. In 1980 I went to Badminton Horse Trials. I literally tripped over Mark Todd.
“Mark won that year so I introduced myself and wrote a story about him. We became firm friends. In fact I bought the trophy home for him to his parents.
“A couple of years later the story I wrote got to Bob Parker at TV One and it became the first This is your life programme. Bob asked me if they could use some of the material and if I would be on the show. That gave me publicity which I got from taking and seeing opportunities.”
Every time her finances would allow, Fay travelled to the USA and Australia attending seminars.
“I didn’t like using lighting – but I had to for the school – I found it restricting. I learnt to use available light and experiences with that everything just came so much better. Portraits and things were so much more gratifying when you used available light which I still do when I get the grandchildren.
‘I don’t do commissions or anything now but I thoroughly enjoyed the years doing family photographs and that. You are really privileged to do weddings and families. It is only now at this age that I meet people and they say 25 years ago you did ours we are so glad that we had that family photo taken.
“I would listen to other people. That is how I met Anne Geddes.”
Little did Fay realise how meeting Anne Geddes would help shape her future photography career.
“I photographed schools until I was 60 years old and then it became too physically demanding. I always took landscapes while I was driving to the schools and I had a library of them.
“I was influenced by Anne and the card range she was doing. So I did a range of cards. I actually printed them here, 20,000 of them and sent them around NZ. I also set myself up at a gift fair in Auckland. I did fairly well out of that in the fact that I got a lot of shops selling them. Dealing with retailers became too difficult. The mark up on them is crazy for the amount you get out of them.
“The biggest success was my Christmas Cards. I saw those Cedar Lodge Christmas trees that you could pick and put in the boot of your car. One day when I was driving out of there it went “click”. I thought I could take this Christmas tree anywhere and I did.
“Harry and I went to the South Island and we planted it in glaciers and had this iconic Christmas card range. We sold them to embassies and many international people. I did another lot in Australia where we took the Christmas tree out in a yacht to Frank Hampton Island, planted it in the ocean and took another at Ayers Rock. They were fun and lovely.”
Once again a conversation with Anne opened yet another door for Fay.
“She said you know all those landscapes, you take you should do something with them. I said like what?
“The guy that did her book publishing said bring me some stuff and I will have a look at it. So I did. He said we would love to do a book which was a huge surprise to me. So in 1999 my first book First Light, Last Light came about. They were thrilled with the book.
“In NZ 6,000 is a best seller. They printed 6,000 and sold them all. They didn’t republish as they were really about sports books but because of my connections they did it and were really pleased with it. They handed me onto my current publisher New Holland and they did my next big book.
“My books have been a huge source of pride for me. I have done five of them plus my Taranaki book which I have done five volumes of and probably about to do the sixth.”
Photography has become such a part of her life Fay is always looking for the next shot.
“I just don’t get into a car and go to Auckland because I want to go to Auckland. I always take pictures along the way. If I am going to Auckland I check out the weather forecast, I check out the moon and of course sunrise. If it is going to be perfect I am there at sunrise where I want to be.
“I am a firm believer of golden hours. I have far more satisfaction out of those shots than out of just shooting something. The fact is the kind of work that I am doing for the Taranaki book I have to have people and you have to be there at a certain time of the day. Like the kids soccer this morning or a rodeo or something you have to shoot in the conditions that you are delivered. It doesn’t mean to say you mix that with stunning good light landscapes but it is just a matter of mixing the two.
“What you have to understand is the whole world’s a photographer now. People can take a photo in good light and think they are a photographer.
“You only have to take a look at the news. I used to get them on the news at night when Jim Hickey was here and I thought it was good and topical. Now they seem to have one woman and one man from the South Island that they practically just use. They are not necessarily great shots which is diluting the quality of photography. There are some stunning stuff, don’t get me wrong, some lovely stuff but there is also a lot of rubbish.”
With the recent death of her wonderful husband Harry life has changed for Fay.
“Over the years we certainly had an understanding that he helped me. Sometimes he went fishing and I went photographing and sometimes we did both together.
“We met through horse riding and dances. I met him at a dance and it went from there. We used to dance in the Oakura hall especially over summer on a Saturday night, there was always a dance. It was lovely.
“I have driven every road and trail that you can think of in NZ. You have to be prepared to do that. My husband has always come with me too which has changed for me now.
“We’ve had a great life together, it’s been wonderful. I’m still having a wonderful life even with the recent changes.”
At nearly 76-years-old Fay says she is lucky to have kept going with her photography career as she claims more awards at the recent Cathay Pacific Travel Media Awards. She won the Heritage Boutique Collection Award for the Best Travel Image taken in New Zealand as well as runner up. She was also Highly Commended in the Photographer of the Year.
“I was surprised to win in Auckland the other night as I am up against newspapers, magazines and people who are commissioned to do stuff with budgets.
I was particularly pleased to win because to be judged by your peers is far better than anything else. The public in this day and age, especially with the particular shots that I won with, think that you have dropped half of it in using photoshop. In fact the journalist that interviewed me asked I had planned the geese flying across the mountain. If only!
“There is no way when I was driving to Hawera that I thought I would see a bunch of geese fly across the mountain. I did see them down at the coast and by the time I got to Oanui I had watched them in the rear vision mirror and saw them come across. So I stopped and waited and they went past and I got three shots.
“For my Whangamomana photo all I could plan was that I wanted to be there at first light so I could get a misty photo of the pub but I got a sheep instead. It is real and iconic.”
“I carry my camera all the time. I went to Napier last week and I was in and out of the car taking photographs. I always take the hardest road being the most adventurous and just take photos of what I see.”
Fay’s positive can do attitude has seen her photograph at the Badminton Horse Trials, British Golf Open, NZ Rugby matches, World Equestrian Champs and then of course the Barcelona Games. She has also got to meet some inspirational people like Anne Geddes, Mark Todd and Tom Cruise.
“I don’t know whether you have ever seen a movie called the Intouchables which is about a paraplegic French guy. I spent two days with that photographer in France.
He is the great, great, grandson of Moet champagne. I went as his assistant. I met this guy and had two wonderful days with him as our client.
“Just before Christmas last year Nick Servian, who I was with, said to me you have to get this movie called Intouchables. I got it and its Philip the guy who we spent time with who is a French nobleman. He had a paragliding accident and became a paraplegic and the movie is about him and the person who he hired to look after him. It is just wonderful. It broke my heart as I have pictures of him and I.
“Tom Cruise is another one who was great fun and the connection to photography. I met him in a lift in New York once no that is I rode a lift with him in New York.
“Who would have thought that four years later he would have been living not far from here and my son would be his driver to work. He came up to me and went Hello Fay how are you? He was just charming and I met him through my camera as I was working on the set.
“You see them in a celebrity outlook and then you met them for real and it’s a whole different ball game. You discover they are just normal people. I’ve met a lot of people like that and it is very levelling to know that people are just real people at the end of the day. They are just humans, it is us that put them on pedestals. Anybody that I have met has been fantastic, just amazing and boy I have met some!
Starting out Fay would never have imagined the places her camera would take her creating the opportunities to meet the amazing people she has had the pleasure of sharing her journey with.
“I have had a wonderful career and the camera has taken me some really amazing places. It’s not about being the best photographer it is about once again taking the opportunity and trying to be the best.
“There is an element of luck with your photography when you catch moment that never can be created again. You just have to make the most of every opportunity.
“I enjoy the connection to the people like the markets at Ngamotu Beach. I think they are fantastic. It is not about selling stuff but about connecting with the public. You are constantly reminded that if the people closest to you don’t know what you are up to then nobody else does. You just have to put yourself out there!
“One of the biggest lessons I ever learnt was when I went to America to a seminar with Arnold Newman who was one of the Magnum photographers and very famous for working with light. I went to his seminar and when we finished I was talking with him what’s the best advice you could give me. He said there are no rules in photography just foolish people that make them.
“Lots of people think what they shoot is great. That is because they have an emotional attachment to it. The trick is to get someone else to have an emotional attachment to your image. Once they have got that then you are home and hosed.”
Fay’s books:- First Light, Last Light; Land of Many Contrasts; It Must Be New Zealand; New Zealand Through the Goalposts; Taranaki – be here be surprised (five volumes).