Photography has always played a big part in the life of New Plymouth photographer Philippa Guthrie known as Pip.
Her father formed Charter and Guthrie with Roy Charters just after the war.
“I think in its hey-day in 1964 to the early 80’s there was about 12 or 13 people working for them. They were the first to get a colour paper processor in NZ so that was an amazing evolution.
“When your parents have got a business you just all help. As kids we learnt to photograph and print. We used to glaze the photos and number them. We did the delivery runs, picking up the films from the Chemists. We all had great holiday and after school jobs, which was very social and great pocket money.
“My brother and I were given a camera and we would do the receptions for the weddings. You shot everybody at the reception in those days at the tables. I see albums now that people bring out from 1960’s and 70’s, these little red ones. Actually my partner’s parents have one. It makes you laugh to see them still in pristine condition. They are a real piece of history cared for with such love, pride and memory.”
Pip has enjoyed where her love for photography has taken her and thanks her father for the introduction.
“I don’t think there was ever any expectation to follow in his footsteps.
“I did! And my brother did. Even my sister was great photographer but sadly got killed at 30, such a short life. We took a lot of photos and have great memories.
“In her late 80’s my mother is a re-emerging photographer. She has been doing some really cool work lately.
“You know if you are good or bad. If you can’t do the job why do it? But I mean that is being a self-critic isn’t it? Am I good enough? is a question that everyone asks don’t they?
“You are only good enough as your last photo or what people remember you by. The next photo will be even better.
“I think you just evolve and change. Everyone has got their own style but if you are shooting for clients you’ve got to actually listen to what they say and what they want or what they visualise. Then give them options they never knew they wanted.
The world has always called to Pip to come, explore and recharge, but she has always returned home to New Zealand.
“You come back to NZ because you miss it and then think fuck this is a great place. Then after 10 years you think you need to refresh. It’s like anything you just have to keep moving.”
“I went to England first in 1981 and again after doing prawn trawlers in the Northern Territory.
“I ended up in an Icelandic fish factory for a year with my sister. She stayed overseas and I came back to New Zealand in 1983. I started with oil companies as my brother was working offshore as a photo tech on a dive / support vessel to the Maui Tower.
“Subsea leased a darkroom space at my father’s business. I would develop and print the underwater photos there along with all my own. My sister’s O/S films arrived intermittently by the box load from Tibet or India or even outer Mongolia.
Over the years Pip herself has evolved and changed as she felt herself getting stuck in life’s ruts.
“I did a year in the middle East in Oman at a photography place there. Then I went to Melbourne and worked in a few labs there.
“I learnt to drive trucks so I could get work when I went back to the Northern Territory again. I just needed a bit of a change and I got a job working in a mining camp.
“One was a gold mine that we were surveying. I was with the geologist so we had to peg it and take samples.
“Then I got a job on a different one which was underground. Oh and I actually ended up as a breakfast chef for 350 people.”
One place Pip never realised the importance of was when she worked for The National Gallery in London.
“In London in the late 80’s I worked as a freelance photographer’s assistant. There used to be agencies where you could pick up photography work for studios and labs. We used to get paid something like six or seven pounds an hour which was better than pub work.
“I got offered a temporary job at the Gallery and then later a permanent position.
“They were just building the Sainsbury Wing. We had to go around the gallery for six months and find about 300 paintings that were going in the Sainsbury Wing. We used to have to shoot them and scale them as they were making up models.
“They also had a library there of all the paintings. We used to do x-ray, infrared those paintings like Turner and Van Gogh, they were so photographed. They would x-ray them because they all had lead paint.
“They had paintings from like the turn of BC. We were photographing paintings that were worth five hundred to six million pounds.
“There was one painting where a guy had come into the gallery and shot it with a gun. The framing and restoration department were restoring it millimetre by millimetre. We had to always photograph their progress.”
During her time at The National Gallery Pip had a varied role leaving no day ever the same.
“Famous people came through like Lady Di, The Queen, Charles and many Lords and Dames. They would come to the openings of the exhibitions and we would photograph them.
“You only get 30 seconds if you were lucky when you are photographing someone famous. But that’s life. Time is a luxury when you are being a photographer. No one seems to want to wait.”
“Just as I was leaving they were starting to transform the collection into transparencies / slides. That would have gone on for awhile. It would have been a fabulous thing to work on in hindsight.
Itchy feet for another adventure lead her to Oman working as a photographer.
“It was a little unsettling there as the war was starting to heat up over the border in Yemen, in the Gulf, everywhere really. Our work was varied as we photographed everything and anything on 4 x 5 format which was beautiful. Medium format cameras were top of the range.
“After 8 months there I left to head to Melbourne but in hindsight wish I had stayed longer.
“I came back to New Zealand in 1995 after Melbourne and the mines and I started doing freelance. My dad had a darkroom under the house and he was doing a lot of black and white stuff. I was printing that and started doing some weddings.
“I got some stringing work with the Daily News. I used to do a lot of the advertising work as the Press boys hated doing it. They were always busy waiting by the Police scanner for the action.
“I got my first pro digital camera about 1996 as the Daily News started to go digital. We previously shot on film, scanned negatives and used Photoshop a little. It was a really cool way to learn Photoshop. I’m quite an expert now.
“I still have that conflict of using film and digital. I own about 40 cameras, some of them relics, 25 of them are film cameras. I have a few 3D cameras and half a dozen Russian ones that I picked up in Moscow some years back.
The digital era has caused new issues with the size of required storage and the delicate nature backing everything up.
“The thing with digital is now you’ve got 20 terabytes of data which you have to back up all the time. I can’t sustain it any more. I just say to clients now ‘too bad it’s not going to be there in 18 months’ time, you have to look after your own’.
“It’s pretty sad but reality is we will probably lose a lot of data in this century.
With cellphones and digital camera prices dropping every day, photography is changing too.
“Some people realize the value of the photographer’s time and experience. Most people want a job done for them and they will pay no questions asked.
“I could probably rewire my lights but when will I get around to it and will it be OK? Will my house burn down or flood? I will get an electrician and pay him or get in a plumber. Photography is still a grey area of people’s preconceived value of it.
“People say they are after quality yet you see so much shit out there. There is a slow realisation that if you want to sell a business, product or story it has to look fantastic. The market is changing slowly.”
As people get to a certain point in their life they realise the importance of photo memories and go searching for “reprints”.
“Basically what you shot 20 or 30 years ago is probably what you are going to sell later. That’s why photographers are hesitant to sell everything off now. The proof’s in the pudding with Swainson/Woods Collection with people wanting what my dad shot 50 or even 60 years ago. Even some that I shot 30 years ago is in demand.
“There will come a day – like the day you die – that somebody will want something or the Museum will want something. There are a lot of people out in the world, there’s a lot of information, a lot of technology and a lot of photographs.
“My negatives will survive but perhaps not my millions of digital files. I’m starting to make hardcopies of the “money shots”.
Pip is always looking for the perfect shot and says that there is always someone doing something somewhere to take a photo of.
“Photography is really tight and everyone is after a buck. Everyone is competing against each other, you have to diversify. A photographer said to me yesterday that he’s going to be driving a truck during the winter.
“You have to have the phone ringing every day. If you are running a retail shop you have to pay the rent and all the costs.
During her time as a photographer Pip has got to photograph some wonderful people a few that sprang to mind quickly were:-
“Helen Clarke was a cool one to photograph. She was always good to me – media savvy and perfect. I really liked her.
“John Keys is excellent with people on the meet and greets when we were down at the opening of the Port. He was very, very affable.
“Jenny Shipley was good. She was very professional. She had a different kind of charisma about her that I liked. Apart from that she gave me a photography award lunch and a flight home after the Backbench Bar.
“In regards to media stars and important people, you’d think they would give you the time for a decent shot as they are your biggest critics. It is about being professional after all!”
Recently Pip’s focus has shifted away from wedding and family shoots as the market is absolutely flooded as everyone is getting into it.
“You can’t slag anyone off for giving it a go, even if you don’t like it. I think if something is a load of shit, I personally don’t slag them. I’m happy that at least they are out there giving it a go and are trying to create a business. It is tough and competitive so only the best and clever survive – shit doesn’t.
“Mainly I’m doing photography for websites which is the same as doing their public relations for them. I’m also doing a lot of graphic design work and media consultancy.
“You only get work by building relationships with your companies and offering new ideas.
In an era where most people have cell phones capable of taking a decent photo Pip finds it frustrating that people still have issues with their photo being taken.
“A lot of people hate having their photographs taken or say they look terrible in a photo. In fact I hear it every day. I could scream! It could be true, they might not look good or they have only had bad photos taken but that’s more of a reason to be the best photographer.
“At the moment I’m focused on industrial demolition so that’s been really interesting. I’ve been taking photos of the Power Station for over a year now. I’ve got nearly a million images give or take so far.
“I like demolition I just think it’s cool. That’s historic too, that’s documentary.
“I go a few times a week depending on what activity is happening. There’s like millions of dollars’ worth of scrap metal. It’s just incredible watching this building come down that is 50 years old. It’s quite interesting the materials that were used.
“I’ve set up GOPRO’s and time lapse to record for the company and have also done a lot of film footage over the 15 months for a personal project and a book.”
Pip has teamed up with Al Tattersall and formed a video company doing commercial videos called PAL motion productions.
“We have done half a dozen videos since November. We listen to the client’s brief and just do them, edgy, quick, bang!
“That’s a booming industry especially via the net; I love it, yet another great direction. We have diversified to keep in the game. It’s hard work but the process is really creative.
Pip has always been intrigued by documentary style photography and made it her focus on a trip to India.
“I did a lot of documentary photography on the train as it was travelling along. The window was dirty and gave the photos an awesome aura. I went down to Alang where the ships are scraped. There was six kilometres of amazing ships in various stages of death.
“When I was in Mombai I went to Dhobi Ghat. It’s the biggest washing outlet in the world. People live in there – something like 2,000 people. I probably shot 600 – 700 photos in an hour. I was just firing really fast. That was a really cool thing and that was a social documentary so that was way better than photographing the sites of Mombai for me.”
“The biggest mistake of an amateur is to just stand there and shoot what’s apparent.
“I remember all these people on Lady Dianna’s seat. There was a child there and about 50 guys photographing this one child. That was the photo I took – a photo of all the photographers taking a photo of the child. It’s a cool shot.”
Another project requiring Pip’s attention is the Taranaki Arts Trail.
“I’m with Virtual Tart there are 50 artists. About 30 – 40 artists are exhibiting in the Arts Trail. It is coming through my house in June. Artists will have their studios/ workspaces open to the public. That’s a mission for me as I’d really like more time for the creative process and focus on art but I have to earn a living and it’s hard.”
A big moment for Pip was selling some work in Paris last year from an exhibition.
“I thank Dale Copeland for her amazing energy and work in promoting Taranaki artists and her influence and subliminal mentoring for me to cross over and produce.”
Another project in progress is setting up a dark room as a joint venture with friend and fabulous fine art photographer, Diana Wynyard.
“Between us we have enough equipment and expertise. We are setting up the darkroom with her four varioscope enlargers and have thoughts of classes. The hiring of the facility is being finalised. The printed image is coming around again.”
Pip believes “most people just want really nice photos. Just really good strong photos that technically looks good.”
“Photography is all about creativity. There will always be something to photograph. You can put a group of people in a square empty room and the creative people will find something to photograph while the others will complain.
“I see photos on billboards and the like and know that it’s mine. Someone said that you have a memory of 100,000 photographs. Whenever you do any commercial stuff you don’t get any credit. I certainly know a photo of mine whenever I see it because of the style. There are quite a lot of mine around.”