Master of Contradiction

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Master ofcontradictionBeing a Haselblad Masters winner brings a big chunk

of expectation, along with the accolade. The celebrated

winners are expected to complete a Masters project that

forms a chapter in that year’s Masters book. Bryn Griffiths

bravely left his studio confines when his name was called

Overseen directly by the company’s senior executivecommittee, the Hasselblad Masters Award is grantedto selected photographers each year across various

specialties in recognition of exceptional accomplishment throughphotography. If there is a hierarchy of award winning in the worldwide photographic industry, then the Hasselblad Masters isat the very top. Just being on the shortlist can be a career-changingmoment, but to be a winner is really something else. Product and

advertising specialist Bryn Griffiths has now experienced bothsensations and attempts to describe the moment: ‘I had the absoluteprivilege of being a Masters finalist in 2012, which I was amazed atand then when I was shortlisted again for 2014 I was just over- whelmed. However, nothing beats the sheer exhilaration of beingactually announced as a Hasselblad Masters Winner in 2014. Icould not believe it; I was walking around in a daze for a few daysafter I heard the news; this has to be the greatest achievement so farin my 30-year career as a photographer and I’m very proud to have

received the accolade.’ After Bryn settles down a little he continues:‘Te reason it’s so special is that the Hasselblad name is up there atthe very pinnacle of our profession – the competition is truly global g

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and to be recognised by my peers on the judging panel is extremelyhumbling.’ Indeed, this isn’t just any awards, it’s the ’blad Masters.

So what does this mean in practice? You only have to look at

the jury to realise the gravitas: im Flach, Joe Felzman, Joe Windsor Williams, Milwoz Wozaczynski sit amongst no less than24 international heavy weights of the current photographic world.

Bryn wasn’t exaggerating when he said he was humbled. Te winnersare provided with the means and equipment to fulfil a project as apart of the Masters Book for the year, of which they are responsiblefor a chapter of images. Te Hasselblad Masters Book is a large-format masterpiece in its own rig ht from eNeues. Ten there’s aninternational touring exhibition, too. All in all you can excuse Brynhis couple of days’ daze…

Bryn’s product and advertisi ng work has produced some reallyspecial images for top-end brands with cars and bicycles featur-ing heavily across his portfolio. He comments: ‘My intention is toreinforce inherent brand values by approaching them differently –adding the magic that turns the ordinary into something extraordi-nary, and creating stunning images that you don’t have to be an artdirector to want to hang on your wall.’ But for Bryn it could haveall been so different. Te man who is equally known for particularlystylish suits (or might that be just loud ?) couldn’t decide betweenaccountancy and photography at the tender age of 15. Te irony

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now is of course that plenty of finan-cial services companies turn to Bryn toproduce their advertising campaigns – butto be honest the bean-counting world just wouldn’t have coped with Bryn. Howevertheir loss was the photography world’s gain

and Bryn’s big personality works just fine inan arena such as advertising that is still verymuch powered by personal relationships.Bryn says: ‘It’s still about talking to people,going and having a chat face to face. Whenyour client base knows you and all aboutyou the link is so much stronger and theunderstanding is greater. In this sector it’s amust that my clients understand what I cando for their brand. Photography for me hasalways been personality driven, and thatapproach seems to work. A great photo-graph is one that truly engages with theviewer. In product and advertising workthat may be to communicate the qualityof design and engineering in a product, itsform and beauty – and my role is to elevatethose aspects and provide a context within which such values are clear and can b easpired to.’ Bryn was once given a key pieceof career advice: ‘I once met erence Dono-

van on a train, going to a BIPP conference where he was speaking. I was a shy 18-year-old, and gingerly I showed him some of my work. “Keep going lad, you’ll get there inthe end”, he said. So after all these years,I’m still going.’

But now, can Bryn finally decide he’sarrived? Indeed he can, but there was ofcourse the small matter of the Masters Book

project to tackle. What to do? Where togo? What would it all be about? Brynexplains: ‘My initial idea for the project was simply to showcase the usual type of work I do – that being well lit shiny, glossyproduct shots. As the deadline approachedfor the Masters Book, however, I had the

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opportunity to go to Chernobyl. I realised that this could be afantastic way to challenge all my normal habits and conventions – tointroduce to the chapter material that would be a contradiction ofmy normal working practices: only using available light and focus-ing on old, used, weathered and decayed objects.’

When the Chernobyl catastrophe took place on 26 April 1986,

the nearby city of Pripyat was not immediately evacuated. Tepopulation went about their usual business, completely oblivious to what had just happened. However, within a few hours of the explo-sion, dozens of people fell ill. Later, they reported severe headachesand metallic tastes in their mouths, along with uncontrollable fits ofcoughing and vomiting. Te general population of the Soviet Union was first informed of the disaster on 28 April, two days after theexplosion, with a 20-second announcement in the V news. Onlyafter radiation levels set off alarms at the Forsmark Nuclear PowerPlant in Sweden, over 1,000km away from the Chernobyl Plant,did the Soviet Union admit that an accident had occurred.

Fast-forward 28 years to Bryn’s visit to Chernobyl. Bryn takesover the story: ‘I was with my photo-assistant and a Russian chap-erone – a former KGB officer – taking pictures in what had been a

secret robot testing facility. We had Geiger counters with us becauseeven now there are still ‘hot spot’ areas. It could be an acceptable 50RADS (radiation absorbed dose) where you’re standing but just afew feet away it might be ten times that and a very real danger.

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We were just exiting the facility and I waslugging my tripod with my H5D still at-tached. I wasn’t looking where I was goingand I contrived to fall down a well – forreal – I was still holding on to the tripod asI fell and mercifully the camera contrived to

get jammed on the ledge as I dropped andit broke the fall. I was left dangling but inone piece.’

Bryn (as you do) had neglected toexplain to his wife exactly where he wouldbe going to shoot his pictures for theMasters project – and considering hiscareer to date, she had no reason to thinkhe might be down a well in Russia. Brynsays ‘no, I hadn’t gone into any specifics whatsoever…’.

He continues: ‘I do take photographsacross a number of disciplines but my firstlove is product photography. I love a studio

setting; just me and my ’blad and bron’ gearand whatever the product happens to be. Iam intrigued by textures and the tiny nu-ances that can make the difference between“ok” photography and really great photogra-phy. Right now I am shooting extensively ina graphical style – as with the Condor cycle

saddle and the Morgan steering wheel – butthis was all about going out on location,using natural light and a wide-angle lensand photographing dereliction and decay– and indeed not manipulating it, photo-graphing what I found in place – the exactopposite of my commercial shoots.’

In his chapter Bryn contrasts a £12,000state-of-the-art Condor road bicycle with a

rusted, bent wheel he came across in Cher-nobyl, complete with a gas mask still hang-ing on its rim; a classic Morgan steering wheel against another corr oded specimen;a Condor saddle and frame against an oldbike carcass shot in a gradually decompos-ing room; a pristine, clinical studio image of

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fresh paint pouring from a shiny tin – against a shot of a dilapidatedstairway and a wall with decades old paint curling and falling awayin its moribund final nod to an irradiated city and a shocking, dev-astating piece of history.

What’s unmistakeable in Bryn’s Chernobyl work, however, is thestamp of an experienced commercial advertising photographer. It’s

not unusual for photographers break out of their usual stampinggrounds heading for pastures new, but the results aren’t always soenticing. Bryn’s work succeeds because he didn’t go there and tr y toproduce reportage – he let his inner creative advertising photogra-pher lead the way and find the subtleties of shape and light for him.Some time ago in an interview Bryn commented: ‘It is my eye forform, colour, lighting and an instinct for styling that I think setsmy work apart. Stringent production values are a given – and myrange of major clients expect nothing less.’ For the Masters book,Bryn went on a mission to find contrasts or contradictions to set hiscommercial work against, and captured them without the normaltrappings of studio control. Tat the resulting images have a distinctcommercial edge and refinement can only mean that to some extentat least, advertising photographers are born and not made. tP

See more at:www.bryngriffithsphotography.comwww.hasselblad.co.uk/masters-2014-

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Master of Contradiction

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