Kirstie Blake began her career photographing in Nightclubs and now runs an art gallery and studio in Brighton.
I’m not sure which is my first memory with photography, but I think the earliest one is the hours I used to spend looking through family photo albums when I was little. Fascinated by the funny clothes and how different people looked when they were younger, I loved feeling like I was looking into the past.
Being a child I wasn’t allowed to touch my dad’s camera no matter how much I asked. Finally, one day he sat me down and showed me how to use his point and shoot, then told me I could take it on a school trip to Lewes castle. He warned me that I was only allowed one roll of film and to not get carried away or it wouldn’t last long, he was of course right, but I had a great time and I loved it. The bug definitely hit me and my parents eventually gave into the pestering and Christmas when I was 8 or 9 they gave me my own little point and shoot. I drove the pets and my family mad with it, and can remember endless rows about how expensive film was and being allowed to only use one a month. Washing dad’s car and other odd jobs got me extra pocket money to pay for getting more than the one film a month developed.
This one is SO difficult to answer. There is so much that inspires me so I’m going to have to pick just a few. The work of other photographers inspires me in so many ways. Ansel Adams, a master. Some of his work I adore, yet some pieces whilst technically brilliant leave me cold. It reminds me that I should never let my creativity take a back seat and I also admire his skill and experimentation in the dark room. I love the way Rankin can do such fresh and modern portraiture and yet delve into and expose the soul and character of his subject. There are sooo many others, Testino, Chase Jarvis, Bailey, Avedon, the list is huge. But also photographers I don’t know or havn’t heard of before. Flickr is a wonderful thing for a photographer, I can spend hours trawling through and looking at images that inspire me.
The photographers that would like space in the gallery often inspire me, especially the ones that aren’t quite up to standard yet but show huge potential along with a passion and thirst for knowledge. I love giving them feedback, showing them that they have potential and seeing their passion grow.
Oddly, I find missed opportunities inspiring. I love doing landscape photography as well as still life, flowers and animal photography but always seem to busy to do any for myself. So when I see a stunning sunset and don’t have equipment with me or when I stumble across a minute detail that I’d love to stop and capture I now write them down and its teaching me that I miss so much that I must make the most of whatever time I have with the camera.
Is full of possibilities! I have so many plans for not just my photography business, but also for the gallery and for my own photographic projects. There are a lot of obstacles to overcome at the moment, but I am going to be working hard to demolish them. i have some more changes to make in my gallery, and I cant wait to get my studio set up out the back so that I can accept more shoots instead of turning work down. I also want to hire out the studio space, and maybe even look at doing small photographic workshops.
Ultimately I want to do more commissioned work and for my event photography business combined with the gallery and studio work (once its set up) to be not just self sustaining and growing, but to support me so I can give up the day job. Working towards that transitional stage is tough, and being a full time photographer isn’t going to be much easier, if at all. But I do love a challenge and if following your dreams was easy then they wouldn’t be dreams
To learn more about me, you can find me in the following places:
