Rene Kuipers
1. Congratulations on winning in the New York Photography Awards! Can you share a little about yourself, what inspired you to pursue photography, and how has your journey evolved since your first shot?
It all started when I got a Minolta camera when I was 16. I was intrigued by the technical aspects. I mostly made landscape and vacation images. Many years later, this evolved to portrait photography. I've never thought that would become my speciality.
2. Can you share the story or inspiration behind your award-winning piece? How does winning this award make you feel about your journey in photography?
I really like the old Dutch masters painter style. My photography is mostly a bit dark in the lighting. And I'm also a big fan of Photoshop and compositing images. That is what all came together in my winning image. The image is made out of 13 separate images. 12 for the two sisters, Delinda and Jennifer and one for the background. I work a lot with dancers, because I like how they can do different expressions. This is what I asked of the girls for this image.
3. How do you decide which photo to submit for a competition?
This is mostly just a good feeling I have with certain images.
4. What first made you pick up a camera?
As stated in the first question, I started with a Minolta Dynax 7000i SLR. Nowadays, I work with a Canon R5, but I also went back to analog film with a Yashica MAT124G TLR.
5. What’s your favorite type of photography, and why do you love it?
I can say now that I'm definitely a portrait photographer. I make most of my portraits in a studio where I have complete control of the light.
6. What’s your go-to camera setup, and why does it work best for your projects? What’s your favorite feature?
For my portraits, I use a Canon R5 and Godox AD600BM flash with an octabox of 150cm, this is my most used setup. I love the soft light this big octabox gives to my models.
7. If someone looked at your work, what’s the one thing you’d want them to feel?
I like it when people stare at the eyes of the person in photo, and get captivated by them!
8. What was the most challenging part of capturing your winning shot?
I had to stitch all the images together in a way it looked like it was taken in one shot. I took a few hours to get everything right.
9. Is there a specific place or subject that inspires you the most?
A girlfriend of mine has a dance school, which is where I find most of my models. I like how they play with different expressions. It's actually difficult to make believable expressions, and some of them are really good at it.
10. Who or what has been your biggest influence in photography?
I like the work of Julia Fullerton-Batten and Gregory Crewdson, and I also learned a lot from Glynn Dewis.
11. What message would you share to inspire photographers to participate in photography awards, and what advice would you give to help them excel in the competition?
Just go for it! It's really cool to compete with other inspiring photographers, and you can learn a lot from the critiques you sometimes get from other photographers and juries in competitions.
12. What’s one piece of advice for someone just starting in photography?
Don't be afraid to make errors, just learn from them, it eventually will make your work better!
13. What role do editing and post-processing play in your creative workflow?
I love to make and edit my creations with Photoshop. Off-course it's best to make the base image go right in the camera, but you can get much more out of an image if you do some good post-processing. Editing images was done in the early film days, too, like dodge & burn, so it is not new. Even Ansel Adams used it!
14. How do you see technology, like AI, influencing the future of photography and your own approach?
I like how A.I. can help edit images in Photoshop. It makes it easier to make selections and remove unwanted things. I am not a big fan of generating completely new images by just entering a prompt, though. I think it is not your photo if you didn't at least have some parts made with your own camera.
15. If you could photograph anything or anyone in the world, what would it be?
I like dance photography, and especially ballet! It would be awesome if I could get a chance to be a photographer at the National Opera & Ballet in Amsterdam!
