This is Chapter 34 (!) and please welcome Luke Scully, Director of Photography and his genius new project that brings us together in times of distancing.
Out + About
Luke Scully, CreativeDirector of Photography & Photographer, UK
Luke Scully is an established Director of Photography having worked with brands such as Adidas and Nationwide as well as a prolific body of work in music promos. Aside from all of that, he's also the founder of a fresh endeavour aiming at introducing talent, picking their brains and combining creative superpowers for the greater good. Here's what we discussed during our quick catchup.
Fabrik: Hi Luke! Would you like to share a little bit more about your work and yourself? Let’s get to know each other!
Luke Scully: II am a Director of Photography and Photographer working across Commercials, Music Promos and Content. I started off shooting behind the scenes on film sets - I was that annoying wasp that no one wanted around on set, but it gave me thick skin and a good nose for doco style shooting.
Would you like to share the background story regarding Out + About? What was the spark that generated the idea? What are the goals and plans for its future?
Luke Scully: Out + About is what it says on the tin. I go out with an interesting creative and find out about them. Simple as that! They choose the location and I shoot them in it.
The idea came about in February just before lockdown, I was a bit frustrated creatively and wanted to shoot a new project. I’m constantly surrounded by super creative people, all with interesting stories, and I thought they would make perfect subjects. I also love location scouting and randomly coming across interesting spots to shoot in, and I wanted to combine the two somehow. The idea had been rolling around my head for a while and a friend of mine, Parallax, wanted to shoot some stills. So I thought that would be the perfect opportunity to try it out. He decided he wanted to go to Portsmouth and the date we chose turned out to be the same day as Storm Ciara. It was pouring with rain and there was hurricane-style winds, but we decided to do it anyway. It was an adventure and the shots that came out of it had feeling, so I thought 'maybe I have something here’.
The unorganised nature of the O+A shoots is purposeful, only the basics are pre-planned, like where we’re going to meet and at what time. Everything else that happens is a total freestyle and I put myself in the hands of my subject. Where we go and what we do is totally up to them. Getting them to choose the location always seems to get better results than putting them in a location of my choosing; the journey evolves naturally and the results become more personal. If you planned or ‘produced’ it you’d never get the same results, there wouldn’t be the same magic.
In regards to my style of shooting I have always loved contact sheets and I guess that for me, coming from a film making background, they tell a story and highlight the journey. I often find them more interesting than the actual portrait that gets used, as you can see the whole story behind the shoot. I then take it one step further and cut the contacts up and rearrange them - it’s a long process but again it evolves naturally and everything seems to slip nicely into place.
Lockdown put a spanner in the works for a bit (especially as the whole idea was to be out and about) but actually, because of the pandemic, I think Out + About has become more poignant than ever, especially as a lot of creatives are struggling to get the exposure they deserve. The dictionary definition for O+A is actually ‘engaging in normal activity after they have been unable to for a while’ and due to the current circumstances I think its a pretty fitting description for the idea.
Moving forward, I’m making films to sit along side the stills as well as collaborating with other photographers and filmmakers. The plan is to keep meeting creative people and going on adventures.
Thanks for having me and for creating a platform that allows creatives to present their work in all its glory.
