Photolibrary: Hi Alex, how’s life at the moment?

Alex Craig: life is good , best summer ever , surfing , friends , food

Photolibrary: Did you get some good shots of it?

Photolibrary: Might re-phrase that one - did you get some good shots of the experience? Was it all in Sydney or did you go anywhere else?

Whale oil storage tanks at whaleworld, Australia - PLC-00054158-001 (Alex Craig)

Alex Craig: took no photos over the break , starting ot get back in to it now and planning some trips for later in the year , spent a lot of time down the coast at milton with the parents.

Photolibrary: Does it help to have a break - to get a renewed sense of inspiration? Not sure of the word - sabbatical? A quieting of things before you get back into it?

Alex Craig: I think it’s very important , for me at least , I still love shooting and I don’t want it to feel like work all the time , taking a step back helps keeps things fresh , it also stops me seeing everything in 2D

Photolibrary: Yeah I can imagine what that’s like, doing everyday life things and having that voice in the back of your head saying: “that’s a good shot”, could feel in some way you miss the actual experience?

Alex Craig: exactly and there’s a danger of reducing eveything to a product level , that’s not to say I do that when I’m shooting , it’s something I’m conscious of though

Photolibrary: So, would you say a spontaneity brings about better results in your work or does some type of preparation work better?

Alex Craig: both , if I’m given a brief then I have to have some sort of plan or approach , leaving room for the unexpected of course but if I’m shooting travel stock then it all comes down to the moment , probably why I love that sort of shooting so much

Photolibrary: A lot of the Cuba and Indian content looked as though it was the spontaneous type - what sort of responses do you get from subjects when taking those?

kherjala youths in front of a paan shop , rajasthan , India - PLC-00050245-001 (Alex Craig)

Alex Craig: mostly good , I tend to let people know if I’m taking their picture unless it’s a wider shot , even then it’s worth being sensitive in case people are offended or even just having a bad day and sometimes people love having their picture taken and it becomes a different sort of image , there are so many things you can’t control when shooting that sort of stuff, it’s exhilerating , it’s also keeps you on your game technically

Photolibrary: Speaking of which, we’ve seen some really high quality photos coming in from you - what camera are you using at the moment? And on the other side of that, do you ever play around with lo-fi equipment like Lomo or even pin-hole cameras etc. ?

Alex Craig: I use a canon 5D mk2 , I had a 5D but it fell off a bridge in central india the last time I was there . I’ve shot for years with diana plastic cameras but I’m having a rest from that at the moment , this is a link to stuff I shot in india the trip before last http://www.flickr.com/photos/alexcraig/sets/72157594585171285/

Photolibrary: Wow, that’s a really beautiful collection! Especially as you’ve got a lot of people wearing traditional garb - gives the impression it’s India 30-40 years ago.

From what I’ve seen, it looks like that’s a sort of an undercurrent in your work - capturing what’s culturally unique to wherever you are at the time. There’s also a real storytelling quality there. Is that what you look for when you’re about to take a shot or has that just come about in the process?

pushkar camels and tribesmen and a hot air balloon at pushkar camel fair , rajasthan , India - PLC-00050218-001 (Alex Craig)

Alex Craig: I always look for stories , I guess because as an outsider I’m trying to understand what’s going on around me , I get excited by the things that are different and within that the things we share as people , that aim has been there since I first picked up a camera

Photolibrary: It shows and positions what you do really well as people are tending to seek the quality of your work to make their campaigns stand out. Its an rare cross between commercial and artistic pursuits that’s developing in the stock industry and might just be the positive spin on the influx of “stocky” images flooding micro-stock sites. Anyway, what’s you take on the whole micro-stock / traditional stock library situation?

Alex Craig: I don’t really know enough about it but there are a lot of photographers who are producing passionate , individual work to compete with the more generic images, hopefully there’s room for both but people tend to decide,  if the images used aren’t effective then it will show on a commercial level but again I don’t really know.  I have a really good relationship with Photolibrary and I don’t see how that would be achieved at one of the many microstock venues , there are so many changes going on in all of the media based industries it’s hard to guess where all the pieces will fall.

Photolibrary: That’s true, I guess markets are as varied as the people that make them.

So besides Flickr and our “Alex Craig” search (http://ow.ly/13EqJ) - where else to get the latest on your photography explorations? Also any other photography expeditions in the pipeline for you in the near future or long term?

Arm out of open car window, Ave Simon Bolivar, Centro Habana, Havana, Cuba - PLC-00042432-001 (Alex Craig)

Alex Craig: I’ve got a website , www.alexcraig.com.au that’s about it - going travelling again at the end of the year but nothing till then gettin’ a bit itchy but there’s commercial work here

Photolibrary: Nice website!

Thanks for your time participating in our first Facebook interview - it was great speaking with you and look forward to seeing more of your work in the future.

Alex Craig: thanks so much david , really enjoyed.

See the interview raw on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=285626679287&id=153303239707

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