If you gave up milk or mutton chops for Lent, that’s just too bad! Our cover sweetheart this spring is Richmond photographer Patrick Biedrycki.
If you gave up milk or mutton chops for Lent, that’s just too bad! Our cover sweetheart this spring is Richmond photographer Patrick Biedrycki. Having used his editorial expertise to illustrate RVA Mag in the past, we thought it time for a proper styling and profiling of the artist behind it all. Aside from his seasoned portfolio of commercial and commissioned works—Penske Logistics, Freecreditreport.com, and Spin Magazine, to name a few clients—Biedrycki has a striking collection of personal series that punctuate his spaghetti-moto aesthetic. For the purposes of this interview, we have chosen to feature a number of images from his self-portrait series, Fiction. What began in 2009 as various exercises in lighting technique has matured into a comprehensive parody of self-advertisement.
This article was featured in RVAMag #24: Spring 2016. You can read all of issue #24 here or pick it up at local shops around RVA right now.
His taste recalls Cindy Sherman’s compositional genius and schematic punch, as we see Biedrycki meditate on the humor and fluidity of his own visage.
Where is home?
Home for now and the foreseeable future, is Richmond, VA. I first moved to Church Hill around 2004. I am thankful crime has gone down significantly, and there are some fantastic restaurants just a short stumble up any of the neighborhood’s often treacherous, blighted brick herringbone sidewalks, although I feel like the neighborhood is losing some of the grit and charm that originally drew me to it. You couldn’t even get a pizza delivered up here back then. It does still seem odd to see a mother pushing a stroller down a street she wouldn’t have stepped foot on just a few years ago.
How long have you been shooting professionally?
Strictly shooting, since 2008. I did photo assist in Miami for about two years. I then became a freelance independent contractor, and ceased to punch a clock at a job. That freedom of pursuit is what marked the beginning of my career in my own mind.
Workwise, what’s on your plate at the moment?
January-March is generally pretty slow for me in the realm of advertising and editorial work. I still have the random portrait, headshot, or band photo to shoot; but no major travel or commercial work. I did just finish shooting that ridiculous Scotch “ad” that I’ve been kicking around, and I’m always scribbling out random ideas in my moleskine, or kitchen chalkboard. Admittedly, though, when I go back and read them I’m not always 100% sure of what I was talking about.
How do you balance your private and personal projects?
Personal projects always come first. I may not have any commercial jobs on the books and want to get out and shoot. You can’t get a job without a body of work that establishes yourself as a photographer. Not to say that doesn’t happen but those success stories, more often than not, involve an angel on the inside willing to go out on a limb. Things are different now with social media, and the fact that everyone has a camera in their pocket at all times. All photographs used to be a product of intent, now they are largely proof of existence. You no longer have to make the conscious decision to carry around an extra accessory in order to be creative.
What does your set-up usually include, and do you have a favorite piece of gear?
I don’t really shoot film regularly these days, so my usual go to is a Nikon D3 digital camera body. 80% of the time I shoot with a 24-70 2.8. It’s just such a versatile focal length. Next in line is my 50 1.4. Although the 24-70 encompasses the 50mm focal length, the large 1.4 aperture is tremendous in low light and produces beautiful bokeh. My telephoto and ultra wides don’t get much use these days. I don’t really get too wrapped up in gear the way some people do. Everything is just a tool, like a hammer or a socket wrench. That being said, I do have an old kind of rare Nikon F3P film camera that I’ve shot hundreds of shows with and countless rolls of film. It’s beautiful. The paint is rubbed off in spots and the brass is exposed from heavy use. It’s arguably the best 35mm film camera ever made.
How might you describe your style?
I still struggle with the words to define my style. I feel like it’s pretty traditional environmental portraiture. I started out shooting a lot of street photography, photojournalism and live music. I feel like the skeleton of those disciplines is still evident, although I have grown to enjoy the technical side of lighting and production. Maybe cinematic would be a word, just in the sense that I vastly prefer to shoot with the camera horizontally. There are times when a vertical composition is the formula for the image, but I feel like there’s less space to tell a story.
I come from a film background so I strive to capture everything in camera as meticulously as possible. My technical skill in photography and lighting far surpasses my knowledge in Photoshop, which I didn’t even start using until around 2005. 90% of my relationship with Photoshop is what a professional custom printer would accomplish in the darkroom: contrast, curves, saturation, color balance, and burning and dodging. I don’t really do photo illustrations or composite images.
Why do you take photos?
I think you’re asking me this to see if I’ll take the bait and paint myself as a man with a camera and an over inflated sense of creative prowess. Why do you ask questions and write stories? Yes, I take photos because I enjoy it. Yes, I take photos as a creative outlet. The reason all photographers, in my truest and most pure definition of that word, make images is because we see everything in pictures. Like a sickness that’s obviously, certainly not a sickness. It’s involuntary. Is that just seeing? I don’t know. I’m not a scientist like Dr. Steve Brule, though I do hope this response is pompous and exhaustive enough to answer the question.
Who have been your professional mentors, and what impact would you say they’ve had on your work?
I wouldn’t say any of my mentors had a significant impact on the look of my work directly. I feel like, besides learning lighting, the biggest thing I took away from assisting was how to behave on set—how to engage and collaborate with clients, how to treat the people working with you. Here’s where I’ll name names and give credit and talk shit. Very early on in Richmond I met Thomas A. Daniel. He was always great to me. Lent me his studio space a few times, always offered to loan me gear, etc. He’s a character and a talented photographer. After hanging around with Tommy, I was pretty captivated by the way he always said what was on his mind and did whatever he wanted. I’d never really met anyone that was such a complete individual, and it truly inspired me to be myself.
While living in Miami, I assisted a lot of photographers. A few famous ones–they were the worst. One goes by the name Annie. She has a notorious reputation for treating her assistants like garbage. She had the misfortune of me being one of the many assistants to stand in the crosshairs of her unwarranted, abusive wrath. With three famous celebrity athletes and a crew of about 20 people on set, the aforementioned photographer and I had a brief exchange that resulted in her walking off set. I was high fived and championed at lunch by the other assistants for standing up for myself and not allowing her to treat me like an idiot. I will say that later in the day it was just her and I on set in between shots and she looked at me and smiled. I like to think she was reminded for a second that the majority of people that work with her are so impressed to be there, no one challenges her. I think it’s easy to get lost surrounded by yes-men. I just couldn’t understand why anyone would treat so many people so poorly. It doesn’t magically get the shots done faster.
How do you identify with the characters in your self-portraits?
Some of them are just ideas born out of my own interests, like the European motorcycle officer, or the alien autopsy. Some of them are recreations of nostalgia from my childhood like the tennis player and the scotch ad. Some of them may be inspired by a found object or a particle of clothing I have, or a verse from a song or a passage from a book, or just a weird idea I scribbled down somewhere.
They seem to offer an outlet for alter-egos, would you agree with that?
Yeah, I would agree with that to some extent. There are certainly aspects of these characters that I relate to. I created them and have to get into character with an expression or body language to really sell them.
What kind of planning goes into the portraits?
They’re planned out to the smallest details I can foresee. Once I decide to move forward on an idea, it’s already a finished picture in my mind. Location, wardrobe, props, lighting, and characterization have all been decided before the camera comes out. There’s only a certain number of times that I can set the camera for a sequence of photographs, run back into position, and then be that person before the whole thing starts feeling like a bad idea.
Is there a favorite image you have shot recently?
I just finished that parody scotch ad. It’s pretty funny to me. There was so much overt sexism in advertising in the 70’s–there still is. And I’m not saying sexism is funny, but liquor and cigarette ads from back then just crack me up. It was such a decadent time. I shot it in my dining room with a four-light set up. I really enjoy the challenge of lighting things in a way that they don’t necessarily look lit; taking into account cameras don’t really record with the dynamic range that our eyes see.
Is there something you are still learning, or would like to learn?
I feel like I’m still learning almost every time I shoot. Whether it’s my compositions, directing talent, or just knowing when to stop shooting. Sometimes you get the shot early on, and there’s no sense in continuing. I have always wanted to make a camera obscura out of one of the rooms in my house.
Do you have any favorite books on photography, or titles that tie into your personal work?
I keep a few on my coffee table to thumb through for inspiration. Ones I still look at all the time are Danny Lyon’s The Bike Riders, Robert Frank’s Storylines, and Bill Allard’s Decades: A Retrospective. I do like those “Found” collections as well.
Name something that’s overrated.
I recently saw one of those jetpacks that uses water instead of fire.
Have you ever had an undercover job?
The undercover part I’m not sure about. When I was living in Miami I got hired by some sleazeball mag or blog to essentially paparazzi Britney Spears. I did it for one day. I wasn’t too aggressive, she even waved to me, so I guess I didn’t piss her off. However, after getting home and downloading my cards and sending the images off, I felt pretty rotten about the whole thing. I never even pursued payment. That aside, I think it’s important to build a rapport with your subjects, so the undercover thing just wouldn’t produce what I would want out if it–if we’re making wishes here.
Do you have any comments surrounding Richmond’s photography industry; and where do you see it going?
I’d say the industry as a whole is getting more competitive all the time. A good thing, but the downside to that is publications are folding and advertising budgets are getting smaller. Print media is struggling, in general. Banner ads are becoming animated with gifs, stop motion, and video. We’re lucky to have a handful of ad agencies and branding shops in town. The local editorial market in Richmond is pretty small, so it’s always nice to get a call from a magazine out of state. All that being said, Richmond is finally standing on it’s own as a vibrant arts town with an exciting culinary community. There’s a lot of creativity here. I look forward to seeing where that “progress” leads us.
