Photographer Andy Belcher with his daughter Ocean. Photo / Andy Belcher
Photographer Andy Belcher with his daughter Ocean. Photo / Andy Belcher
Maketū photographer Andy Belcher often posts photos on Facebook.
Many feature local landscapes, seascapes, birds and other wildlife. But one he posted recently went a little bit against the grain - and got a response that surprised him.
Andy was named best New Zealand black and white photographer in the international One Eyeland photographic competition.
And while the competition isn’t among the world’s most renowned, Andy says he’ll “take it” and that he was blown away by the response to his Facebook post.
“It just went mad,” he says. “It got 500 likes or something and individual messages - there were three or four hundred and they came from Hawaii, England, Australia, the Islands - all over the place. It was amazing.”
The photograph was of model Lace Stone wearing a parachute harness, suspended and surrounded by wispy clouds. It was one of four he submitted to the competition and the one that featured most prominently on the website.
“I had quite a few options, but that was probably my favourite.”
The photograph is a perfect illustration of how Andy works.
“All the way through my photographic career what I’ve always tried to do is dream up an idea of a photo that I’ve never seen before, so I come up with an idea then think ‘how am I going to do that?’ and then try and work out a way to do it.”
He says he must have been inspired by something on TV or a skydiving photograph and decided to recreate it in a studio.
Crucial to his vision was the harness.
“I wanted it to be different in as much as it was more of the classic type of gear - that’s a very old parachute harness.”
Andy Belcher's photograph of model Lace Stone won him the title New Zealand's best black and white photographer in the One Eyeland photographic competition.
Photo / Andy Belcher
It took a while but eventually he found what he was looking for for sale online.
“I bought it and had to wait a couple of weeks or so for it to arrive when I was thinking ‘how am I going to do this?’.”
When it arrived, he took it out to his garage and figured out how to attach it to the roof beams.
“Then I put some black plastic around the edges of the garage so I hadn’t got all my junk showing through. And I bought a smoke machine.”
He experimented a lot with the machine.
“One of the problems with it was the smoke was going up and going all around the model, so we had to open the garage door and wait for it to clear.”
Eventually, with the smoke fed through a large diameter pipe with holes placed on the ground around the model he got the desired effect.
“It worked like a charm because the smoke was coming out of the pipe and creeping along the floor - and just a little bit was going up, which was good.
“It was underneath her feet and behind her legs, it just looked like cloud and I thought, ‘that’s it, we’ve got it’.”
With the parachute fixed to the roof, the next problem was to get the model up there.
“I found an old toolbox and we put it underneath the harness, then she stepped on the toolbox, climbed up, we strapped her in and moved the toolbox away. Oh my goodness what a mission, but anyway, it worked. We finally got the shot and she was great to work with.”
The photo was taken prior to lockdown, so wasn’t specifically taken for the competition, but Andy wanted to have a black and white version.
“We dressed her in black so it would be more contrasty and that worked really well, especially against the cloud.”
Andy has entered the One Eyeland competition a few times before, without success until now, although it is only the overall professional and amateur winners who receive prizes.
“It’s nice to have the title - that’s the way I’m looking at it.”
It is a long way from Andy’s first success and he estimates he has between 60 and 70 awards - wins, placings or highly commended recognition
“The biggest one for me was the British Wildlife Competition [in 1997] where I won first place and they flew me to London for the awards - that’s the real highlight of my career because I got a lot of work coming in after that - they have an exhibition that travels the world.
One of the four black and white images Andy Belcher submitted to the One Eyeland photographic competition. Photo / Andy Belcher
“I even got a message from Sigma lenses in Japan and they wanted to send me their lenses and do a shoot with - and pay me as well.”
Andy originally made his name as an underwater photographer after selling his signwriting business and taking the plunge into professional photography.
“That stuck with me and people wouldn’t ring me, they’d say ‘oh, he’s just an underwater photographer’, but then I finally managed to start breaking out and the word got around a little bit and I started winning some good awards and started getting adventure work and tourism work.”
He says though that over the years it has become more difficult to win competitions.
“In the early days when I started, especially the underwater photography - I won one award after another - it was great. But it’s changed a lot - it’s a much harder road to start up in.”
As Andy approaches this 80th birthday he says he is easing up on work, but is pleased that his grandson Nixon appears to be getting the photography bug.
