Photographer Beatrice Heydiri was born in Germany in 1970, educated at Abitur Germany and spent a year in Switzerland before receiving her BFA from Art Center College of Design. She's been working as a commercial photographer since 1995 and has shot for all types of large brands including Azzaro, Nivea, Marc O'Polo, Escada, Club Med, Sony, Monsoon, Dove, BMW, Pampers, Vogue, Junior, Collezioni, Debenhams and Next. She's represented by Karina Bednorz.

07.27.10

Sunburns and Broken Toes

If you have a degree in what field is it? A BFA in photography and graphics.

What was your strangest assignment? To shoot a series of plates that would be composited at the end. I’m from an analog era where nothing was digitally manipulated. For me a shot is what I see—one-shot—end of story. For me to shoot different plates and then assemble them into a collage for one image is not how I see my photos.

Which photographer would you like to meet? Bruce Weber. He captures the spirit and ideas of my generation; he has no competition whatsoever.

What famous person (living or dead) would you most like to photograph? The Queen of England. Controversial but amazingly interesting because she still lives in a fairy tale.

Aside from your camera and lighting, what item could you not work without? A sun cap and boots. If I focus on something looking through a camera, I tend to forget my surroundings. So, for many years, I burned my face and I broke toes not watching where I put my feet.

Is there anything you would not digitally retouch? I was trained in the analog era when NOTHING was ever retouched—and the most we ever did was use filters in the darkroom—so it took me a long time to accept the digital era. But now I agree that there is room for everything. If it does the picture good, you should be able to retouch anything you desire.

From where do your best ideas originate? Children’s movies and stories. Kids have the time and essence for details and so do the stories created for them. A child is not in a hurry to finish a great story, so every scene is described picturesquely to the maximum. They give me a lot of ideas—for lighting, props, characters—to translate into my images.

How do you overcome a creative block? Go on holidays. I try to go to a place that I think I’ll like, somewhere I've never been, and I try to “see” again. You get blind to things in your daily life and stop seeing their special qualities; they become boring and that is the death of creativity. Only when you are taken out your daily routine do you see details again.

Do you have creative pursuits other than photography? Not anymore. Life is very busy and time is too short for me to make things other than photographs. I do try to absorb the paintings and music and images that are available. In the old days, it would have taken a month in galleries to see all the images that have now become very accessible online.

What music are you listening to right now? Michael Jackson. He is the king at the moment. Other than that, a mix of junk and soul, classics and rap. Music should underline your moods; good music will take you to the same places that good pictures do.

What’s your approach to balancing work and life? There is no balance. Work, work, work. Taking images is life. It has become my destiny. I live my life with photography in it just as I do with my son and husband. It’s always there and can’t be taken away.

Do you have any advice for people just entering the profession? Influences can be overwhelming. Stick to your roots. There is so much of everything that I assume it’s not easy for young people to stick to ideas that feel true to them. There are loads of people out there that want to put you in a box; that’s bad enough, but it’s worse if they put you in a box that you don’t want to be in. Stay true to yourself and pursue what you see.

What’s one thing you wish you knew when you started your career? That nothing will ever happen as you’ve planned it. In university they give you all these projects with timing and a load of organized framing. It’s not at all how reality works. This industry is never fixed. Everything changes as you speak and nothing is ever as said. You can never rely on something you were told yesterday. It’s bad from the standpoint that there is no real safety net, but good in other ways because nothing is set in stone and gives you freedom for creativity.