Hello, photography lovers!

 
My name is Virginia and I’m the host of the fashion photography podcast, the one and only show you can find everything you want and everything you need to know about the fashion photography business.
And every Wednesday I’m here with a guest and every other Friday, I’m giving you some tips and tricks.

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I know that you want to hear more about today’s episode and topics in it. So today we’ll be discussing what’s the correlation between loyalty and progressing in your career?
Can you actually succeed in both what’s like shooting God Gandy and Luke Skywalker all at the same day.
My guests name is Corey, and you’re going to hear about him a little bit more in just a few seconds.
And during our conversation, he’s going to share with us a shortcut of how you can get to shoot big celebrities.
And you’ll get to know why you should never be afraid to ask your subject to do something completely crazy, because he’s kind of an expert in making super crazy photos.

If you want to find that more about those things, just stick to the show.

Corey Nickols
Hello, my name is Corey Nichols. I am a entertainment photographer. And currently I go back and forth between Atlanta and Los Angeles.

Virginia Y
what’s so cool about Atlanta,

Corey Nickols
What’s cool about Atlanta, it’s not California, that’s it’s very different. I grew up in California my whole life. This is the first time I’ve ever lived outside of California. It’s been a huge adjustment. One of the things that I think I’ve also found is that California is extremely transient, in that people are constantly coming and going from California. And most people will stay in LA for about three years and then decide if they want to go somewhere else. And then you come to Atlanta, and you realize there are families that have been here for hundreds of years. It’s just very different. People are more guarded, but they’re also more loyal. So they don’t really want to let people in so quickly. But then when you get in the friendships are deep, which I appreciate. Whereas la everyone’s very open to any friend because it could potentially be a possibility, or just you’re lonely, which happens all the time in LA. And then you don’t really get to develop a deep friendship people. I’ve seen both sides, Ellen, I like the trees a lot, too. I also like that I’m so much closer to Europe at this point.

Virginia Y
So we can even do that. Let’s come to photographers from Atlanta. If you’re listening to this podcast right now, you can take a snapshot of the podcasting app that you’re listening to. And you can go to Instagram and tag us photography podcast, and also Corey’s Instagram.

Corey Nickols
It’s a unicorn Fight Club,

Virginia Y
And also put the hashtag Atlanta photographer so we can count how many do we have in the podcast? I think it’s going to be cool.
Yeah, that’s great. So I think that it sounds like loyalty is very important for you.

Corey Nickols
Here’s the thing, the industry that I work in your word is really the only thing that matters at the end of the day. And there’s so many times where you can double book and the commitment that you’ve made first is not nearly as exciting as the second thing that comes your way. Ultimately, you have to make the decision of Am I going to be somebody What up my word? Am I going to show loyalty and trust with the people who I’ve made these commitments to? Or am I going to be selfish and try to chase these things that I feel like are going to better my career, I’ve definitely turned down jobs that would have been amazing to do, but only because I taking the commitments beforehand. Even when I was assisting, I told someone that I would assist with them. Big photo job came up for me to actually shoot. And I had to tell them no, because I made the commitment to assisting. And I knew that they were relying on me if it was something where I felt like they could have done it without me it would have been fine. But I knew that photographer was relying on my knowledge. And so I turned on the photo job because loyalty is more important to me then advancing my career.

Virginia Y
Oh, you’re a mean a male body? Do you have a strategy to advance your career because you’re shooting some amazing names. Let’s just mention some of them.

Corey Nickols
I can tell you what I just recently photograph that would be out so so I just recently photograph the TCS, which is the Television Critics Association, photographed it for People Magazine and Entertainment Weekly. What was crazy was the amount of volumes that you’re getting because you get so many people in a day, but I was joking around with someone the other day about how in a span of like 30 minutes, we had Mark Hamill, Morgan Freeman and Ben Kingsley all come into the photo booth. And my friend looks at me He’s like, You mean to tell me you had Luke Skywalker, God and Gandhi all come in? It’s a weird parallel Trinity in a weird way. Yeah, it’s kind of funny, to be honest, everyone gets into their career or niche or thing based around different reasons. And it doesn’t mean that the reasons are necessarily right or wrong. You just get into a different reasons. And sometimes they shift and change. And for me, I’m so driven by just trying to do the impossible or hard things. I always wanted a challenge with photography. And if photography ever got easy or boring, or you know, anything that I would just be out. So I thought, well, it’d be really hard to photograph celebrity people or people who, you know, like a lot of the public just, they can’t reach out to easily I’m like, great, cool, I’ll just try and look at those people. Once I started to get in, I was like, okay, it’s getting a little boring, because starting to get more and more people coming through, you know what, let’s try and get people to do stuff. I wonder how much I could push. And it’s interesting, because the more that I would push to come up with an idea or a concept, or just do something different, the more excited I got. Now I’m at a point where I have to create something that I’ve never seen before. For me, it has to be something that is different, that is contributing to the billions upon billions of photographs that are already out there. And existence, I want to I want to put something out there that when someone looks at, they say, Wow, I’ve never seen that before. That’s great, okay. And whether they think it’s good or not, I just want them to acknowledge this is different. So for me, it’s entertainment, photography, and all of that I’ve never seen myself as I want to shoot these celebrities, because I want to be seen with these celebrities, or I want to have the status and respect of it. It’s more so I just want to photograph something that is going to challenge me and continue to challenge me. If this line of photography ever gets easy and boring, I’ll probably stop doing it because I have to be challenged like there. That’s that’s what drives me is the challenge. But you could have been challenged by bottles.

Virginia Y
Got to shoot candy God and Luke Skywalker.
How exactly did you do that? Tell us about the very beginning. And how did you end up shooting those famous people and amazing names.

Corey Nickols
I think a lot of it is actually parallel to the fashion world, you’re trying to get in with a modeling agency. That’s out what you can do test shoots, and get your start on having photographs that look professional and in line with what you know, the top photographers are doing. I think the same thing, if you want to get into celebrity or entertainment stuff is you got a hit up publicists and publicists will let you maybe do test shoots with some of their their newer talent. And you work your way up with relationships, you got to have the publicist trusting you. And from there, you’re able to build more and more of a book. And then when people see that you have more and more recognizable names, they’ll be like, Okay, well, you want to photograph this person. And then hopefully it transitions into you get syndicated by someone like Getty or August. From there, you continue to try and just grow the library where the whole thing is you’re trying to prove like, Hey, I’m cool. I can shoot your talent. I’m not going to be a weirdo while I’m doing it. And I you know, that’s the biggest thing. It’s just like any other part of photography is people need to trust that you’re going to do a good job, and you’re going to be professional.

Virginia Y
You know, lately, I’m thinking a lot about weird stuff that we do. I know sounds odd, but that’s what I’m thinking about. And there are lots of weird things that I do. I’m quite weird person overall. So I think other people are the same. And we cannot be sure that. But your photo shoots are quite weird, too. So I’m really wondering how do you stand in front of a very famous person? And for example, tell them that they need to sit on the floor and do very weird stuff. Because on your photos, this is not something new? Do you do that? And were you that strong and confident in yourself at the very beginning, when you were starting your still graffiti starting to work with those publishers that you mentioned? Were you that brave at the very beginning?

Corey Nickols
You know, it’s funny, as I joke around, I would say, if I was ever write a book, I would call it the idiot at the show. Because I don’t feel professional at all, in a lot of ways. And I say that just being transparent and honest, which is very cool. Well, I don’t feel very professional, because I think you have you have two types of artists, right? You have the kind that literally thinks that they are God’s gift to mankind. And they think their work is amazing. They want everyone to know how amazing they are. And then you have the other side of artists where they just constantly doubt themselves all the time. And you constantly wonder like, is what I’m doing? Does it even matter? I’m learning to kind of pick myself up from the ladder and go more middle. But I think my strength has always been I come in as the lowest person in the room. I don’t tell my portfolio is like, Oh, I photograph these people are Oh, I’ve done this or that. Like To be honest, I don’t like even talking about my accomplishments. I bring that to every single photoshoot, though. And for me, the way I’m able to direct people and blood stuff is I mean, obviously, when I first started, I was like, Oh my gosh, I’m shooting this person. This is weird, because I’ve seen them. And then now I’m shooting them. And like, of course that that shine kind of comes off in the beginning. So you’re a little more timid to direct and stuff. But when I started to realize that I’m driven by challenge, and I’m driven by what can I come up with, what can I come up with in the moment? How much can I get this person to do this? When I realized that I also realize that there’s a parallel side of that, and that is regret, I can do a photoshoot. And at the end of the photoshoot, I’ll think Man, I wish I would have asked them to do xy and z, I wish I would have tried this. And that that is the ghost that I have to live with now until I get to shoot them again, which who knows if they’ll ever even happen again. So I would rather not live with these ghosts. In my mind where I’m constantly left with this regret of I wish I would have tried this. Even if I’m in a situation where I’m taking a big risk, I will save that big risk towards the very end of the shoot. And then that way, if publicist says absolutely not, or the talent says Absolutely not. I don’t want to have that regret of after a photoshoot. I’m constantly thinking of what if I like why didn’t I try this? Or that? That’s the thing that haunts me more than than anything,

Virginia Y
But you’ve had moments like this in the past?

Corey Nickols
I’ve had so many moments like that

Virginia Y
So we know that you’re a human being now…

Corey Nickols
Yeah, I have doubt almost all the time. There’s also doubt because I’m just trying to do something different. Doing something different is kind of terrifying, because no one knows what to make of it. Everyone wants to associate or brand you with something that’s already been right. When you said that, and that was like order still unique things. So one of the conversations I have with one of my buddies is that the iconic photograph, I feel like it’s dead. It’s not something that exists because of the fact that we’re so flooded with imagery on a constant basis. For example, the last iconic image I can think of, and this is just where we’re at, but like Kim Kardashian breaking the internet, you know where she’s falling, it’s going behind her. That’s actually a recreation of another photograph. It is.

Virginia Y
I’m so glad we both know this!

Corey Nickols
Yes, I know. But But here’s the thing, like, sadly, that’s the last iconic photograph, I can even think of where people talked about it and made fun of it. And like if it can go into parody, then that means it’s really iconic. I love Weird Al Yankovic. So any artist who gets covered by weird out, they always talk about like, wow, I guess I must have made it because we’re now you know, parody one of my songs. It’s kind of like that, where if, if a iconic photograph can be parodied, or you just mentioned, and everyone knows what it is, that’s great, but we’re having less and less of that. Part of that is because I think everyone wants to fall in line. And it’s scary to do new things. You never know what’s gonna go. That’s why most artists they die typically broke, and no one realizes how great of an artist they were until their long pass, because they were doing original things. And a lot of the times they just weren’t recognized for it. You’re lucky if you ever recognized within your lifetime for doing original things.

Virginia Y
That’s definitely true. And what I have noticed in your photography, for example, is it many times you shoot just in a white background, but somehow your photograph is just popping up? Which is, it’s not very easy thing.

Corey Nickols
Thank you. That’s actually a nice thing. He said. So I’ll selfishly tell you. There’s a lot of times I shoot on white, so that way I can sell easily for syndication. That’s clever, just just to be very honest. Because the magazines and typically never make any money shooting entertainment for magazines. No one does. Yeah, exactly. But if I make any money, it’s on the back end for syndication. So that’s why she white, but the lighting you’re talking about and all that, this will probably lead me on a little bit of a rabbit trail. If you’re cool with me going down it?

Virginia
Of course I am!

Corey Nickols
So it will go into a little bit of my past as well. So I went to photo school in 2005. And I graduated in 2008, specifically, the fall of 2008. And when I graduated, everything went under was when the recession had just started, magazines were folding left and right, it was just a really rough time. And for me, I wanted to still do photography, I felt like it was something I was really called to do. So I had to get scrappy, and I had to make it work. And I purchased a bunch of it was white lightning at the time. But now it’s called policy buff. So I purchased these policy buff lights, because they’re cheap, but they did phenomenal job of doing everything I could do with very professional lighting. And I went forth and I figured out how to like figure it out. How to retouch figured out how to do everything, as a one man show, I figured out how to produce go like these prop shops and figure out what prompts a good, what don’t. And ultimately, I wanted to get to the point where there’s no point at any part of the production that I can’t do myself. That was the biggest thing that I want it because I had to have that because we’re in a recession. And these people will be like, great, I’ll give you a chance. Here’s hundred dollars. I’m like, Oh my gosh, I gotta spread $100 What am I gonna do? You know, I have the shoestring budgets. And I had to figure out what what am I going to do to make it work? I am such a firm believer that creativity, always Trump’s budget, always. But you have to have that creativity to make that happen.

Virginia Y
Have you ever struggled from the lack of creativity in here, just want to say that it’s really funny for me that you’ve learned home, how many things you’re able to do after three years of education.

Corey Nickols
So amazing. But I agree with you, the idea is more important than the way you’re going to execute the project. But for you, have you ever struggled with the idea? Oh, hundred percent. There’s so many different kinds of photographers out there, right. And there’s photographers out there, when I listen to them talk, I almost get like a panic attack because they have it so together, and so dialed in. And I feel like a sloppy mess half the time. Everyone’s built so differently. And their approach to art is so different. And it’s great, like the world needs different approaches across the board, because some are going to work for some people and others won’t. And you need the variety. And I like to bring all my sheets to like a 5050 standpoint, where 50% is plan and 50% I just riff in the moment, I’m very big on the short term. So one of my biggest strengths is actually coming up with stuff in the moment. And it’s not something that I will rely on. But I’ll have a light idea. A lot of times I just I want to collaborate with that person. So it can become our idea. I don’t want to walk into a situation where I’m photographing someone and I’m saying like, here’s this, here’s this, I’ve already made you uncomfortable, because I’m forcing all this stuff on you. Like that’s, that’s the worst way to start any photoshoot. I wanted to be something where people come into it. And I’m like, Hey, I brought these things. Is there anything that inspires you with it, because I have a couple ideas. But I want us to create something that’s unique and interesting. And so we’ll come up with our own version of what that is. And I like that it’s more of a collaborative piece. If you find yourself in a creative block for me, over all the years, the best thing I found for me is one, what is my diet and exercise looking like? Oh, a lot of times, if I’m not supporting a healthy lifestyle that allows my brain to think properly, it comes back to hurt me. And so I’m not able to think clearly, to a lot of times my creative block has sort of come from an identity crisis. I think there’s a lot of times where we’ll almost forget who I am. And I find those are the times that I’m the least creative. Because if you think about it, like the concept and basis of art, art is an expression of who you are as a person, right? You’re expressing your viewpoint, you’re expressing everything to the world through a very finite limited medium. In order to get that out, you have to reinstate what is that you fully believe? What is it that you like? What do you want people to know about your viewpoint, if you don’t know what it is that you believe, if you don’t know what your passions are, it’s going to show in your work, you need to have a vision for what you’re doing. So a lot of times, what I’ll do is I’ll go back, and I’ll rethink all the things that inspire me. And even down to just weird stuff. Like for example, I’m someone who’s really driven by props, and I don’t ever want props to ever take over who it is I’m photographing, but I want it to enhance the story that I’m trying to tell. Sometimes what I’ll do is I will just go to a prop shop, and I will see all the props that they have. And I will come up with photo shoots in my mind based around that prop. What could I do with this? And I try to literally think of five different examples of like, what if I did this, or this or this. And from there, I’m able to really reestablish my creativity, because I’m embracing things that inspire me, or I’m just tapping into what I like. I also love us history. For that matter. I love the static US history. There’s a prop house in LA that I love going to call history for hire. And it is everything from American history. And you can walk up and down like these huge aisles in this huge warehouse. And they have all these pieces of US history. I get so much inspiration just by walking up and down. Because I’ll think of like, oh man be cool to shoot this. Oh, wow, what if I did this. And it reinstates sense of creativity that’ll kind of break through some of the blocks that I have.

Virginia Y
I would love to go there. And I actually really liked the fact that you mentioned your health, because I also believe this is super important part. And I think many photographers are neglecting their physical and mental health. in this industry. Not everything is easy. So sometimes, as you said, We are wondering who we are and what’s going on, I think it’s super important to be aware of who you are. Because yes, we are changing. But if today your photography is about entertainment, and because your portfolio is so connected to laugh, and it feels like you’re just telling jokes to your subjects. All the time. So at certain point, you start doing something about the end of the world and it’s super, super serious. I’d be like what’s going on with this person, it’s so damn different is this another person photo in his portfolio? So I think this is very important also to keep your style consistent.

Corey Nickols
Because it’s an art and I hate saying it’s hard but like it’s true, that’s the only way I can really describe it because it is an art you can tell so much about the photographer through their own photographs, you can really pick apart about who the person is in regards to the content that they’re shooting I you get a great snapshot for the person that they’re portraying to you so that’s why I think it’s interesting. If you look at like Richard Avedon, for example, I think they say that Richard Avedon had about three different phases in his life where his work, but significantly change in three different periods. And the thing is, it’s like Richard Avedon is not going to be the same person in his 20s and 30s, as he is going to be in his 50s or 60s. Yeah, you’re going to be changing as a person and your art should reflect that. And sometimes people are on board for it. Other times people will tell you, man, I loved your old stuff, but I don’t like your new stuff. And the what’s hard about that, it’s it’s like someone saying, Man, you used to be cool, what happened?

Virginia Y
I don’t think it’s so easy to just jump from one place to a totally different. So even if you have this type of transition into your photography, it’s going to be smooth.

Corey Nickols
Yeah. Or at least you hope also that there’s I think there’s times where people will peg you as one type of photographer and then you’re ready to change and no one’s ready to accept it. That’s hard to I’m a firm believer of you should always shoot what it is that you’re most passionate about. If you can, obviously there are the jobs that you have to take that are not inspiring at all. And it’s just paying for a bill and that to me, those are the most road jobs of all because you’re not selfish. In it, you’re doing a call that is necessary, but more so like this jobs, I’ll take where I’m like, this is just me trying to provide for my family. And it’s not jobs that are going on my Instagram. It’s not jobs that would ever make it to my website, but it’s paying the bills. I think we downplay the importance of those jobs, because those jobs are the jobs that help you to continue on doing the things that you’re most passionate about. Exactly. When I was in Prague, I went to I was at a castle in the castle, they have a museum where they talk about how one of the princes of Prague basically funded Beethoven and just basically said here will give you all the money you just create. That’s so rare. It’s like that’s so rare. That just doesn’t happen. But like you think about all the greatness that Beethoven achieved. It’s because of that. Yeah, exactly. And we owe a lot of what Beethoven did to this prince who decided to fund his every need. That’s rare, though.

Virginia Y
It is rare. It happens from time to time. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And I know that you have been recently sponsored,

Corey Nickols
Yes, by demography, which is my most exciting spots are the guy I’ve ever dreamed of. Okay, wait. So let me back up a little bit. I did a photoshoot of Tony Hale for the rap. I shot it. And then my buddy was like, hey, PDF has this photo contest. You should enter it’s PDS faces a contest. I was like, Okay, cool. So I entered it. I end up winning first place nice, which was great. It didn’t do anything for my career, but it made me feel happy.
So part of that part of the consolation prize is I think I got a little bit of money to be an age, but then I was sent a mammography camera as part of the winnings. I hadn’t really jumped on board with the whole in stacks and sin film thing. I enjoyed shooting film. In fact, on all my vacations, I always shoot film. But I hadn’t really jumped on to the whole instant film. So this is right before we did a road trip out to go to Atlanta, right? And so like, Okay, cool. I’ll just start shooting it every now and then I thought I was just going to shoot a couple of photos on our road trip. And then that road trip, I ended up shooting. Man, I want to say I close to 150 that I had to stop off and buy more film all the time, because I got so excited by it. Because here’s the thing, this insects camera that I guys like the San Romero, I think it’s called anyways, it’s very manual. And you can choose the exposures, you can do multiple exposures, just cool. It sparked this weird sense of creativity all over again. And it’s the type of creativity that’s demanding because when you shoot on insects, film, or any type of Polaroid or whatever it is, that’s instant, you have to nail it, you cannot scan it in and adjusted in post, you have to nail it, or else it’s not going to be right. It’s not flexible, like digital or even film is it’s just you gotta nail it. So I loved the perfection it demanded. But I also love the way it challenged me to think of new ways to photograph things. And to just try stuff. I was very excited. I shot that and then SXSW last year, and I decided you know what, I’m gonna bring it with me. And then I just started shooting like any celebrity that I shoot at this point, I’ll shoot with lithography and I absolutely love it. When I shot the TC as a couple weeks ago, I ended up shooting over 200 in stacks shots, which has been a pain to scan. But it’s been amazing, because so lithography just released the Diana square. And I’m obsessed with that camera because it’s fully fully manual. I feel like it’s one of the only square cameras that deals with the fact that insect square is 800 ISO, a lot of the square cameras that have been coming out beforehand, you couldn’t even really shoot it outside because it’s such a high ISO and it just wasn’t able to deal with it. So everything was blown out and blurred. And it just had a lot of problems with loss up the Diane, it comes out. And it’s completely dealt with the fact that it’s it’s 100. So it’s meant for that. And so therefore all the stops and everything are meant for it. But then they also have like interchangeable lenses, do multiple exposures you can do long exposures even has a hot shoe on it, so I can connect it to my strobes. It’s amazing. It’s a toy camera y

Virginia Y
Everything that you’re saying sounds like magic! I would love to try that. I’ve never had anything like this in my hands. And I love instant cameras and terms of when you’re on a party with friends. And you’re just having this moment forever, which is nice. But I’ve always been driven crazy because of the fact that I can achieve exactly the thing I want because there is no manual. This is driving me crazy. And now there is something like that. And I’m super excited by this sounds really, really cool. And I was wondering, have you ever done like a bigger project with just a camera like this is something maybe that we can see on your website, you can actually share with us your website right now. And I must see the logo and your website is just so hilarious!

You can check out his logo and website in our show notes that you can actually find them photography podcast document, I want to remind you about the challenge of the beginning. And I’m even also going to challenge all of you to take a snapshot of the episode of The podcasting app that you’re listening to and tag @photography_podcast inquiries account and put a hashtag of your location and photographer, for example #LondonPhotographer. And on the profile of the podcast, we promise you to share one of the images from your feed on our story. I seriously cannot wait to find out where you based a thank you so much for being with us today. And I’ll see you again next Wednesday when we’ll continue our conversation with Corey!