THE CHARMING BENEDICT REDGROVE
by Kate Dell’Aquila

From the outside Benedict Redgrove lives a charmed life. Jet setting across the globe, hired by some of the biggest names in automobile manufacturing, aircraft engineering and yacht developing, Redgrove photographs their new designs – Their babies. Think, Ferrari, Bentley, Swiss Air, BMW and Virgin. He rides a Triumph Scrambler, drives an Aston Martin Vanquish and recently, when I spoke to him, he was in Italy for the weekend working on a shoot. But what is charming about Redgrove’s charmed life is that, in fact, it is speckled with pain, love, friendship, heartbreak and success, all of which have impacted on his photography and career. Here, treats! gets the inside scoop into how Redgrove produces such amazing photographs of cars, planes, jets, bikes, boats and yachts! As well as how he got his start and what exciting adventure lies just around the corner…

How did you get a start in photography?

I started by shooting sports events – I loved car racing and used to do a little bit myself, but could never get the sponsorship budget to do it more seriously. So, instead, I used to go and watch races, and soon, I started shooting them. I then met some other photographers at the events and that lead me to meet some of the sports agencies. Pretty soon, I was covering touring cars, Le Mans and Grand Prix bikes. It was fun. I slowly got a car folio together, went to see some magazines and shot lots of editorial car work. I noticed that as I shot my style started to develop. I liked the more clean graphic images, lots of space, allowing the subject to breathe. I shot for various titles and then as my work changed so did my clients. I started getting more travel-style assignments and this allowed me to develop even further. I realized that, as I’d had no formal training at all, I should get some experience. I second assisted a fashion photographer called Uli Webber, he had an assistant at the time who became my best friend, Simon Atlee, and when he left, I went and assisted him. We had such a great time and I learnt a lot from him – mainly how to drink – but technical knowledge too. Sadly, Simon was killed when he got caught in the Thailand Tsunami and this really threw me for quite a while. I eventually got a book together of my new work, short-listed some agents in London and one of them picked me up. It was a fast learning curve, but so exciting. Now I am really appreciative of good assistants, as I was such a terrible one.

At 22 you traveled with a camera, what was the camera and where did you go?

I went to Jakarta, Bali, Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii and the USA. It was fun; I went with my girlfriend at the time. I took my Nikon F3HP, which had an MD4 drive on it. It was quite a beast and could be used as a weapon if needed. The thing weighs a tonne! I shot mainly black and white Ilford film I seem to remember. I came back and printed some images and had a small exhibition in my hometown of Reading UK. I think the gallery is still around. It was fun and I got some great feedback. The creative director of the design agency I was working for at the time said I should give up graphic design and go and be a photographer full time. I guess that was the start of believing that maybe I could. It felt and still feels very natural to me to do it.

Was this your first venture into photography?  

It was I suppose. I’d taken pictures at Art College and was shooting some sports events etc, but this was the first time I’d really considered what I was looking at, and what I liked. I think I would have learned faster if I had a digital camera as you can see the results of our actions immediately, but shooting film made me very disciplined in my approach and I had to be right. I used to shoot most of my car racing on Fuji Velvia which is a transparency film rated at 50 iso. It would get very painterly on long panning shots, but you had to know your exposures to get it right. Lovely to use.

You said you worked in graphic design can you tell me about it?

Yes, I worked for a couple of small provincial design agencies in the UK. I loved type and corporate identity. Those were the areas that I worked at best, and I think it’s that sense of layout and negative space that has made me shoot the way I do. I am always considering how it will look on a page or a screen.

What draws you to cars, aircraft, yachts and boats?

I’m a boy at heart. I think sometimes I have the coolest job in the world. I get to hang out of helicopters and shoot tanks driving along a beach, shoot boats whizzing through the sea, go in rare and expensive race and road cars, technical rooms that have an echo that last 20 seconds – I get to go to places that no one gets to see. And I get to meet the most incredibly interesting people – satellite manufacturers, spacesuit engineers. I am waiting to hear about a job at the moment that will involve traveling to the Antarctic, which will be amazing, and next week I’ll be in Italy shooting carbon-fiber racing yachts and powerboats.

How did you learn to light a car/plane?

Over a long period of time, working with very good assistants, and some intuition too. Now, we go into a studio for a car shoot and it’s second nature, but there is always something that throws you. Weird paint finishes or an odd request from the client that challenges me a little. But that’s what makes it more interesting, a lot of what I do is problem solving.

Your photographs project somewhat a sense of isolation, often in places of community – a hotel, a cinema – can you tell me about your vision when you shoot these spaces?

Yes, they should feel calm. I think people’s work often reflects the character of the photographer, so I guess that says I’m a bit of a calm person who spends time on his own, which is true. I spend an awful lot of time traveling and a lot of that is on my own. But that’s cool, I like that, I love walking around the cities where I live and new ones I’m visiting, and just taking it in and allowing ideas to come to me. I think that when I look at objects I see them very isolated, so when they are in a location I try to give them room to breathe and have their own space in the picture. If I shoot people it tends to be in a similar way, I give them the room in the image so that it says something about them. But really, I think as I said, it’s part of my character, I’m quite a calm person when I shoot and I’m glad that comes across in my work.

What has been your most challenging shoot?

I’ve shot for my friend’s charity, Happy Hearts Fund. We went to Pakistan after the earthquake to assess where we could best use the charities funds. I saw some kids there that were about three or four and they had a look on their faces that was so sad. One of them, I will never forget her face, she looked straight into me and there was nothing inside her. She was just a ghost of a child. There is a picture by the great photojournalist, Don McCullin of a soldier holding his rifle and he’s looking into the camera. He has the same type of 1000-yard stare that the poor girl in Pakistan had. They had seen the most horrific scenes of their classmates being crushed and whole towns disappearing. It was difficult to know whether to shoot these scenes – but I had to. To know that we were going to be doing something to help them and give them support and love, that was extremely challenging and rewarding at the same time.

Technically challenging I would say shooting a Tornado fighter jet, we had to be careful with our electronic equipment and anything with radio waves as we were shooting it in a bombproof hangar surrounded by missiles.

What has been your most rewarding shoot? 

I am shooting a lot of cloudscapes for a show that I’m putting together. I’ve been doing this for a few years now, and some of those images really make me very happy, uplifted and calm. They are lovely to shoot and I kind of get lost when I do them. I fall into a sort of hypnotic state of calm and bliss. It’s always the simplest things in life that are the most rewarding.

You have shot for Ferrari, Bentley, Swiss Air, BMW, and Virgin – What is your dream shoot?

I’ve got one coming up for Wally Yachts that has got to be a good one! The Antarctic is also on my list. My list changes but I would say my dream shoot would be to go up in a Mig Foxbat or a U2 Spy Plane to the outer atmosphere and shoot the curvature of the earth and another plane at the same time. The light up there would be amazing. I would have loved to have shot the final shuttle launch. Anything to do with NASA. I’m obsessed with space, and again, that’s another personal project that I am working on at the moment. The Virgin Space program would be a great client too. Bit of a vast landscape and technical theme to all my dream shoots! I guess it’s the sense adventurer in me and those places have beautiful light. Just to see some incredible sights!

Finally, what is your favorite treat?

I have a few favorite treats, am I allowed a few? Riding my Triumph Scrambler with my mates along twisty country roads in the UK. Driving my beautiful Aston Martin Vanquish through a tunnel with the windows down so I can hear that glorious sound.  Seeing the eyes of someone special light up when I see them. Walking my friend’s dog in the rain on Hampstead Heath when it’s empty of others. A really good red wine. Simple things, but it’s the simple things in life that are the best.