The Photography of...
Tim J. Phillips
An Interview with Tim Phillips
by Michael Fulks - Sensuous Line, May 1998
Sensuous Line: Tell us a little about yourself and how you got started in photography.
"I was always very shy when I was young and absolutely HATED having my photograph taken. My father is the worst portrait photographer in the world. I always felt like I was being tortured. So, I decided the best way to avoid this was to make sure I was the one with the camera. My parents gave me a proper SLR on my eighteenth birthday, because I was starting to get interested in taking photographs of things, the usual stuff--cobwebs and long exposures at night and that sort of thing. I got into doing landscapes because I loved the solitude of waiting ages for the light and that perfect moment.
"As a brief biography, I'm twenty-eight now. I was born in Torquay on the south coast of England and brought up there. It's a holiday resort and a strange place to live--very beautiful, though. There are the cliffs and, also, inland from there is Dartmoor (Hound of the Baskervilles territory). Dartmoor is my spiritual home and the first place I wanted to photograph properly. I don't think I've succeeded yet. When I was eighteen, I went to university to study physics, and now I'm a physicist professionally."
How did your work evolve into photographing nudes?
"One of my scientific heroes is Richard Feynmann. In one of his books, he describes how he took up drawing and wanted to do nudes. He asked someone how one got people to pose nude and was told, 'Just ask them.' He tried it, and it worked! I had been taking photos of girls at college a bit and decided to try it. It worked for me as well. I was amazed at how many people were happy to pose. Eventually, I realized that just doing naked women was not the point. The point was to come up with great images. The nudity has to be secondary to that."
You mention that you've worked with both amateur and professional models, and that each has its advantages. Tell us what you look for in models of each caliber.
"In both cases, I'm looking for models who're ready to express themselves, who aren't afraid to experiment or worried that a particular idea may not turn out well. Essentially, being an exhibitionist to a greater or lesser extent is ideal. The happier someone is with their body, the better model they make. Whether they're amateur or pro is not the important thing, really. With a pro or an experienced amateur or semi-pro, you pretty much know what you're getting beforehand. With a first-time amateur model, anything can happen! This can be interesting but often frustrating. I've moved away from amateurs recently, simply because I could never find enough really good people to do it. Often they only want to do it once to try it. So, I was always limited by lack of models. Working with pros or semi-pros, I'm always limited by lack of money, so I'm poorer, but I get more work done."
You've said it's important to you to have fun with figure photography. What do you mean when you say that?
"Simple. I'm doing this for fun and not as a job. If I didn't enjoy it, I wouldn't do it. It's important for the models to have fun, as well--firstly, just because I'd like to think they're enjoying it, and secondly, for purely selfish reasons. If they're not having fun, it will surely show in the photographs."
What do you hope to accomplish with your photographs of nudes?
"My goal is to come up with an image people look at and are arrested visually by--to make people stand back and say, 'Wow!' For me, my most successful images are ones that are a striking design, first, and a naked woman, second. The best way to find out how successful my photgraphs are is to ask a woman. Women are usually by far the best critics, as they are less fixated by sexuality. They look at the image rather than the woman. (This is a generalization, of course, but I've often found it to be true). This fact is made clear by the number of hits to my website. I get about a hundred times as many hits to my women pictures as to my landscape pictures. I think this suggests that people are mainly looking for skin, because most women who judge my pictures think my landscapes are just as good, if not better than my nudes. Virtually everybody who has emailed me about my work, bought prints, or joined my members' area have been men. This is something I find extremely disappointing."
Do you have a style when you work with models? In other words, if a beginner asked you how you work with your models and what the typical session was like, what would you say?
"My 'style' is usually quite quiet. I'm not good at doing clichéd photographer's patter, so if a model is wanting that, we usually have a problem. But, I think models usually feel pretty comfortable. It's important to get to know them as much as possible in the time available, so we do talk a lot--not just the 'Oooh, yes, Darling, lovely!' type of thing, more about who they are and...conversation."
How does shooting nudes in the United Kingdom differ from shooting nudes in the United States? Are the social constraints the same? Do you have people there who think of your work as pornography? Do you have to protect your identity and the identity of your models--as we do here?
"As far as I can tell, the social climate is better in one way and worse in another. Worse, because photography...is far more accepted as an art form in the States than over here. There's a snobbery about art here which impacts on cinema, as well. For example, a large bookshop here may have one or two shelves of photography books, and many of them will be how-to books. In the U.S., an equivalent shop has maybe three or four aisles of books. It might be better here for the reason that there's no Bible belt, as such. It's a fairly secular society, in comparison with the U.S.A., and this means that one conservative pressure is less strong. But British people are fairly conservative about nudity in many ways (although our TV has far more nudity than yours). Continental Europe (e.g. France) is very relaxed about nudity and also very keen on photography as art and so is, maybe, the best place to be. Britain may well be the worst! I'm sure some people in the UK would regard what I do as pornography, but there's no persecution over here, as far as I know. I've never felt the need to protect my identity."
In previous Sensuous Line interviews, Jamie Cotton has often brought issues regarding spirituality and religion into discussions of the nude. Do you have any thoughts to add in respect to your own spirituality or religion and how these aspects of your personality may have contributed to your success as a figure photographer or acted as a handicap?
"I'm not religious at all, so I'm not sure what to say here. To my jaundiced eye, the only impact religion (and especially Christianity) has is to make people feel guilty about sexuality. My 'philosophy,' if anything, is a very liberal one. Anything goes--as long as you don't offend or upset other people. I would be against explicit nudity on every street, because some are offended, but I am vehemently in favor of adults being able to do whatever they want in the privacy of their own homes or in art galleries or wherever."
