INTERVIEW: Chasing lights and shadows

DAVID HURN (England, 1934) is one of these persons that can be described as self-made men. He self-taught and became an assistant at the Reflex Agency at only 21. Decades later he set up the renowned School of Documentary Photography in Newport. His photographs have registered everything from political demonstrations to the everyday life in Wales. He has already been 55 years on the business, and at 76 he is still an active photographer. His photographs showed the best and the worst, the prettiest and the dullest things, the most glamourouse and the most vulgar scenes; and for several decades he worked with the best and for the best. The Navigator chats with him about his career and the profession of photographer.

What is your latest work about?

Well, now I am focusing on the idea of perspective. Landscapes. I want to imitate those cityscapes and countryside views that the dutch painters depicted on the 17th Century. One of the things I have learned about landscape is that it is a completely different thing, it has nothing to do with what I have been doing in my life.

When did you feel attracted by photography?

In 1954. I was a kid and discovered that there was a Camera Club in my city. I was very shy, and taking pictures behind a camera was a good way to start, I didn't need to be exposed. I went to the club and asked them whether I could join, and they said that I needed a camera to join them, so i bought one. The I started taking photographs. I wanted to be a photographer and I showed photographs of what I knew: weddings, parties, local celebrations...

How were your beginnings?

I took my first photographs in 1955. The first equipment I had at this time was a small Kodak, and I used to sell photographs of weekend celebrations and weddings in Harrods. Now I still keep selling some of these prints. Then I bought another camera, a second-hand Leica, and used it all my life. Just recently I switched to digital. I do still take pictures with film cameras, I think Leica is the best camera ever made and has the best lenses.

Source: Magnum

How did you get to master photography?

I self taught, I learned from how the pros worked. When I started there were no schools, you just learned from making mistakes. It is very important to understand that you need a perfect technique, you cant do anything without having a perfect technique, and the way to learn is practising and practising. I once talked to a pianist, Baremboim, and i asked him what does make a great pianist. And he said "playing the piano a lot". It is the same with photography, you have to shoot and shoot in order to improve. I learned from experience, and especially from other people's experience.

You were one of the first Western photographers to document the Hungarian uprisings in 1956. How did you feel?

In 1956 me and a friend decided to go to Hungary to document the uprisings. We hitchhiked to Austria and then we discovered that some ambulances departed from there and entered Hungary. We asked one of the drivers and he took us. When I went to Hungary I didn't know hot it would be. You learn that things don´t take place when you expect they will, so that´s why I decided to follow journalists. Life had only a photographer there and then they saw me, so they said: "why don´t you work for us?", and once you are there you just have to take pictures on focus, because everything is happening around you.

How did you join Magnum and what did it mean for you?

One of the most difficult things as a photographer is getting access. I didn't know anything about Magnum, they didn't have an office in London, but I met some guys from Magnum, they saw my pictures and they asked me to join Magnum. For me it meant working with people that were better than you are, and you can learn a lot out of it because you watch and you learn. It was a clever thing to do.

Source: Magnum

You also photographed posters for Hollywood movies, especially those about James Bond...

Yes. One of the problems with the photography I do is that they pay low. I discovered that working on movies was a way to make money. I had a friend who worked with Sean Connery and told me that they were planning to do a low budget film called "James Bond". They didn't have a poster for the film, so I did it for them. When we were about to shoot it they told me that Sean Connery didn't have a gun. At that time I collected air pistols, so we made the photograph with my air-pistol. Years later we put the gun on auction and it sold for 300 pounds. I read that two months ago this same pistol was sold for 220,000 pounds.

Tom Carlyle, who did the James Bond movies, did also Barbarella. He rang me once and told me that they had problems with Jane Fonda and asked me to come over. I stayed with her for nine months, photographing her for the movie.

Later on you worked on three books about Wales. What was your purpose?

I have always photographed people doing things. I have curiosity and I try to participate in others' lives, in what you see around you. But you get older, and when I came back to Wales I wanted to show what was culture. What did mean being Welsh? I decided to do three books: how we live in Wales, people who live in Wales and a third book on the landscape of Wales. I left it the last because is more leisure. I´m 76 and wanted to try myself to slow down, that is why I decided to do landscape. What does the landscape, how is it done, the human use of landscape...

What is, in your opinion, the best advantage of being a photographer?

Living as a photographer you meet people and you do those things you want to do. I do take pictures for a purpose. I can´t just wander around and take a picture of something I like. I only record what interests me, but I have to make clear which kind of photograph I am looking for before going out and shoot. I think the world is a wonderful place, it never stops evolving, and I find interest on trying to record what I see. That is such a privilege.

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