Photographer Profile: Johan Sorensen
Swedish-born Johan Sorensen is a fashion/commercial photographer with over 25 years of experience. Raised in Paris and currently based in Toronto, Johan has photographed such celebrities as Wayne Gretzky, Eric Lindros, and Muhammad Ali. His fashion work has been published in book format, and he’s worked with numerous clients, including Bacardi, Hard Rock Cafe, Nike, Adidas, and Timex.
How did you first become interested in photography? Do you remember when you first picked up a camera?
Yeah. Sounds like a cliché, but my father bought an SLR when I was about 10. He didn’t know how to use it. He told me to look at it, and then I started playing with it. And then, at the school I was at, they had a darkroom. I wasn’t technically allowed in there, but the whole darkroom mystified me big time.
I actually worked as a model when I was a child, so I kind of got exposed to the fashion business. And this was in Paris. I grew up in Paris for about 12 years. So, I was exposed to a whole bunch of art, I was exposed to photography, and so forth. Although my family is not into that, but they always pushed it. And then, all through grade school, high school, I also was part of the photo club, having darkrooms and always taking pictures, parallel to that.
What was it like being a child model?
Nothing has changed. You’re with an agency, you go see clients, you try on some clothes, they like you, they don’t like you… Then they have a shoot, you come back… A child model doesn’t make as much money as other models out there. And then, you know, you stand there, you wait a long time, you have itchy clothes on that don’t fit. It was interesting though, because they took (me) to locations around Paris and places that were kind of interesting.
Before we discuss your fashion work, can you talk a little bit about the commercial side of things?
In the beginning, I used to photograph a lot of boring stuff. But that’s how you learn, and that’s how you become more productive. I have to say I’m much faster as a photographer, because I shot commercial stuff. You have to pay attention to details. I had to shoot 150 office chairs one time, and I thought it was going to be easy, but there’s a lot of detail work in there.
Working with still products, you teach yourself how to do better fashion, because of your attention to details. It’s a combination of detail and lighting on something that doesn’t move. Once you do something that moves, you don’t have the luxury of time, because somebody’s standing there and you can’t go, “Hmm, what do I do now?” You have to have a pre-idea of what’s going to happen, so to speak.
How would you describe your fashion work?
Being in the business for so long, you have to re-invent yourself once in a while. And a lot of photography gets stuck. And then, having said so, you’re looking at the big, top 10 photographers in the world – they haven’t really changed. You look at Patrick Demarchelier and Richard Avedon, and those guys – they do a shot the same way. I mean, there are some photographers out there who have pushed the envelope, but extreme styles don’t sell for longevity. It always comes back to a very classic look.
Now, my work obviously went through what I call the “’80s style”. But it was still very neutral. I was also using only one light source for the longest time. But I’ve become a little bit better at doing multiple lights and all that stuff, so my style is pretty classical, I would say. It’s nothing too crazy. I’m not relying on Photoshop too much to elevate my stuff to extreme styles – although Photoshop is here to stay, and we need it for sure. There’s no doubt about it.
When you’re doing a fashion shoot, what’s involved? How do you approach it?
You do have to do your research. You have to have a pretty good idea of what you’re going into. You have to have a team. Very important that you have your stylists. The stylists, they’re becoming rock stars nowadays. It’s almost like stylists are becoming more important than the photographers. A good stylist is hard to get a hold of, but a good stylist actually puts in a lot of work. A good stylist can change your entire look.
The next degree is the model, and then of course a good makeup artist, and a good hairstylist, or somebody that does both. And that has to basically come together. But the whole teamwork is very crucial. I cannot stress enough how you need a good team to do what you need to convey in a message.
What do you enjoy most about being a photographer?
Shooting is obviously what we all strive for – that excitement of the 5 or 10 minutes when you actually shoot a model, for example. There’s an electricity there. There’s an energy there that’s quite unique. The question is, do you get what you’re looking for. I’m kind of a pessimist, because I always anticipate the worst. But when it does work, you can obviously see the click that really, really jumps, so to speak.
What are a few of your most memorable experiences working as a photographer?
The biggest photo shoot I ever did was a very long time ago, which was one very exciting moment. I had to shoot an 8-page spread for a magazine here in Toronto. And it was for a clothing company that used to be very large, and there were so many people involved. It was the most overwhelming day of my life, but it was also the most crucial point where I was given a responsibility of this large crowd. That brought me to the next level, because every pressure is going to make you or break you. Some people are going to just back away from it and say, “Okay, this is not for me. I can’t do this.” But then, when you actually manage to get something out of it, that’s when you take the next step.
Also, photographing Muhammad Ali. He came here to Toronto. He was very sick. He’s still very sick. He’s probably sicker now than he was then, but it was a chaos photographing him together with all the celebrities. It was kind of a point-and-shoot thing, but there was something there that was quite unique.
And shooting Wayne Gretzky for cereal boxes – which was, commercially, very financially good – you’ve finally reached a level that people trust you with famous people. Famous people are not talented, necessarily. They’re just there. You have to get them to look good. Wayne Gretzky is not a good-looking person at all, and he’s not a model. I’ve worked with a lot of famous people, a lot of baseball guys, and have done book covers for sports people, and all this stuff.
How do you make someone look good in a picture?
You know what, that is something that comes with experience. It’s very difficult. When you see a person, you have to know what lighting to pick to make that person as good-looking as possible – good-looking, meaning that you will bring out their personality.
Then, within a short amount of time, you also have to bring out something that makes that person – when they look into the camera – make it look like they’re actually “there”. Because when people are nervous, they’re not “there”. They’re just kind of giving you their face, but they’re not actually giving you the look. And that is something that takes me much longer to get – to get people to look into the camera and actually mean it. That is the key point.
Did you ever have any bad experiences working with a client or a particular model?
I’ve had a model who showed up who was up all night, and their eyes were completely dead. And it looks horrible. And it’s just a waste of time. Models that have tripped and fallen – nothing major breaking, but you know, something happens, you take a quick step because you’re on location, it’s high heels, or dangerous, and then – boom – somebody hits the floor and then somebody’s hurt… It’s clients getting hurt on the set. Some assistant didn’t secure something and then suddenly a boom goes flying and hits the client in the head.
I’ve had a backdrop completely collapse on a model, because, once again, it wasn’t secured properly. Usually, when I have people helping me, I’m pretty good, because I look for safety first in the studio. It’s the people that help you that are going to screw up, most of the time. And when a backdrop falls right on a model, and it totally collapses, I mean, it becomes a funny moment, as long as nobody gets hurt.
But the biggest nightmare is usually art directors who stand there and don’t know what they really want, because one is above the other and it becomes a game of power. And, in the end, they basically sometimes shrug their shoulders and say, “Yeah, let’s just go with what we did first thing this morning, and that’s fine.”
I had a client who hated the wrinkle on something, and we’re like, “We can fix it,” and he grabbed the steamer and walked up and started steaming right on the model and burned her. I’m surprised nobody got sued over that one. But yeah, there’s a million stories.
You’ve accomplished quite a bit thus far in your career. Do you have any specific plans or goals coming up?
My plans got kind of interrupted. I had hip surgery – not this summer, 2008 summer – and I had to put a lot of things on hold. But it was something I had to do – I couldn’t work very much, because I was in so much pain. So, that interfered with the planning of what I was going to do. Right now, I’m teaching a lot to keep busy.
My goal is obviously to always better myself. I have learned a lot. A lot more lately, the last couple of years, because I was teaching.
Also, do I want to publish a book that really is going to be, I would say, distributed bigger? That is something I have been working on for a while. It’s one of the things you keep in mind. It will be more of an art photography book, because on the side of all this, I’m also doing art photography. I always did lots of nude photography, black and white, and that is something I can definitely produce a couple of books on, based on the material I already have.
Where can people check out your work?
They can look at my stoically bad website, which is www.johanphoto.com.
How did you first become interested in photography? Do you remember when you first picked up a camera?
Yeah. Sounds like a cliché, but my father bought an SLR when I was about 10. He didn’t know how to use it. He told me to look at it, and then I started playing with it. And then, at the school I was at, they had a darkroom. I wasn’t technically allowed in there, but the whole darkroom mystified me big time.
I actually worked as a model when I was a child, so I kind of got exposed to the fashion business. And this was in Paris. I grew up in Paris for about 12 years. So, I was exposed to a whole bunch of art, I was exposed to photography, and so forth. Although my family is not into that, but they always pushed it. And then, all through grade school, high school, I also was part of the photo club, having darkrooms and always taking pictures, parallel to that.
What was it like being a child model?
Nothing has changed. You’re with an agency, you go see clients, you try on some clothes, they like you, they don’t like you… Then they have a shoot, you come back… A child model doesn’t make as much money as other models out there. And then, you know, you stand there, you wait a long time, you have itchy clothes on that don’t fit. It was interesting though, because they took (me) to locations around Paris and places that were kind of interesting.
Image #2
In the beginning, I used to photograph a lot of boring stuff. But that’s how you learn, and that’s how you become more productive. I have to say I’m much faster as a photographer, because I shot commercial stuff. You have to pay attention to details. I had to shoot 150 office chairs one time, and I thought it was going to be easy, but there’s a lot of detail work in there.
Working with still products, you teach yourself how to do better fashion, because of your attention to details. It’s a combination of detail and lighting on something that doesn’t move. Once you do something that moves, you don’t have the luxury of time, because somebody’s standing there and you can’t go, “Hmm, what do I do now?” You have to have a pre-idea of what’s going to happen, so to speak.
How would you describe your fashion work?
Being in the business for so long, you have to re-invent yourself once in a while. And a lot of photography gets stuck. And then, having said so, you’re looking at the big, top 10 photographers in the world – they haven’t really changed. You look at Patrick Demarchelier and Richard Avedon, and those guys – they do a shot the same way. I mean, there are some photographers out there who have pushed the envelope, but extreme styles don’t sell for longevity. It always comes back to a very classic look.
Now, my work obviously went through what I call the “’80s style”. But it was still very neutral. I was also using only one light source for the longest time. But I’ve become a little bit better at doing multiple lights and all that stuff, so my style is pretty classical, I would say. It’s nothing too crazy. I’m not relying on Photoshop too much to elevate my stuff to extreme styles – although Photoshop is here to stay, and we need it for sure. There’s no doubt about it.
Image #3
You do have to do your research. You have to have a pretty good idea of what you’re going into. You have to have a team. Very important that you have your stylists. The stylists, they’re becoming rock stars nowadays. It’s almost like stylists are becoming more important than the photographers. A good stylist is hard to get a hold of, but a good stylist actually puts in a lot of work. A good stylist can change your entire look.
The next degree is the model, and then of course a good makeup artist, and a good hairstylist, or somebody that does both. And that has to basically come together. But the whole teamwork is very crucial. I cannot stress enough how you need a good team to do what you need to convey in a message.
What do you enjoy most about being a photographer?
Shooting is obviously what we all strive for – that excitement of the 5 or 10 minutes when you actually shoot a model, for example. There’s an electricity there. There’s an energy there that’s quite unique. The question is, do you get what you’re looking for. I’m kind of a pessimist, because I always anticipate the worst. But when it does work, you can obviously see the click that really, really jumps, so to speak.
What are a few of your most memorable experiences working as a photographer?
The biggest photo shoot I ever did was a very long time ago, which was one very exciting moment. I had to shoot an 8-page spread for a magazine here in Toronto. And it was for a clothing company that used to be very large, and there were so many people involved. It was the most overwhelming day of my life, but it was also the most crucial point where I was given a responsibility of this large crowd. That brought me to the next level, because every pressure is going to make you or break you. Some people are going to just back away from it and say, “Okay, this is not for me. I can’t do this.” But then, when you actually manage to get something out of it, that’s when you take the next step.
Also, photographing Muhammad Ali. He came here to Toronto. He was very sick. He’s still very sick. He’s probably sicker now than he was then, but it was a chaos photographing him together with all the celebrities. It was kind of a point-and-shoot thing, but there was something there that was quite unique.
And shooting Wayne Gretzky for cereal boxes – which was, commercially, very financially good – you’ve finally reached a level that people trust you with famous people. Famous people are not talented, necessarily. They’re just there. You have to get them to look good. Wayne Gretzky is not a good-looking person at all, and he’s not a model. I’ve worked with a lot of famous people, a lot of baseball guys, and have done book covers for sports people, and all this stuff.
Image #4 - Wayne Gretzky
You know what, that is something that comes with experience. It’s very difficult. When you see a person, you have to know what lighting to pick to make that person as good-looking as possible – good-looking, meaning that you will bring out their personality.
Then, within a short amount of time, you also have to bring out something that makes that person – when they look into the camera – make it look like they’re actually “there”. Because when people are nervous, they’re not “there”. They’re just kind of giving you their face, but they’re not actually giving you the look. And that is something that takes me much longer to get – to get people to look into the camera and actually mean it. That is the key point.
Did you ever have any bad experiences working with a client or a particular model?
I’ve had a model who showed up who was up all night, and their eyes were completely dead. And it looks horrible. And it’s just a waste of time. Models that have tripped and fallen – nothing major breaking, but you know, something happens, you take a quick step because you’re on location, it’s high heels, or dangerous, and then – boom – somebody hits the floor and then somebody’s hurt… It’s clients getting hurt on the set. Some assistant didn’t secure something and then suddenly a boom goes flying and hits the client in the head.
I’ve had a backdrop completely collapse on a model, because, once again, it wasn’t secured properly. Usually, when I have people helping me, I’m pretty good, because I look for safety first in the studio. It’s the people that help you that are going to screw up, most of the time. And when a backdrop falls right on a model, and it totally collapses, I mean, it becomes a funny moment, as long as nobody gets hurt.
But the biggest nightmare is usually art directors who stand there and don’t know what they really want, because one is above the other and it becomes a game of power. And, in the end, they basically sometimes shrug their shoulders and say, “Yeah, let’s just go with what we did first thing this morning, and that’s fine.”
I had a client who hated the wrinkle on something, and we’re like, “We can fix it,” and he grabbed the steamer and walked up and started steaming right on the model and burned her. I’m surprised nobody got sued over that one. But yeah, there’s a million stories.
Image #5
My plans got kind of interrupted. I had hip surgery – not this summer, 2008 summer – and I had to put a lot of things on hold. But it was something I had to do – I couldn’t work very much, because I was in so much pain. So, that interfered with the planning of what I was going to do. Right now, I’m teaching a lot to keep busy.
My goal is obviously to always better myself. I have learned a lot. A lot more lately, the last couple of years, because I was teaching.
Also, do I want to publish a book that really is going to be, I would say, distributed bigger? That is something I have been working on for a while. It’s one of the things you keep in mind. It will be more of an art photography book, because on the side of all this, I’m also doing art photography. I always did lots of nude photography, black and white, and that is something I can definitely produce a couple of books on, based on the material I already have.
Where can people check out your work?
They can look at my stoically bad website, which is www.johanphoto.com.
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Fountain: Style invasion
