Lessons

Lesson Info

Coffee with Alex - Benjamin's Story

Okay, we have a bit of an issue here. I was gonna make a coffee for Ben, but we have the wrong propane canister. It needs to twist. (coughing) I think this is sketchy, they don't match. This says push top, easy click, and this is a screw-in. So, not happening. Sorry, Ben. Coffee is not gonna happen. No coffee? No, we got the beans and everything, but the canister's fucked. I was gonna have a coffee date with Ben. Oh, I'm just gonna come in now, then, and just weep for a minute, 'cause I was really excited for that coffee. Me too, it's not really hot here. Hmm, oh well. Have a seat, please. Thank you for setting up this beautiful little table and chairs for us. Thank you, I built the rocks myself and bring them here. All right. Got beans from Pallet, like you told me. Oh well. Oh well, so- Hello everybody. So Benjamin Hardman, is it the first time you appear in the workshop right now? This is the first moment. What an epic arrival. (laughing) Yeah, look...

at this place, so nice here. Welcome. Thank you, thank you very much. So, no coffee, truly sorry, but I have a few questions for you, for this Q and A. Didn't have the right notes open. Nice nose finger. That's all I can do. Coffee with Ben, yeah, wrong one. You know, it's funny, before we begin, is this where you took me for the first time to see the Northern Lights, in 2016? 2000, yeah. A few years ago. Yeah, a few years ago, there you go. Right here, this is where it all began. So, the circle is kind of circled. We were just here for the first time, couple years ago. That's where we met, and now we're back here. We didn't see the Northern Lights last time, either. No. This place is a bit doomed for us. Yeah. But it's so epic today, I've never seen it like this. Mm-hmm. So- Frozen lake. That's dope. Yeah. Okay, so, Ben, I know your story quite well, 'cause I mean, we've been friends for a while. But for the peoples who are just getting to know you or just coming into this workshop and wanna know more, can you just gimme a quick rundown on who is Benjamin Hardman? Yeah, it's- A big question. It's a big question. No, so I'm an Australian. I was born in Perth, on the west coast, and I grew up in the sun. I grew up at the beach and in the Outback, riding motorbikes and, you know, playing with my friends down by the water and, you know, look where we are now. (Ben laughing) That's pretty mind blowing. That's why I want you to build on this, is because it's against all odds, you're in Iceland and it's so different to where you grew up from, so. It's fun to take photos here. Over the last few years, I've built my career on photographing, you know, cold places. And, through that, I've learned some pretty interesting things about photography, you know, in general. Yeah. It's a lot of problem solving, living in an extreme place like this. It's always pretty windy when it comes to this country. You know, I love coming here. There's always some good wind. Whenever I think of you, I think of Iceland. I'm glad we picked this country to do the workshop. Yeah. It's gonna be a few days of epic filming, I think. This is where my heart is and this is where I feel most at home. Really? Yeah. Wow, well, so then, going back to where you feel at home and the beginnings, how did you start photography? My journey in photography really kicked off when I first discovered Iceland and, you know, the years before that it was just a hobby for me. And it was something that, you know, I didn't really know if it would ever become a career, but I was really becoming quite invested in it, you know. Doing assisting on weddings and taking landscape photos in Australia and, through being in a band, I was able to tour quite a lot, in my hardcore band. And we went around Europe and I was always taking photos of the places we were. So, can I just go back to this? You were in a hardcore band? Yes. What's that? So it's a bit of an angry thrash style of music. Very different to the Ben that I am now. But, there's some interesting contrasts on Iceland being the extreme outlet these days, as that was back then. What did you play in the band? I was a guitarist. Yeah, I still am, of course. I like to have a little play every now and then, but it's not my focus as it once was. So your main focus now is photography, obviously. Yeah, I'm really just like so passionate about being here and shooting and really exploring Iceland, taking that to the next level, going kind of beyond the generalized traveling and shooting the generalized landscapes- South coast? And really, you know, going deep into the Highlands and the textures and the subtleties and the changes in the seasons. And that really has become the crux of my photography, you know, exploring and diving deeper into the north. And the seasons is a big thing because when I look at your website or your feed, I can tell, almost like, the seasons we're in. You know, it's always changing with the time and I really appreciate that. I think seasons resonate with me a lot, that's why I think we get along together. We can shoot together is because we share similar purpose, I think, with the seasons. It's also a big deal for me, but in Iceland, they're pretty contrasted, you know? Yeah. Like the winter is pretty brutal and in the summer, it's like all these greens and oranges that come up in the photos, and I always appreciate seeing that in your work. Yeah, always looking for those foggy skies when we get these colorful landscapes in the summer and the fall. Gotta balance it with something. And Iceland, luckily, has a lot of rain and a lot of cloud cover. (laughing) Yeah. Yep, almost every day. One might say, so. No, it's somewhere that I really love to shoot and think I've really developed something that I think is quite special here for, you know, you could call my style. Yeah, no, I think that shines through your work. I love, so I just wanna take a step back, go back to the beginning. Yeah. (laughing) When you landed in Iceland for the first time, I know that you worked at a hostel and you did kind of some of the housekeeping, from what I heard. Mm-hmm. How did you go from Ben doing the housekeeping and badass Arctic Ben? What happened between, you know, what happened there? A lot of hard work and slugging it for a few years. And, you know, those days when I first landed here, so I actually visited six times before I moved. Six times? And each time was just like a little bit of a deeper and deeper connection. And eventually, me and my partner, Amy, we packed up our things and we booked a one way ticket. And then, you know, the future was completely unknown. Wow, that's bold. We had no idea, like, what we would do. We had no friends here, I had no job lined up. Just fresh. The only thing that I knew is that I had to study at the university. So, I was studying Icelandic- Mandatory? Yeah. Oh. 'Cause I'm an Australian, hard to get a visa. Yeah. That was my way to have a permanent fixture here, and I lived with an Icelandic grandma and that was pretty cool. (laughing) So is this still going, like, can somebody from Australia study Icelandic and be allowed to work here, is that still going? Yeah, you can work a very small amount, but if you really like this place, and same across like not just Iceland, but around the world, if you really like a place, there's usually always a way, with enough hard work, to find a way to live there. Pro tip. Pro tip. Okay, more questions. You mentioned a lot of hard work, tell me about the struggles. Thinking back, you know, this all started- (ice whirring) Whoa, ice on rock, yeah? Rock on ice. That was sweet, thinking back on the struggles- Yeah. Just as the lake is struggling to try and, you know, stay present under that big layer of ice out there, I had to find a job, and for me, that was working at one of the local hostels here, called Kex. And it really kicked off this process of, you know, making friends here to begin with and just feeling like, I could have a home, you know. So moving to Iceland, I knew nobody. Me and Amy, we didn't have friends here, there was really no prospects. I just had this connection to the landscape that I wanted to entertain for a while and see where it went. So, I had to get a job and I was here, I was asking around, it wasn't really working out. And I was working as a housekeeper and studying Icelandic, so that was most of my time taken up, and every now and then, whenever I had a free weekend, and I was working on really limited budget as well. You know, I saved up for a year to move to Iceland and it quickly evaporated, of course- Expensive place. Because moving is like expensive. And Iceland is not cheap. So, you know, there were struggles with that, and there was a struggle to even just be outside and shoot. So I really, you know, tried to make the most of any time that I could be outside shooting. And it just really was this continuation of those six trips, building an image collection, like a database of my work, and then exploring edits, trying to move deeper into the concept of post-processing. And, over the course of maybe a couple of years, I really have kind of come to a point that I'm happy with in my shooting, and now it's time to kind of build and explore beyond. And that's where the Arctic has come in. So now, you know, Iceland has become my base and there is this entirely new world that I've kind of opened up. I've got a question on that coming up. Ooh. So yeah, yeah. Coming onto the nowadays Ben then, where struggles are, I mean, I'm sure there's struggles still ongoing, but different struggles, how would you describe your photography? Describing my photography? Yeah, do you wanna give it a try? Well, description one, this. This looks like your photo. This is like- That sky there. Yeah, pretty pleasant. Yeah, this is a nice little composition, with the crack in the river. No, my photography is built on my connection to the cold, I believe, and the extreme, and that's what captured my heart in the first place, is seeing things that, being an Australian growing up in the, you know, a beach country, where there's warm weather. The things that I saw here were mind blowing for me, and I was having these, you know, first time experiences as an adult. And they meant a lot to me. Focusing in on those in photography, I would say those extremes have really become to define my photography now. So you'd start with the connection to the landscape. Yeah. Okay, and then, I guess, where's the next step between, how would you advise somebody to begin a connection to something, if they don't know where to start? You came here six times- You have to- Right? Yeah. You have to explore a bunch of different pathways and, in photography, for example, you have to try a lot of things before you're gonna find one specific path that really resonates with you. So for me, my background in photography, it started with surfing, and then it went into weddings- Oh, I didn't know that. And, you know, then I really got involved with learning about the camera itself. So then I was in my, you know, in my kitchen dropping milk droplets into a bowl and getting a bounce card with a flash. Like, you can see all this on my Flickr. Experimenting. If anyone is interested in these old school photos, my Flickr is so hilarious, but it's awesome. It's still going? Oh, I don't use it anymore, but it has those archives- We'll link to that. Yeah. (both laughing) Sweet. No, there's this one of this karate wasp, that was this wasp that I found, like, obviously it had passed away and I thought, let's give it a- What's a karate wasp? (Ben laughing) Is that an Australian thing? No, it's just a normal wasp. Okay. (laughing) That happened to be like this, and it was just like, rigor mortis on the ground, so I like picked it up and I brought it into my house. I put it down, I flipped my 50mm lens over and held it up backwards. Oh, the macro lens. Like, a 2:1 macro of this wasp, like this. And that's what always sticks in my mind, as like the beginnings of my photography as, yeah, doing these random things, so. From karate wasp to glacier worlds. Yeah, so, you know, all these things built my kind of basic understanding. Experimentation was big. In photography, yeah. And then moving into landscapes, I just shot, you know, Australia, I shot Iceland. I shot across Europe and you know, of course, we don't always have the opportunity to travel. Yeah. So, you know, you can try all of these different things, no matter where you are and something is gonna resonate with you, and then that's what you can begin to explore. Why the Arctic? So, yeah, just like building on my, you know, for me, Iceland was a discovery. It's something I'd never really heard of growing up. Beyond that, there's all of these places further north that have started to resonate with me as well. And now my path is kind of taking me out further north, across kind of the Arctic region, to see how the landscape changes and the subtleties that, you know, between the seasons would shift across these different parts of the Arctic. And the Subarctic, we have a lot of places to cover, but yeah. Do you feel like Iceland is not enough now? Like, you wanted to see more Arctic, or you just want to compare with Iceland? What's the drive behind that? Iceland is, I feel like this is the home base now. This is the place that I can trust to go out and have a little bit of like a deeper level connection with. There becomes times where you reach these creative ruts, and for me, heading further north was a way out of those ruts to re-challenge myself, to reinvigorate my senses in the craft. And it's actually been really amazing to then go to those places and see the differences in the way the mountains are formed and the way that the glaciers come down, then come back here and reanalyze Iceland. In your fresh new eyes, okay. Yeah, so that's kind of, it's like a twofold thing where like going away and coming back to something, it really helps you to stay focused and to stay kind of ignited inside. So, do you sort of have this idea of going further north and you feed off that idea? Is that how it's working? Yeah, kind of feed off of that new location. Okay. And then come back and apply the things I've learned, the things that I've experienced, back to the home base. Love that, just more north. Yeah, I just, I don't know, I like the cold. No, you did- I mean, it is pretty cold right now, we're suffering through this, you know, it's good. I'm pretty alright. (both laughing) You okay, the big buff man? Yeah, no, we're good. Oh, I wish we just had coffee. Yes, that would be a nice little warm thing for the hands. This thing is useless. (laughing) I've seen that you've been photographing more and more wildlife, why is that? Like, the foxes- I think that- The reindeers, why? Being out here is a struggle for humans, but imagine living in this landscape and, you know, not having a warm place to go back to, but suffering through the intensity of a winter in a Northern climate, and surviving. That is just remarkable to me. And, you know, take the Arctic fox, for example. They are incredible survivors. They're pushing beyond anything like as a human, we could even imagine, just to be able to get through a winter. Like, you know, it's really amazing to see them in action and I've taken a bit of, you know, I'm quite fascinated by this. I've taken a bit of an interest in, you know, photographing them, telling their story a little bit. And, of course, you know, I like to be really kind of stealth in what I do. And, in most cases, I'm really zoomed in on them from a distance, kind of- On the ground. Just like, yeah. I've seen you. Just being super still, waiting. But you know, other times they're like, there's been times that I can think in Svalbard where there's like nine Arctic foxes living under a hotel building, and they're just like really interested. They stole one of the guy's phones and run off with it- No way! In their mouth, and like, it's just like really insane. But, the wildlife in this part of the world has just fascinated me for a while now, and being able to photograph them and just tell their story a little bit, I think that's quite cool. Get a kick out of that. I like that, I think, I like this new, I mean, it's not new. I think it's a year old, like this, I've seen more and more of these wildlife photos that you've been taking, and I've always been intrigued on the why, 'cause you go from this really like pure, minimal landscapes, and then, they're also minimal wildlife photos. So I just wanted to hear that, thank you. For sure. Now, moving on to inspiration, do you use any websites or magazines, you peruse any of these sites for inspiration? Inspiration's a tough one for me to break down because it's never really been directly through photography that I've actually found inspiration to go out and shoot. You know, researching locations on the internet and researching weather systems and actually how the landscape is changing and why, that has kind of given me inspiration up to this point and being outside and documenting those things as they're happening, you know. Like, the blizzard coming down and, you know, coating this mountain in snow. And then you see new textures form and those things were invisible in the summer. Photographing that and being out there to get that, that is the biggest thing that inspires me to be outside shooting, the landscape itself. So it just comes from the landscape, wow, that's pure. Yeah. Now unleashing the inner Tim Ferriss, here I have a question about rituals and routines. What does a morning look like for you, a normal morning? Any morning rituals? My lifestyle is kind of broken up. Sometimes, I will send a really late night edit and that might make the morning a little hard for me, sometimes. And then, you know, maybe in the summer, when we have infinite light, we almost become nocturnal. So, I am shooting through the night and sleeping through the day. So, I feel like having a routine in this part of the world has been really challenging. But, just setting deadlines for myself, just knowing that I have something to work towards, that's enough to kind of give me some schedule. And at least, you know, coffee. Coffee is very important for me, but I've tried to adopt your method of having the one a day. Yeah, one cortado per day. That's a pretty interesting thing to try. It is. It's tough, it's tough. But you appreciate it so much more. Yeah, no, it's good. Different schools. Mm-hmm. But one a day, (Ben laughing) it's like one of the schools. Okay, so no morning rituals? No specific rituals, not as much of the routine man as you are. No, we can talk about this for hours. Recently, you have done a exhibit called Omur. Is that how you pronounce it? Omur, yeah. Omur, I'm trying. (laughing) That was good. Staff onward. So you've done an exhibition. Mm-hmm. Can you tell me about that? Omur, for me, so this is, you know, this is an echo and basically- Is that what it means? Yeah. Okay. You know, it's more of a poetic word for that. And that is really what the images are. You know, they're an echo of my experiences in the mountains and over the seasons and I've created, I've worked really hard on actually curating that selection. Amy's helped me a lot as well because, you know, having a little bit of an external opinion is great. So, I've tried to put together a really distinct, you know, set of images that explain my current self, in terms of photography. And we showcased this in London and it was amazing to see these prints and hold them in my hands, these big prints and just like, see details that you hadn't seen before. And yeah, I think if I had to define my photography, I would say that this series is the closest to defining that, that I have yet. So check out Omur for the definition of your photography. Yeah. This is, yeah, I've seen this, the gallery on your website. Amazing stuff. Thanks, man. So the drive, what was the drive behind the exhibition? The drive behind the exhibition, why, yeah. Why? That's a- Why should somebody do an exhibition? That's a good point. Well, physically holding your prints. There's some sort of connection that you get with your images that is beyond a computer screen. 100%. And even if it's small, even if you can just put one image up on a wall, it's so amazing, that first encounter with a physical version- It comes to life. Of your print, yeah. It really comes to life. So I would encourage everyone to give it a try, whether it's just, you know, an exhibition for yourself or whether it's in your local community, going out and maybe setting something up, you know? It's so cool to see. Really rewarding to see. Yeah, just even in a little coffee shop, anything, yeah. Yeah, to that's kind of was the motivation for me, is, you know, this physical format. That's good advice. Yeah. Okay, well then, last question. It's probably getting dark and you're freezing here. Windy, yeah, it's always windy. Yeah, classic. It's really open ended. What else should we know about you? I think that I've become quite selective in what I do and things are quite curated for me in my photography now. The themes of my work are so cold (laughing) these days, let's be honest, but what I would like someone to get out of looking at my photography and watching this workshop is to take home some advice that can be applied to any given situation. And I think that there are some elements of my work that shine through. No matter what you're photographing, it's the way you get to that photograph that can be important. So there are some tips and, especially in this workshop- Love that. I think we're gonna cover some fairly useful things, so pretty exciting. Thank you, sir. Yeah. (laughing) No worries, man. Should we take this to the studio? To the studio. We can probably leave all this here, organic stuff. Yeah. (laughing)