"Julian has won gold, silver and bronze at many international shows and was once selected as a finalist in thirty categories at one show! The international shows include Clio, Cannes, D&AD, London internationals, New York Festivals, Communication Arts, Adfest… that's just on the work that I've had the pleasure of producing with him. He's also an awesome smart, super talented image maker who gets it. I miss working with him, it's been too long. Since I moved from Asia to the states, we haven't had the opportunity for obvious reasons, but I look forward to the day where we can collaborate again!" - Craig Smith, Creative, New York.
Julian is an established, conceptual advertising photographer. Clients work with him because he’s versatile, a wizard with light, has never had to do a reshoot and always makes it look easy. He rolls with the punches and doesn’t get flustered. His productions are often large scale, but he also enjoys smaller, more flexible creative briefs.
Julian has a passion for sharing his knowledge and experience with students and has been authoring materials and teaching within the education sector for many years.
You can find Julian Watt’s website here
In my youth I was a keen scuba diver. My diving partner was an underwater photographer, he sold me his underwater camera and housing. I proceeded to take the world's worst underwater photographs, but I was hooked.
I have long enjoyed mentoring assistants and photographers that worked in my studio. I expanded on that while serving on the board of the ACMP (Australian Commercial and Magazine Photographers). Moving into tutoring was a natural progression, firstly at Tafe and then Billy Blue prior to joining PI.
Patience, creative problem solving and people skills. Clients are people.
I don't have a favourite "child". However, the image that kicked off the most successful period of my career is the image of a model wearing a Mossimo catsuit on a bright orange background. It used an experimental darkroom technique that I developed.
Learn the skills well enough that you don't need to think about them when shooting, freeing your mind to think creatively.
Business skills - being broke really limits your ability to shoot personal projects. Lighting - surprisingly few photographers have great lighting skills. Creative thinking - essential to develop a personal style.
Art, Music, Life.
There are so many. Albert Watson - lighting. David Bailey - Talent Direction. Gregory Crewdson - Production & Creative Vision. Annie Leibovitz - Production & Talent Direction
Seeing great student images & seeing students achieve their personal and/or business aims.
Shoot a lot and shoot personal work, but be methodical; learn from everything you do.
The flexibility of studying online has worked brilliantly for me, enabling me to dedicate the time, without interference with work and family life...and of course, no travel costs!
Te Awamutu
©2024 The Photography Institute. All rights reserved.