A primary 6 dropout who knows that in an academically inclined society, the only lifeline he has is photography and he gives his everything to make sure he becomes real good at the only one thing he knows. Meet the most sought after top fashion and commercial photographer in Singapore and the region, Mr Geoff Ang.

Company: GEOFF STUDIO PTE. LTD. Address: 207 Marine Parade Website: http://web.mac.com/geoffang Interview with Mr Geoff Ang by Kevin Seow on 27-Mar-2007. Student can be reached at kevin.seow.2003@business.smu.edu.sg   Business Profile: Geoff Studio is a commercial photography studio that creates beautiful, thought provoking, and edgy pictures for its clients.   Interviewer's Comments: His name I heard, his photos I seen, his works I admired. I was so nervous prior to the meeting with this giant figure in photography. Despite his tremendous success, he is a humble, interesting and fun-loving personality. I really learn a lot from this interviewing session. He has really unique philosophies with the way he looks at things, the way he learns and his willingness to openly share his trade secrets with whomever with an open mind to learn. I remembered after I shook his hand, said my thanks and waved my goodbyes, somehow I stood rooted on the pathway, looking at his house and this amazing personal learning experience slowly sank in.   1. What is the nature of your business? Geoff Studio is a commercial photography studio that creates beautiful, thought provoking, and edgy pictures for its clients.   2. What made you embark on this venture choice? In 1997, I decided to start out on my own as things were not quite working out at the company and my dad and I even had disagreements and stuffs. I also wanted my own identity instead of being bogged down in my dad's company, so I decided to venture out on my own.   3. How does your business work? Clients come to us with briefs of their advertising campaigns and we work with the client to execute the whole process from planning, budgeting, casting, preparations, shoots, and postproduction until we provide the client with the finished product.   4. Did you have the capital to start the business or did you have to borrow from someone to get started? I did not have much money when I started on my own; all I had were the 2 lights and a camera from my dad. He tried to help by renting me his space as he did not want to spoil me.   5. How did your passion in photography started? It started when I was working for my dad. I never pass primary 6 and after repeating primary 6 for half a year, my dad asked me if I could pass the 2nd time round, I said no and he decided to pull me out of school and let me worked at his production house. There were a few departments like photography, graphic design, video, multi image and I had the chance to learn the various disciplines, so from 12 to 15 years old, I was picking up various skills along the way and my passion in photography grew.   6. When did you know that photography is your calling? I was learning the various disciplines from 12-15 years old, my passion in photography grew and by 16, I decided photography is my passion and I want to do it as a profession in my life. I went into it head on as I knew I had no education, I had nothing that would allow me to progress in life in a healthy way, and so I decided I want to be really good in this discipline, I want to pursue and fulfil my dream of becoming the top photographer in Singapore and the region. So at 16, I was very serious about photography and started shooting everyday from bottles, flowers to food, basically whatever I can get my hands on. I started experimenting in the studio with the only 2 lights and a camera in the company. I was so passionate that during my NS days, I would still go back to the company to shoot whenever I booked out and I really enjoyed spending days and hours refining a particular lighting technique until I achieved the final result and it was really beautiful. After army, I continue to work for my dad's company and it was through the process, I continue to hone my photography skills. By 20, I started shooting commercially.   7. How did you learn photography? I learn everything on my own, through books, through the hard way of trial and error. I have this crazy method I called the "Method of Madness". Essentially I am very Gung-ho person in life, I would go into a meeting and say can to everything, it is like I can have never shot a car in a studio before and I will say can, no problem, I will do it then I will go home and start to panic because usually I will have 1-2 weeks to panic before the actual shoot so I will practise, I will try, I will read up, I will rationalize how I am going to light it, get the right equipment etc and just do it. I am such a person when things start to get too safe, I tend to just keep it and start doing the same things that I have been doing. I like to push myself by putting myself on the spot, by making myself desperate and when I am desperate, I start to think naturally and when I think naturally, I get very creative. I'm the sort of person that works very well under pressure.   8. Were your love ones supportive of your career choice to be a photographer? My dad was supportive but he had never spoilt me, he never gave me much money, in fact he paid me peanuts when I was working for him. I was given a starting pay of $500 then increments over time as I took on more responsibilities and brought in jobs for the company. My mum was very against it initially because the typical parent's mindset is to hope for their child to go through the education system and get the relevant paper qualifications and then get a good job.   9. What are some of the challenges you faced when you first started? I suffered like hell when I first started. I did not get much funding from my dad, the only support from my dad then was the 2 lights and 1 camera from the company. Money was very tight and I had to buy supplies and films on credit, did the jobs and then pay the debts with the money from the jobs. I was shooting everything and anything during those tough times. I took on whatever jobs that came my way even though I knew I really wanted to do fashion photography but I did not have the chance then. The other thing was trying to make it, to prove to the industry that I can do fashion photography and that I am a good photographer because the fashion industry was very close and tightly knitted, it is very hard for new people to go into the industry, so I really had to prove my worth to try to find my way into the fashion industry.   10. Who/What motivates you? I am a very independent person, after I knew what I wanted to be, I just kept trying and make the best out of every shoot.   11. Tell me about the first few customers and the first few years of business. I started with still life photography, I shot food, interiors. At one point in time then, I was even specializing in interior photography, shooting interiors of hotels, offices and everything else just to pay the bills.   12. When was your first big break, tell me about it? In 2000, I had my first big break through Mr Daniel Yun, the Managing Director of Mediacorp Raintree Pictures. I did a portrait picture of him and he really like the picture so much. He said he had been shot by so many photographers in Singapore and I was the only one who was able to capture him in a very nice light. He was very impressed and got me to see his artiste management department to work on a project to shoot their top 30 celebrities and the photos would be used for the artistes' composite cards for marketing them overseas. So this started a 3 month long project with them. It was not the best of money but it was the first biggest job for me. I used the downpayment for the job to buy my first state of the art digital system and from then I was able to do my own retouching when back in those days, most photographers who were still on film had to scan the pictures then have a retoucher to do the retouching. I think they gave me the job then based on my sheer passion as I only had a portfolio full of products but I had a lot of ideas and I managed to excite them with my ideas and passion, so they gave me the job even though I had never worked with celebrities before at that point of time. After the job was completed and the pictures were released on 8 Days, the whole industry picked up on my name because the pictures they saw were very refreshing. It was probably also a matter of good timing and luck as at that point of time, the industry was probably very saturated with the works from the same usual photographers in the market, so I was very lucky to have been able to come up with something fresh at the right time and the right place. So from that, I was quickly propelled and all the editors started calling me to do fashion shoots for them and the peak of my career as a fashion photographer came in 2001, 9 months after my venture into fashion photography, I won fashion photographer of the year in the inaugural Singapore Fashion Awards, beating some of the veterans whom have been in the industry for more than a decade and people I respect a lot myself. It was a crazy moment and my name became even more prominent from there. In year 2002-03, Panpac publishing approached me to be the editor-in-chief for one of their magazines called Look Book, an avant-garde fashion magazine. I was perhaps the only photographer in the history of Singapore to have been the editor-in-chief of a fashion magazine.   13. Please tell me some stories of your best day in business or your proudest achievement to date. I have never really thought of it that way as I am always looking forward to my next project. If there is any, this Mercedes Benz TVC and print ad that I did was kind of a hallmark moment for me because I did both the TVC and the print ad at the same time. The shoot was in Bangkok and it was a huge production. I had a 100 men team, stunt car drivers, giant crane, 50 lights, it was crazy. So it was then when I kind of had this feeling of how it felt like to be a big time director and it felt good.   14. Were there tough times in your business that made you ever felt like giving up? No, I have never thought of giving up even during tough times, giving up was not an option, period. I really know nothing else and cannot do anything else. I do not have the paper qualifications to do anything else, so I know photography has to be it.   15. What are some qualities that you feel you possess which differentiate you from others that made you successful? Maybe it is my versatility and my philosophy of always putting myself on the spot to push myself further. During 1997-2000, when I was still shooting still life, I was not required to talk much but when I started shooting for Mediacorp, shooting the celebrities and fashion, I work with people from models, celebrities, personalities, to actors and actresses, so I need to talk a lot more, to get on the same wavelength with them, to put them at ease, to communicate with them to get what you want as a photographer, so again I put myself into a desperate situation, where I had to step out of my comfort zone. Then I was a very quiet and shy person, but after going into shooting people, I become a very outspoken, extroverted and confident person.   16. What qualities do you think are important to be a successful photographer? It depends on which genre of photography. For fashion photography, you have to be a people person, have a passion for people, fashion, even hairstyling and makeup. Like this coming year Spring/Summer, what is the new look going to be. It is much more than just knowing how to frame a picture, take exposures, and light a subject. Fashion photography is a complete package. You may be a photographer who may shoot very well, frame very well, light very well, but if just one component say hair fails, the whole picture will just fail. It is all about teamwork. The photographer, as the Indian Chief of the whole shoot, has to string together a group of very talented people together to support the photographer's vision. The photographer will need to be able to see and choose talents from the various fields to complete this vision together.   17. Do you think to succeed as a photographer, the talent is inborn or can be nurtured? It is not inborn. I think it is all about being sensitive. We are in the world of internet, things moving so fast, there are now so many things so easily available to us in terms of knowledge and visuals at the click of the mouse. We can be exposed to the world sitting behind my table. Last time without all the information technology, maybe yes. One has to be born and raised in a very artistic and creative family who will influence the thinking and bring out the artistic talent. But now one can be born anyway and through the computer be able to see everything and be anybody. You just have to be sensitive enough to observe the work of art around you, pick out the good components from different sources and string them together to make it your own. No photographer, no matter how famous he is owns an angle to a shot. Richard Avedon can shoot at this angle, you can also shoot at this angle and no one will say that you are copying Richard Avedon's work; you just need to be very sensitive, learn and pick out the good stuffs all around you.   18. Who/What has been your source of inspiration in your work all these years? I seek inspiration from everybody, everywhere and anything. I have to be at the forefront so I have to constantly open my eyes and be sensitive to everything around me. As a photographer who is raised and based in Singapore, I am at a disadvantage in the sense I will be a victim to routine. I know Singapore very well, I drive on ECP everyday that there may be something, say a tree along ECP that is so beautiful but I do not see it because I drive past it everyday. But say if you are a New Yorker who just first landed in Singapore and is driving along ECP, you will see the tree, spot it and say "Wow that is a beautiful tree", because your eyes are fresh. When you are in a foreign land, your senses are heightened, you see things differently, everything is foreign to you, and that becomes exciting and that is how you will get inspired. So I have to constantly battle this routine issue and not fall into this trap, I have to constantly be mindful of the fact that I cannot walk down a road and not open my eyes. There might be something very interesting down this road that could be very useful for my next shoot.   19. Have you ever thought of moving overseas like some of the overseas based Singaporean photographers? If Yes, why? It is a bit sad but the truth is that New York is where you get the most cutting edge briefs, best ad campaigns, biggest jobs and the best creative directors. I have tried and I was very close to signing up for a New York agent but the deal did not go through in the end. In 2002-2003, I was pretty much at the peak of my career, and at that time, there was this hot John Clang (John Clang is a New York based Singaporean photographer who has been very successful in New York) success story going on, so it suddenly created this buzz for local photographers to give it a shot in New York. I also have this dream of going over to New York too, so for the past few years, I had been going over to New York to show my portfolio but to show your portfolio in New York is a very funny thing. Agencies there may be representing 10 photographers so it is a full house already. I may have good works but they will not take me in unless they happen to drop one photographer, there is a slot and my style happen to be fit into their sensibilities. So for the past 2-3 years my life was kind of in a mess as it disrupted my plans to progress. I dare not commit to upgrading my facilities and resources here, so after that deal fell through, I was so disappointed that I committed myself to be based in Singapore by walking in to BMW and bought my Z4 the following day. Again I force myself into corners by buying the car that I love. The car would tie me down in Singapore as I have to furnish my instalments. I have something to look forward to in Singapore; I need to work really hard to reach out to Asia and shoot big campaigns around Asia to earn back the money I spent on my car.   20. Where do you see yourself in 5 years time? Writing my own script and directing my first feature film.   21. In your opinion, how would you define entrepreneurship? I think entrepreneurship can be a very streetwise thing. Say for my business, it is all about being creative and sometimes to be creative, you lose money. Like sometimes I there would be jobs with very good ideas and I would be able to take so many beautiful pictures but there is zero profit. I would still do it even though it does not seem like good business sense. But if I had chosen not to do it, I would have taken that beautiful picture that would get me my next high paying job. So it is a very chicken and egg issue, sometimes you have to first make sacrifices before you can have your rewards.   22. To what extent does one's educational level help or hinder entrepreneurialship? I would think education would both hinder and help at the same time. It would hinder because most of the knowledge from books are theories and not street knowledge. So the lack of street knowledge would hinder from doing something faster and more advantageous in reality as compared to following the books. What I have learnt all my life is street knowledge. I have never really read a book in my life until of late, I started reading some books on running businesses, but other than that everything I have done was out of gut feeling, common sense and wanting something desperately. But of course education provides skill sets to arm you with the right tools.   23. What qualities would you think a person should have to inspire others? Not holding any secret, sharing your knowledge, passing on your knowledge to others who would benefit and improve from your sharing.   24. What are some of your own values that you practiced in your business and would like to pass down to others, particularly the younger generation? Be fair and honest in your business practices. Be transparent in whatever you do and never cheat people.   25. What advice would you give to young people who aspire to be like you? Work really hard. If you have a strong calling within you, if you feel very strongly and the urge is just overwhelming, but you are afraid. Throw away the afraid, step up to the play and take the leap of faith. If say both John and David want to be a photographer, John is passionate and David just sees the money, I know John will make it further in life because John is driven by passion and he will take every picture with so much more soul and heart that his pictures will just have this quality that stands out from David's. Over time, the money will go to John and not to David.   26. With the advancement in digital photography, do you think that future photographers have a higher chance to succeed than the old school photographers? Not really, the whole industry is so competitive now and it has come to a point where digital photography is no longer in its infancy stage but at a mature stage where quality of digital photography almost supersedes film. Digital photography does greatly reduces the learning curve for new photographers and bad pictures can be improved drastically through retouching but because the photographers today have it so much easier, it makes them easily complacent and over reliant on digital retouching and this would not mould a good photographer.   27. No matter what business, most entrepreneurs would want to protect their trade secret so that they have lesser competition, why are you willing to conduct classes to impart your skills to other photographers? Apart from wanting to share and pass my knowledge to inspire others to be better, again I like to put myself on the spot, I like to challenge what is out there; I want people to challenge me. I want to put everything I know out there for others to pick up on it and challenge me so I know there will constantly be someone running after me, trying to catch up with me. This will stop me from feeling complacent and drive me to constantly push myself to achieve greater heights. I do not want to be doing the same things with the same skill sets. I want to constantly grow, continue learning new skills and strive to be better and better continuously.   28. You are not afraid they will become a strong competitor of yours some day? No, that will be good for them and me as it will push me to work even harder. End of the day everyone grows and improves.