When M.A.P booked the studio for Nicole Bentley to shoot the cast of Tidelands for their client Netflix…to be honest they had us at Nicole Bentley. Our whole team was aflutter at the news this leading Australian fashion photographer would be in our midst. When she agreed to have a chat about how she got her start, developed her own style and landed her first Vogue shoot at 22…we could’t wait to share her story with our audience.
Tell us about your journey to becoming one of Australia’s top fashion photographers. Talk us through the baby steps and the major milestones.
I started a Bachelor of Arts in Design when I left school thinking I was going to be a graphic designer. I had a 6 week compulsory photography unit in my first year that I hated for the first 2 weeks. I was intimidated by the camera and had no idea how to make sense of F stops and shutter speeds. One day the lightbulb went off and like riding a bike it all made sense. Then I fell in love with the medium of photography. I had a lecturer tell me I should do a minor in it because I had a good eye and then it became my major. I’m still flawed to this day that I became a photographer because of a unit I didn’t even want to do!
When I graduated, I started shooting models for free tests. This led to paid testing and I ended up testing most days for over 5 years. It was my years of testing that enabled me to develop my own style. There was no brief and I was able to shoot the way I wanted to and at my own pace. I was living in Perth at the time and was approached by an agent in Sydney. I was hesitant to move to Sydney, but joined the agency and flew in and out for a few years. By the time I was flying every week from Perth to Sydney, I gave in and made the move. I had a good client base in Sydney by the time I moved and have almost been here for 10 years now. I was 22 when I did my first shoot for Vogue and I almost died with nerves. I hadn’t chased the opportunity at that time and felt rather inadequate. It was all the testing images that people loved. These images were taken in such an intimate setting yet they created opportunities for me to be on big sets with big expectations.
Throughout the rest of my 20s, I often felt an immense pressure to meet expectations mainly due to my lack of experience in commercial photography. I look back now and see that had my sense of style strongly developed and at the end of the day that’s what clients wanted a piece of. The one great thing about getting older is the wealth of experience you end up with. These days I work with a quiet confidence and can deal with pretty much any problem that comes my way.
Who in the creative world inspires you?
I get so inspired by faces I love. I’m obsessed with model polaroids and see them like a blank canvass. My starting point is often a face and then rest builds around.
Most challenging shoot?
I could get in trouble if I actually told you! Haha! It has something to do with having too many models on set and the interesting mix of personalities that can create a little fire works show. I’ll leave the rest to your imagination!
Work life balance or blend? And how?
One of my rules is no working on the weekend and that helps me feel rested for a new week. Having children has been the best for having life balance. I don’t suffer guilt when I spend time with them and not work. They are my number one and it’s allowed me to enjoy my work so much more since they came along. If I take a few hours out of my day with my children then I might do a fews hours at night. All in all it ends up feeling like a spontaneous balance. No two days are the same so we have to flow through life one day at a time.
Who are you dying to work with?
I’d love to shoot Natalia Vodianova one day
Any tips for aspiring young photographers?
I think it’s really important to identify with your own personal style. There is so much influence around these days that can blur our vision with over stimulation. It’s nice to explore what makes you connect and take pictures that speak to you. It doesn’t take long before your own style will start to appear through your images. No two pair of eyes are the same and that’s the beauty of image capturing.
iPhone, SLR or film?
SLR for me and yes a drop of iPhone in there!
What’s in the pipeline for you and where might we see you work popping up next?
I’m most interested in creating my own images at the moment. Stripping things back and taking away the purpose. Simplicity and beauty with nothing to sell. So much of what I do has boundaries and purpose and I’m really interested in what I can capture with those perimeters taken away.
