Regis Hertrich: Photographer
Regis, 32, is a freelance photographer for Alternative London magazine. Originally from France, he moved to London 4 years ago; he now lives in Shoreditch, London. He has photographed events such as Torture Garden and the Download festival.
The first thing I do in the morning is check my emails. After that, I work on the computer with Photoshop. The morning is really quiet most of the time. For breakfast I have a coffee and a croissant but it depends where I am.
Most of the things I am going to do, I know about 2 or 3 weeks in advance; but I always have a last minute slot because often I can get a text from the editor asking me to photograph a show or a gig. I don’t prepare much and I improvise a lot. I cover a lot of live shows and gigs with bands. Most of the time I work on location.
I edit all the photographs myself using Photoshop. I spend most of my time at home on the computer. If I have a lot to process, I can spend up to 10 or 12 hours on the computer in a day. It’s a long time but I think it’s worth it because it really improves the photos. I always edit everything.
I have a Canon SLR camera. I only use Canon, its really quick and sharp. I have a lens I use most of the time, this one is good for everything and it is the one I always have attached to the camera.
Alternative magazine is my baby magazine, its my favourite thing because I go everywhere in London with that. It’s opened many doors and its great. Everything that I like is inside it. Gigs, freak shows… I don’t think there are many magazines like that. This magazine is very open to everything and I really enjoy that.
I always do everything from home. I send a lot of stuff by email. In the beginning I was doing everything by CD but that was good because it gives me some back ups, and I never back up the files. I’ve got 3 big hard drives, but because I send the best stuff there’s always some kind of back up. The editor of the magazine always keeps the files and he burns them onto CD anyway. Phil Ross, the editor of Alternative magazine, always sends me texts and I spend a lot of time on the phone with him. Sometimes I get texts 5 hours before a show, I organise it last minute or we can arrange some stuff. If I’m taking photos of a band they are always really busy so I ring before and say that it’s going to be last minute.
I work all the time. I sort out the files to process on the computer, sometimes things just add up and sometimes I’m like oh bloody hell there’s so much I have to do! Sometimes I think ok I’m just going to take the whole weekend and finish. Photography is really stimulating and motivating.
In London there’s always something different. Sometimes I go to a club; sometimes I go to a gig and a club. I meet people all the time; I’ve been here for a few years now and depending where I go, I often spend 2 hours just saying hello. Everybody knows you and sometimes after meeting and greeting I realise I haven’t taken any photos.
Some days are really quiet and often I just do a shoot in the afternoon and a gig in the evening and that’s really great, I really like that. I like moving around a lot but I don’t have any choice anyway! I spend a long time on the tube.
My favourite stuff is the music and the big shows. I really like the freak shows.
Live music is always frustrating because they don’t really let you do what you want to do. For a gig in a big place most of the time we’re not allowed to use the flash. That’s annoying for everybody because we just can’t get what we want; it’s awkward because the lighting is not ideal for photos. We can sneak a little bit of flash at the beginning of the gig or we wait until we’re told not to. Whenever we are allowed to use it we get really great photos. Often we are only allowed to take photos during the first 2 or 3 songs
which usually gives us about 10 minutes to take 200 photos. During this time we are in the pit where the security people are and we can move around where we want.
One of the main events I do is Torture Garden. They have big shows and there is always something new and weird, I think that’s the place where I’ve seen the best performances. They put a lot of thought into their shows and I get to meet so many great and interesting people. I think they look fantastic and I like to take photos of them because they’re all so creative with the outfits.
It gets crazier in the second half of the afternoon. This is the time I do band shoots so I just take sandwiches for lunch. I check my emails throughout the day and carry on with Photoshop whenever I come back.
With the big bands you don’t have much time, sometimes they are only here for one day so they are very busy. When I’m taking photos of a band before a show I never want to annoy them for more than 10 minutes. They really appreciate that.
One time was with a girl, Christina Scabbia from Lacuna Coil. We wanted to do the photos a few months before, and I just said ok I want some latex and stuff and she really liked the idea. The whole preparation was about three and a half hours, the hair took a really long time, and the photos took 15 or 20 minutes. We didn’t need more than that and it was just before a gig. Taking the photos doesn’t take long, she was really nice and I was really pleased with her.
I’m not a very good cook at all. Luckily my girlfriend cooks very well, so I eat well when I’m there. The only thing I can do is plain rice or pasta and sauce. Most of the time its just too late and I was always getting really hungry after work. I spend a lot of money on take always; I’m really lazy. I think that suits me more because its quick and I wouldn’t like to bother cooking for hours. I’m so busy all the time.
There was a shoot that I did a couple of months ago with a Japanese band ‘Die En Grey’. They are really dedicated and I was really looking forward to the shoot because I’d seen their video and they were really amazing. I went there and went to the back stage area and it was just before the gig. Phil had told me it might be a bit special because the Japanese culture is very different from ours. I got in touch with a guy from their company, and I told him I would just need 5 minutes for the shoot, so they were happy about that. I just did what I do all the time and most of the time I touch a lot of people and tell them what to do. That was on the Thursday of the gig and the funny thing was I saw him on the Monday in the pub. He was having a drink with friends and I was there with my girlfriend and he told me that he forgot to tell me that I was not allowed to touch the band at all and tell them what to do. But it was absolutely fine and they really thanked me because it was really quick and easy and they appreciated that. But I don’t know how I would have done if it wasn’t like that.
To wind down after a day of work I often go for drinks, because when I’m at home I’m just on my computer. If I’m at my girlfriends place that’s fine, but if I’m at my place I just watch a DVD. Photo editing takes me ages but I enjoy it. I try to take at least one day on a Friday when I just go out, I don’t take my camera and don’t work.
