26PhotoStories
P
rojects don’t have to be about
subjects that have never been shot
before, says commercial
photographer Jon Enoch, so long
as you shoot them in an original way
‘I’ve been working as a commercial
photographer for about ten years and
previously couldn’t quite nd my way with
personal work. I’ve had loads of ideas for
projects and I spent ages thinking about
them, but sometimes thinking too long and
hard makes me feel like I’ve done it and the
excitement wears off,’ he says.
‘I also always wanted my project to be
something that has never been done before,
but that’s almost impossible and it really held
me back. I’ve since come to realise that the
subject itself doesn’t have to be completely
original, but the way I approach it does.’
Jon uses personal projects to demonstrate
his style to clients so the can see what they
will get if they book him. Although he has an
extensive portfolio of previous commissions
those pictures always have someone else’s
hand in them, so he uses projects as a way
of showing what he can do on his own.
For his Bikes of Hanoi project, shot in
Vietnam’s capital city, Jon ew out with three
studio heads, light stands, gels, modi ers
and a laptop to tether the camera to. ‘I had
to make sure this project was lit in a similar
way to how I light commercial work and that it
was shot to the same standard, so the style
and quality across my portfolio would be
consistent. That’s what commercial clients
want to see – a clear style.’
In Hanoi for ve days, Jon spent the rst
couple of days looking for locations and
working out how he would do the shots. ‘I
shot at night to avoid the heat and humidity
of the day, and so I wouldn’t have to deal with
the incredibly bright sun. The other reason for
shooting at night was that the good locations
with interesting backgrounds were just too
busy during the day. In Hanoi if there’s a
two-metre patch of land someone is selling
something on it, so it was also hard to nd
the room to work.
‘I thought shooting at night would give me
plenty of time and that we could go on
shootingfromsunsetat 6.30pmuntil11pmor so, but I discovered that at 8pm the
shutters come down and the shops all shut- so the interesting backgrounds just
disappear, leaving only about an hour and a
half to shoot each evening.’
The subject of the project, of course, is the
Hanoi delivery drivers who pile a massive
range of goods, in tower formation, on the
back of their mopeds. ‘Finding the drivers
was the easy bit, and they all wanted to take
part. The biggest problem was explaining to
them that I wanted to shoot them exactly as I
found them – they all wanted to dress in their
best clothes and clean their bikes!’
Local knowledge
‘I’d hired a xer/translator online before I
went, to help with local knowledge and talking
to the drivers, and he found me two more
locals to help carry and guard the kit, so I
only brought one assistant with me.’
To maintain a consistent look throughout
the series Jon shot everything on a standard
lens. ‘I took a few lenses but the 50mm
seemed to work best for this. These are
essentially portraits, but it was important to
show the context of the scene too. A longer
lens would have knocked out the background,
and a wider one would have made the person
too small. Also I had to think about the
amount of space I had to work, and the
50mm allowed me to get the view I wanted at
a realistic distance. My work generally is split
50/50 between a 50mm and an 85mm
anyway, so I’m used to the angle of view it
gives me.’
Jon shot the project on the Canon EOS
5DS R that he usually uses for his
commissions. He shot at ISO 400 most of
the time and a shutter speed of around
1/50sec to allow the light from the
background to register along with the ash.
‘I think the project has paid for itself, but it
is hard to measure exactly what work has
come in because of it. It got me in the short
list for the Sony World Photography awards,
which I was really pleased about. I just hope
that doesn’t make clients think I’m going to
be too expensive or imagine that I’m doing
much more exciting things nowadays
andnotinterestedin workingforthem!’On your bike
Damien Demolder speaks to Jon Enoch about
his personal project, Bikes of Hanoi
Bikes of Hanoi made the shortlist of the 2020 Sony World Photography Awards in the Professional, Portraiture category. To see
more from this series, and other winning images, visit worldphoto.org