Pushing the boundaries of photography with Gillian Hyland

Cian Walsh interviews Gillian Hyland.

Gillian Hyland is a London based photographer. Originally from Ireland, Hyland describes herself as an image maker and story teller. Her dramatic photographs are based on her own poems, and depict characters in human dramas and isolated emotional situations. Hyland’s supernatural staged images are presented as film stills or dramatic moments from around the world. Hyland’s unsettling mise-en-scène are full of sex and desire, sadness and nostalgia.

In your photographic work, how much of the original intended image is pre-formed and how much emerges from the circumstances of the shoot?

So I look for the location. And I will decide what the story is? How many characters I would like? So in that way it is produced. I have a storyboard or an idea. But then on the day, certain things will change that will direct that photo. So it is organic. But from the original idea to finding the right place to working with the actors, it’s quite a long process.

Given the stories you are telling through your imagery, what are the biggest technical hurdles you have to overcome with visualisation?

I think the main thing that I find is that because of Instagram, you are saturated with imagery. People consume them at a faster rate. So it’s really hard to try to think of new ways to tell a story that’s different. That’s going to catch their attention. So that’s why for me, the emotional part of it is really important and how I want people to feel something when they look at them. So working with actors or people who can try to express that, I think makes the photos not feel like an editorial, but more artistic.

Have you settled on a tried and trusted process to eliminate Murphy’s Law or do you welcome the problem solving?

My approach has always been that I like to produce a plan and go through an image. Because this actually frees my mind up on the day. So I’m not worrying about oh what am I going to do in the space or where am I going to photograph? I’ve already planned that out. So I can really be in the moment. And work with the actors or the people. What they’re going to do? And you can’t plan that. You can’t control everything. And I don’t really want to. My favourite bit is actually just watching how they move. And I’m just looking at how it all starts to unfold. I’ll obviously work with makeup artists, stylists and different people. So on the day we’ll have discussions and it will start to take form, but I usually just try to at least know what my main composition or angle. What I’m going to do. And what I’m trying to say.

Given the goal of supernatural staged images, do you spend the majority of time in pre and post production tasks?

I suppose the majority of the time is definitely the preproduction, there’s a lot of it. There’s not a huge amount post. Obviously I do shoot plates (a version of the shot with a different elements). For different lighting, and smoked textures, those things to allow me to play with the image. To have a bit more control over the post production. But I don’t add anything that isn’t already there. So everything you see exists through the camera.

I think that’s important because people often think that they’re composite in terms of I dropped in something, but it is already there.

Do the stories created by the images create a yearning to explore more of a certain world or is the intrigue part of the intended mood?

There is something that I haven’t done yet that actually I was thinking about. You can make so many pictures from one poem. Because often I will just take one aspect or one line from it. And that will be the bit that I’ll take out to create a new story. You could go back and find other bits. So maybe something I might do is pick one and then do six variations of that one. Often like how someone is going to experience a situation a different way. It’s actually fascinating because like generally none of us experience a world in the same way.

Nice surprise to pick up Image magazine in Dublin and see this article by Meg Walker highlighting the Offset Festival talk April 6th, tickets still available. Thanks @image.ie? pic.twitter.com/wu5vZY4gVU

— Gillian Hyland (@Gillian_Hyland) March 30, 2019

See more about Gillian here 

A fantastic talk by Gillian Hyland about her supernatural staged imagery. Huge research and preparation to evoke a mood and emotion #offset2019 pic.twitter.com/grMjLwR4Im

— Cian Walsh – Marine User Experience (@illustratedicon) April 6, 2019

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