Nick Gleitzman

During my photographic career, I’ve seen four major paradigm shifts in how photographs are produced and distributed: film to digital, the internet, smartphones, and social media. Now the AI explosion is posing a rapidly increasing threat to the very integrity of the craft.

I’ve been a photographer for more than fifty years. That’s over a quarter of the almost 200 years since Niépce created what is considered to be the oldest surviving permanent photographic image. For about half of my career, I ran a full-service commercial and advertising studio, before shifting to a model of making and selling prints of images made for my only remaining client: me.

For the past two decades, I’ve divided my time between Hong Kong and the east coast of NSW, Australia. Having homes in these two locations gives me vastly contrasting landscapes to explore with my camera; urban and natural. In addition, I'll be adding images from Macau, China, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand.

My personal work has always reflected the discipline of close attention to composition and detail required for making large format still life images, on film, in the studio. These days, I use a DSLR to create my images, using digital post-processing only to control...

I first picked up a camera when I was about 16, in 1975. I realised pretty quickly that this was how I wanted to make my living. I learned how to take photographs properly at Sydney Technical College, where photography was taught as a trade, alongside plumbing and panel-beating. Four years part-time, mostly evening classes after a full day’s work at Kodak as a Customer Relations Assistant (read “order entry clerk and occasional technical support guy”), until I graduated in 1980 with a Certificate of Photography (Honours), a deep understanding of the science of photography, and a job as an assistant to an established commercial and advertising photographer. My first task: sweep the studio floor. I went freelance two years later. Five decades later, my education has never stopped - and I’ve got really good at sweeping floors.