Francis Augusto - Guest Speaker
Today I had the pleasure of attending a lecture where Francis Augusto was the guest speaker. I found Francis to be very down to earth and relatable. Based in London, Francis specialises in capturing humans in their honest moments. He loves to connect with other people and tell the stories of their everyday through photography. Francis also likes to shoot people who are not models as he prefers to photograph people as their story rather than based on the way that they look. His lens of choice is a prime lens as he finds them crisp and they bring out the details within the photos the most and the first thing that he thinks about when shooting is the lighting.
Francis has struggled with his mental health and was very open with this within the talk, he explained that he found cooking a mindful process as well as meditation. He now tries to think more positively and takes more time to focus on his breathing when he feels overwhelmed. Something that makes Francis so relatable is that he shows he is nervous and is completely himself when photographing either for himself or for clients. I found this really inspiring as a common thing that you hear with jobs is to just act confident but Francis shows that you can be professional and still anxious at the same time which is really reassuring. A shoot that was most out of his comfort zone was the LuLuLemon shoot. The shoot was completely new to him and he told us he was very anxious on the way to the shoot and couldn’t sleep the night before. However, when it came to shooting with the brand again in 2019 he was a lot more comfortable as he knew what to expect and had already photographed yoga. This gave me the motivation to get out there and photograph things out of my comfort zone as you can always improve as long as you start.
Google X Time Out London
During the talk Francis took some questions and the questions I asked were:
Q: Have you ever done a shoot that was far out of your comfort zone?
A: The shoot most out of his comfort zone was the Google X Time Out London commission. This was because the whole thing was very stationary and it was about the environment without showing much life so Francis had to try to incorporate life into it. He also had to hide lots of things on set that made him uncomfortable such as how he would capture the clients vision.
Q: Which of your photos would you say is most powerful and why?
A: The image of his that he finds most powerful is the one of his grandma as the image and his grandma herself means so much to him. Francis also felt that this was the image that represented him the most as it shows his style of photography and what his work is about.
Overall I found Francis’s talk not only to be inspiring but reassuring. He made me feel as though I wasn’t the only person who gets nervous about shoots and it was great to see a professional photographer with clients can still get nervous. His style of work is also very engaging as the subject matter always looks comfortable. Francis said that starts conversations with people before asking to shoot them, sometimes he will compliment their clothing or find common interest to make them feel relaxed.
Francis’s website can be found here: https://www.francisaugusto.co.uk/overview
