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Painter turned photographer

Painter turned photographer

Final year bachelor student Michael Foxington has an impressive portfolio of portrait, fine art, beauty and fashion photography. But his passion for taking photographs was discovered almost accidentally.

Mr Foxington first picked up a paintbrush at age 10 and purchased his first DSLR camera at 25 to take better reference photos for his paintings.

After some time, his interest for photography became an obsession.

“I was always trying to get better photos for references, and then I realised that photography wasn’t as easy as I thought,” he said.

“The challenge of photography is really fascinating. Every step of the way, every time you get better, it’s so rewarding. Eventually I realised that I didn’t need the paintings anymore, so I would describe myself as a failed painter before a successful photographer.”

Always wanting to refine his skills, Mr Foxington said one of his biggest challenges was being his own worst critic.

“You have to find a fine line between being objective about your work and not being overly critical about your work,” he said.

“You always need to do better than your last but you always need to accept what was good about your last work as well.”

Mr Foxington said he was immediately drawn to studying at PSC after a student co-ordinator offered to walk him through the building for an open day.

“What really caught me were the images on the walls. They were just beautiful,” he said.

“I was looking at them and thinking ‘that’s what I want for me’, to be at that level where I can produce stuff that is not just technically perfect but also stuff that is engaging.”

Upon completion of his studies, Mr Foxington sees a future in editorial fashion photography.

“Fashion is challenging because it’s not just about you as a photographer, it’s about the team that you collaborate with.”

“But as you go along and produce better work, better people want to work with you. So you get access to amazing clothes and amazing models and putting those teams together and realising a unified vision is just amazing,” he said.

Over the next year, Mr Foxington plans to help established editorial fashion photographers on shoots as well as expand his own existing client base.

“The next year is going to be about working alongside successful photographers – going along and helping them and learning everything I can from them. There’s going to be a bit of assisting, a bit of working on my existing fashion client base, and then building my client base. Just running the business, really.”

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