Value Added Partner Spotlight

We speak to Xavier Clarke, founder of XC Photography.

Tell us about the XC Photography story?

This is a little weird, normally I am the one asking these sort of questions to help get know who my client is and who their ideal audience is. I feels very strange to be on the receiving end and in the spot light. But I think that’s part of the reason I am a photographer. 

I have never felt comfortable on the ‘other side’. Growing up, I was allowed to use my dad’s Olympus EM10, under strict supervision. I loved it. Since then, photography has always been in my life in one way or another. My wife bought me my first digital bridge camera, and I couldn’t put it down. But, with memory cards being expensive, it was like shooting film and could only take up to about 90 shots. It forced me to practice more to make sure I didn’t fill the card too quickly.

After a while, I invested in my first DSLR. I couldn’t put it down; it went everywhere. I started to invest in lenses. I wasn’t really thinking I would be a professional back then – I had a good career in IT, working with the CRI and then Curious Ferret. Everything changed at the end of an event by Hove Lagoon called Funk the Family. I was asked if I could send over some photos for the organisers. The next thing I know, I am being asked to cover the next event. It escalated from there. 

What has been your biggest business challenge to date?

Imposter syndrome. It is one of the toughest challenges to get through. When you do something you love, it can be easy to undervalue what you do – especially when almost everyone has a phone with a decent camera to hand. It is difficult to compete with ‘free’. I ended up not feeling what I did had worth, so I was photographing events for under minimum wage but was told that the exposure would be worth it. That was a difficult lesson to learn. 

It isn’t always easy to see the true value and amount of impact that good imagery has. Whether in your personal or professional life, you will have a digital footprint. As most things are now online, you need to have something different to grab attention. When most people are happy with ‘good enough’, it can be challenging to compete with free. Another big challenge is not to give away too much before the shoot. A hard lesson learned by myself and many other photographers – to put together a brief ad pitch, only to be turned down and see an attempt at your ideas, executed by someone in-house who has a camera and took an evening course. 

What has been your greatest or proudest business achievement to date?

This is a tough one to answer as photography can be a success in a lot of different ways. At the start of my career, I focused on music and events photography. A lot of what I did was unpaid, or undervalued for the amount of time and effort that goes into the work I do. However, that said, I still regard a lot of it as a success. Without those early experiences, I wouldn’t be able to do the photography that I can now.

Achievements are very personal to every photographer (or anyone in the creative industry, really). To me, they range from capturing an unexpected moment, filled with emotion and a story that gives you pause for thought, to finding myself around people that I had never even dreamed I would meet, let alone tell them how to stand and when to smile. I have been around some fascinating people and heroes from my childhood, ranging from Sophie Alldred, The Beach Boys, Sylvester McCoy. Watching Bam Margera doing what he does best, and I have even spent an afternoon with Eddie Izzard, plus managed to get on stage with legendary DJ Roger Sanchez, and be the only photographer with a pass for the Mercury prize-winning band Gomez when they played their debut show for the 25th anniversary tour. Each and every person is just as interesting as the last.

I feel great success when I get a new client when I have a client come back and when I can create an image from someone else’s imagination. 

There have been some truly odd and surprising moments in my career – from photographing Ross Kemp pulling a pint behind a bar, taking some photos for Olympus, talking martial arts with Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, talking about gardening with the legend that is DJ Danny Rampling… I have even been the official photographer for the Miss Pin Up UK/International contest, and watched Aurora Dawn from the Alabama three sing to a room while a friend held up their phone for the lyrics. 

What type of clients do you currently work with and who are you looking to meet?

I work with a wide rang of people – from musicians (including Yumi & the Weather – one to keep an eye out for!), insurance brokers, actors, copywriters, interior designers. I also do my best to support a charity every year. Last year was Off the Fence. This year, I am supporting Ravi’s Dream and talking with the WOLO Foundation and the UPA, to see how I can help them. 

The people I love to work with are the one’s who have passion for what they do; people who have found their ‘calling’ as it were. If they have a passion for what gets them up in the morning, I want to work with them.

Tell us a fun fact about yourself that people might not know? 

Fun fact… I am the 11th patient on the Cannabis Registry and the Chair of  the UPA,

I was a ninja trainee. I spent nearly 7 years training in the samurai centre, in Brighton, and have been fortunate to have trained with the Grand Master, who travelled from Japan. I have taken a lot of what I learned from my training to my photography – from understanding the way the body moves to the disciplined mentality, and constantly practice.

For more information, visit https://xcphotography.co.uk/