7/27/2019 Profile: photographer John Veage
1/5April/May0924 | digital photography + design
J O H N V E A G E
r o e
John Veage is an old-school local news
photographer.Locals stop him in the
street to comment on his work.
Hes won countless photographyawards and published three books.
He speaks to FranMolloyabout his work.
John Veage is happy to describe himself as a Shire boy.
Most of Veages life has been spent in the Sutherland Shire,
in the south of Sydney, and there are few parts of the
beachside area that this prolific photographer hasnt shot
in his long career in local news.
Hes an official photographer for both the Australian
Surf Life Saving Association and Cycling Australia and in his
7/27/2019 Profile: photographer John Veage
2/5digital photography + design | 25April/May09
The three amigos: This is one of my favourite pictures.Its probably about fifteen years old now. Its just three blokesgoing for a swim, at dawn.These are three blokes that swimevery day at the beach.It was foggy and I had a long lens.Its just so simple, theres nothing in it, but it tells a story.
full-time job, as Chief Photographer for Fairfax Community
Newspapers, he heads up a group of around twenty
editorial photographers; but his daily work still involves
shooting pictures in his local area.
Veage has published three books of his photographs so
far [Southern focus (2003),Southern Colour (2004) and
Southern Surf (2006)], with another planned for next year.
7/27/2019 Profile: photographer John Veage
3/526 | digital photography + design April/May09
J O H N V E A G Er o e
Surfer: Im in the water forthis shot. I think I wasactually sitting on asurfboard at the time.I was in a pretty safe spot;I was in a big channel.Thats out at Shark Island,a reef off Cronulla. Its abit of a classic surf shot,people look twice at it.Its just a dramatic picture.
On leaving school (Kirrawee High, in his beloved
Shire) Veage trained as a teacher mostly because he
wanted to go surfing every day and meet lots of girls,
he now says.
But he fell into his current career when a former
housemate, then Australian Press Photographer of the
Year, Paul Sargent,needed a hand shooting the 1981
Australian Surf Lifesaving Titles.
Veage had never picked up a camera before, but
was soon hooked,and signed up for a full industry
apprenticeship with Sargent, who had left News
Limited to freelance.
Veage completed a four-year course in photo-
graphy at Sydney TAFE in Ultimo also the training
ground for most newspaper photography cadets in
Sydney at the time.
Sargent and Veage landed regular work as
freelance photographers for a local newspaper,
the weekly Sutherland Shire Pictorial News, starting
Veages lifelong career shooting local news and
sports pictures.
Thewinner: I took this atthe Australian Surf LifeSaving Titles atScarborough Beach inWA in 2007.I ts been amagazine cover, a posterand so on, it really tells
the whole story.The guyis Daniel McLellan fromCronulla, hes making acomeback after havingsome problems, anywayhe was pretty happy withthe race. Its the AustralianSurf Belt race, competingto be named the best surfswimmer in the country.Youve got to know thesport to take thesepictures, to be able topredict things. I followedhim into the water, with a
wide lens; if I had a longlens that picture wouldnthave been as dramatic.I also got a little bit luckywith that wave coming inbehind him at the end.
He credits the Pictorials tough, old-style newspaper
editor, Ian Badham,for his training, harder than anything
hes inflicted on his own trainees, he adds.
He wouldnt let me have a motor drive until I
could wind on really fast by hand; I couldnt shoot
more than six frames, so I had to get the shot right;
kids these days would just freak out,he laughs.
Veage started with the classic press photographers
kit of the day,the Nikon SE2, and shot all his work as
black-and-white negatives or colour transparencies.
He started to develop his own style, favouring a
wide lens and silhouetted images, often delivering
work that fell outside the straight editorial shooting
typical of the time.
The classic late-eighties shot was fill the frame,
bloke thumbs-up, with his can of coke, the good-on-
you type,Veage recalls.
By 1987,Veage had been recruited as a staff
photographer for the flagship Fairfax local paper, the
bi-weekly St George and Sutherland Leader.
The mantra was still fill the frame, but Veage was
developing a loyal local following for his classicsilhouette shots.
If I gave them enough shots, if I was smart about
it, they would run the occasional one, people would
like it so theyd let me take more of them.
Veage says that the best thing about being a local
newspaper photographer is the constant feedback.
If I take a good picture now, tomorrow, when I
walk down the street, seriously fifty people will say
to me, that was a good picture or maybe, what were
you thinking!
Veage says that living and working in the local area
is key to his success.
People still ring me up at home, it might be
midnight and some person I dont know rings me to
say theres been a car accident!
Instant feedback is key to giving his audience what
they want, he adds. Shooting for a magazine,
photographs are run months later; but his feedback
can be days or even hours.
7/27/2019 Profile: photographer John Veage
4/5digital photography + design | 27April/May09
7/27/2019 Profile: photographer John Veage
5/528 | digital photography + design April/May09
J O H N V E A G Er o e
I know what type of picture people like because
they tell me. Some of the pictures I like, the general
public dont like.But Im working for them, Ive got to
feed my audience.
Some photos he knows wont appeal to the
general audience these are often the ones he keeps
back for his books, he adds.
Up at dawn every day for the last thirty years,
camera in hand, many of his photographs are
thoughtful images of local scenes that most locals
dont see.
Veages employers support his other work with
the Surf Life Saving Association and Cycling Australia,provided it doesnt interfere with his regular news
work; so he often uses his holidays to work for other
clients.
Hes been shooting digital for a long time.With a
weekly turn-around, Fairfax suburban newspapers
were the first colour newspapers in Australia, and to
feed the colour-hungry machine,in 1997, the
company imported the first digital news camera in
Australia, from Associated Press in the US.
There was no screen on the back, it was an F90
body with this huge house brick underneath it.
And the pictures were about ten centimetres wide
and very average.
By 1999, all his photographers were shooting digital;
and the team had moved from Nikon to Canon.
These days, Veage uses a Canon EOS-1D Mark I II.
And though the standard press kit includes mostly
zoom lenses (16-35mm, 35-70mm and 70-200mm),
Veage isnt keen on them.
The problem with a zoom lens is that the
perspective doesnt change, you get the perspective
at the widest angle, so with a 70-200, youll still only
get the 70mm perspective at 200, it just moves it
closer to you. It limits you.
His favourite lenses include a straight 20mm, and
a straight 300mm f2.8 telephoto.I use that 300mm
every day, I love it. I must be the only one in the
world that uses one but I think its fantastic.
Hes also keen on his 600mm F4 telephoto.
My style is very simple, I like to isolate things. Ill often
drop the depth of field. When youre honing in on
one thing you havent got that distortion that youget with a zoom.
Portraiture is a huge part of his job and thats
where the local community angle can really shine.
Building rapport is a crucial part of the job. If you cant
talk to the people you cant take their picture, he says.
Veage is often asked to mentor less experienced staff.
I always say to my photographers, if youve got ten
minutes to do a job, then spend five minutes talking
to the person and thinking about it, then take the
picture. Dont start taking pictures and take a hundred
before you work out what you want.We dont want
100 pictures, we want one good picture and its better
to think for five minutes before you take a picture.
Veage admits that his work has occupied pretty
much every day of his life for the last quarter of a
century; but it doesnt feel like work.
My ideal day involves taking a picture. I guess
I work every day of my life, even when Im not
officially working. Its just what I love to do.
ABOVE:Ridinguphill:This picture won theBritish Women in SportPhotographic Award for2008, its Nicole Cooke,who was a dual Olympic
gold medallist in Beijing.Im the officialphotographer for theAustralian CyclingFederation and I took thisone in Geelong last year.Pretty dramatic.
If youve got ten minutes to do a job ...spend five minutes talking
to the person and thinking about it, then take the picture.
PREVIOUS PAGE:Local ladat Towra Point:This is a personal picture,a guy I know.Hesoriginally from NewGuinea, and I just askedhim if I could take hispicture. Everywhere I go,I see pictures and Iremember them and thengo back to places fordifferent things.I really like this type ofportraiture, its a big part
of my job. Environmentalportraiture is my favouritepart of working. I donthave any interest instudio work at all.Its much more aboutstorytelling.