Duracell Photography Competition
How do you recharge your batteries? That's the theme of our competition, one of the judges of which is photographer Huggy Ragnarsson, who talks here about her career and inspirations
She may be regarded as a leading fashion photographer, but Huggy Ragnarsson didn't set out to be. "I didn't want to be a photographer, I never saw myself as that, "she reveals. This may sound strange but as you realise within minutes of meeting her, Ragnarsson is not exactly what you'd expect.
She was born in Iceland and spent her childhood living both there and in California, before settling in the latter. Having harboured a dream of becoming a model since the age of 12, she was eventually spotted by legendary talent scout and agency founder Eileen Ford. And despite her father barely allowing her out on dates, Ragnarsson found herself heading off to live in New York at the tender age of 17.
"It all seemed to happen very fast, "she says. "I then went to Madrid and lived there for three years, ending up speaking fluent Spanish. From there, I travelled to London, then Milan and Paris — it just rolled on."
Her career as a model brought her into contact with celebrities, artists and visionaries from all spheres of life, not to mention some bizarre situations. "One of the strangest experiences I ever had was in north Africa, "she recalls," close to the Libyan border.
"The photographer I was working with tried to sell me to a local guy for a couple of camels. It started out as a joke, but eventually escalated into a serious bartering session. For a while, I wondered what the hell was going to happen to me. Being Icelandic, I didn't have a particularly strong embassy out there!"
For most people, jetting around the world while being paid to wear fabulous clothes is achievement enough, but Ragnarsson had other ideas."Don't get me wrong, I loved modelling. You get to try on garments that most people can't even dream of touching.
"But I was always more in awe of the photographers. Helmut Newton took my breath away. He had so much power and he empowered women; I adored him. And Irving Penn — he's my all-time favourite. The way he uses one light; the man is a master."
Ragnarsson finally picked up a camera in 1988, shortly after the birth of her daughter, Olivia. "I'd always been fascinated by photography, even before I got into modelling," she says. "I used to study magazines like Vogue and Marie Claire and was enthralled by the power that you have as a photographer; it's immense. You can make or break someone by the way you take their portrait."
Duracell photography competition
Her initial interest in photography began with the models. "Having done some talent scouting, I started taking test shots for various agencies, "she continues.
'I was always more in awe of the photographers. Helmut Newton took my breath away. He had so much power and he empowered women'"But the difference between my test shots and the ones that photographers were generally shooting at the time was that the photographers were simply using the girls as props to try out new lighting or colour setups. I was focussing solely on making the girls look their best to help get their careers off the ground."
Ragnarsson may have started off in a small way, but photography eventually led her away from modelling. "I learnt about printing while working at Trew Laboratories,"she says. "Peter Trew was one of the best printers in London at the time; he printed Linda McCartney's stuff. I spent a lot of time learning the basics and it slowly progressed from there."
Shortly afterwards, the British Red Cross contacted Ragnarsson about shooting a forthcoming campaign, at around the same time that a certain Naomi Campbell noticed her portfolio in the offices of Premier Model Management. Phone calls were made and soon the two of them were heading off to London to do the campaign. Ragnarsson had been shooting for barely six months.
"It was a dive in at the deep end, "she admits," a humungous leap. There was no retouching at that time — or none that I could get access to — so I had to get the lighting absolutely spot on. Get it wrong once and it would take you two years to come back. Yet there was no choice, I had to get on with it."
Luckily, she did. And did it well. Since then, she's gone on to shoot the likes of Linda Evangelista, Claudia Schiffer and David Beckham, as well as contributing to the Four Inches photography book,which was sold for the Elton John AIDS Foundation (EJAF).
However, Ragnarsson hasn't lost her passion for discovering new talent,which is why her latest project is a search for the UK's next superstar photographer. As a brand ambassador for Duracell's rechargeable range, she, and a panel of judges from Getty Images, will spend the next four weeks sifting through thousands of competition entries looking for a worthy winner.
If you think it could be you, the theme of the competition is how do you recharge your batteries? For some, this might be people-watching in the park; for others, it might be a football match, or simply lying in bed with their iPod on. Whatever inspires you is fair game as far as Ragnarsson and the judges from Getty Images are concerned.
One thing's certain, though: with each of the 10 runners-up getting a Canon digital camera, and the winner receiving a top-of-the-range Canon digital SLR camera and lens worth £1,500 and two photography experience days — one with Getty Images and one with The Independent — it's a prize well worth winning.