Corey Hayes
Around a year ago I came across Corey Hayes’ photos through a project he did called,“ Alter Ego.”
That project got quite a bit of media as it showed a bunch of regular people who love dressing up in cosplay. It was almost like finding our your neighbour was a super hero... looking deeper into Corey’ s photography you find out he’ s passionate about photographing people. Whether it’ s actors, musicians... it’ s all about people. Corey’ s based in New York City and has had his work appear in The New York Times, Vogue UK, GQ and many other magazines and has published a book, Nightshift NYC with Russell Leigh Sharman and Cheryl Harris Sharman. Corey welcome to the first edition of Photo Live...
I’ d love to know what it’ s like to be a working photographer in New York City, sitting thousands of miles away in Australia, we have this preconceived conception of New York being a thriving, gritty in places city, with people everywhere and always something happening.
That is usually people’ s perception of it, and there’ s quite a bit of truth to it. For me New York has always been a very neighborhood scene.
I live on the Upper West Side and for the most part stay pretty close. I know my laundry person, the people at my local teashop, and recognize folks at all of my usual haunts, so for me it is not unlike some of what I experienced growing up in a small town. Being a working photographer is tough! I think I can best sum it up with a story. The first time I dropped off my portfolio was at Blue Note Records. When the person at the front desk took it she placed it in a pile of other portfolios and one in particular I recognized as one of my favorite photographers. I immediately realized that I needed to constantly be working on improving my work as the people I was competing with were some of the best photographers in the world.
Tell us about your photography, what sort of work are you doing most often?
After spending about 5 years in NYC assisting other photographers and another 8 doing work as a freelance photographer, this past year I’ ve made a big shift in my work and have started working with a non-profit called New York City relief that helps the homeless here in NYC. Most of my day to day work these days is photographing the poor and homeless folks we serve, and trying to help them recapture some dignity in their lives.
What about personal work- do you have much time for projects?
I do still take on clients from time to time, and try to make time for personal work as well. I find that now that I’ m trying to make these two areas converge. I’ m a bit more discerning when it comes to which jobs I take. After working with the homeless for the past year, it’ s hard to go back to a place of wanting to see a lot of fancy hair and makeup in my images. Right now I want to see more of the beauty that resides in each person without anything added. Photographing people right when they walk into the studio, that is what I’ m exploring right now.
You do quite a lot of actors headshots, what’ s your process? I mean what do try to capture on a shoot?
Wow, these are really good questions! My process always begins with a meeting. I always try to grab coffee with the actor I’ m planning to shoot beforehand. If I do anything right in my work it starts with getting to know someone first before put-
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