Episode 002: Will Saunders
Photograph by Will Saunders
“It’s so important for new photographers to remove the ego from the idea that it’s not your fucking work, you know what I mean? You just make it for them. It’s no different than if someone orders a pizza and wants extra red sauce, the chef might be like, ‘That’s gross,’ but that’s what the person wanted, right? You just make it for them. So if you can, remove the ego and do that, and then when it’s your work, go give it everything and give all your passion to it.”
Will Saunders (@willsaundersphoto) is a commercial photographer and has been widely published in Outside Magazine, Sidetracked Magazine, Surfers Journal, and Ski Journal. The bio on his website reads, "A serious understanding of different sports and environments allows Will to go to remote places, rock walls, depths of the ocean and to the tops of the Himalaya. All while being comfortable and in his element." His diverse experience across these different outdoor adventure sports has led him to work with brands such as The North Face, Under Armour, DICKS Sporting Goods, Red Bull, Specialized Bikes, Fjallraven, Columbia Sportswear, Patagonia, Black Diamond, so on and so forth. Finally, Will was the Overall Winner of the 2021 Red Bull Illume photo contest, the self-described "greatest international imagery contest dedicated to adventure and action sports photography.
Please enjoy!
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. After the episode, join me in the Green Room to keep the conversation going.
What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.
SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE
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QUOTES FROM THE INTERVIEW
"People seeing a cover of a magazine definitely legitimizes your work,but I don't know if it's the best form of exposure. I think it shows that you can take a good image, but I hugely believe in being friends with people you want to work with. They should be your friend first, then eventually it turns into going and working together."
—Will Saunders
"Always recommend your family - I call it the production family. You want to work with your people."
—Will Saunders
"I don't know if the exposure of a magazine got me some work. I bet you it turned some creative directors' heads. It allowed me to send out a newsletter saying, 'Hey I had this accomplishment,' but as far as getting work, it's so hard to know what's actually doing it."
—Will Saunders
"No one says specifically, 'I want to hire you because you're the Red Bull Illume winner.' I think it's just is another honor and accolade to add to the work, but I think just being a good person with the right people is probably the best thing you could do."
—Will Saunders
"There's some photographers out there, many of them - like the Nat Geo level, because they don't do as much commercial work, but they're making historic and impactful work. So companies that believe that this photographer is going to create imagery that will change the world - no different than a sponsored athlete...people will do the same thing with photography. It's not that common at all...It's rare, I don't expect to get it, but if that's possible it's definitely the dream for a photographer, is to work on something that they believe is important and spend a lot of time on that."
—Will Saunders
"I could never think of building a whole year out of just personal work...A part of that is just three months of digging and research, and calling people and seeing what are important stories. Then do another three months of work, go back to the edit, work with someone and look at it and go back for another three months. That would be insane."
—Will Saunders
"I hustle really hard in the commercial world, which is awesome, but it would cool to do it in a different way. Maybe towards something that has impact."
—Will Saunders
"We look at a lot of photos every day. It bums me out because we look at them on a 1-inch by 1-inch screen, and I think it's sick that we get to look at every image created in the world if we want to, but it sucks that we look at it on a small resolution screen. I think what sets it apart is being able to see it, either on a big desktop, or being able to see it in print, and realize that there's depth there.
—Will Saunders
"You can get away with absolute shit on a 1-in x 1-in screen. It can be out of focus, it can be blurry, it can be bad light, and it still will look decent cause the resolution is so small that you're looking at."
—Will Saunders
"You can tell when I'm excited about my work...If the person I'm working with is excited and excited to be photographed, and the light's good - doesn't matter where we're at - if that dance is happening, you can see my work just fucking skyrocket."
—Will Saunders
"I take time for myself on set. For commercial jobs, it's not my job, it's not for me, so the ego needs to be in check all the time on commercial jobs. It's not the time to go and create an image that you've had in your head that you're all dreamed up about... Most of the time you're just trying to make a product look good in its normal environment. Don't over spice it, it needs to be approachable and attainable for the average person."
—Will Saunders
"I just got back from shooting 'Back to Campus' for North Face. So it's just college kids walking around a park or a town, it can't really be anything more. We think of them as these badass climbers, mountaineers, all that stuff, but a lot of what they sell is backpacks and hoodies, sweatshirts for people in NYC or LA. So in my head I'm like, 'Oh it's The North Face, it should be crazy dadada...' But also, we're just shooting hoodies walking around town. If you can do that and do that well, that's as powerful as it needs to be for this commercial job. I remind myself of that sometimes, that it's not always gonna end up in your portfolio on a commercial job. It's just, you want to work well with the client and make something that they're proud of and excited to put on their campaign."
—Will Saunders
"It's so important for new photographers to remove the ego from the idea that it's not your fucking work, you know what I mean? You just make it for them. It's no different than if someone orders a pizza and wants extra red sauce, the chef might be like, 'That's gross,' but that's what the person wanted, right? You just make it for them. So if you can remove the ego and do that, and then when it's your work, go give it everything and give all your passion to it."
—Will Saunders
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