Mark Coote
Photographer
Biography
My name is Mark Coote, and I have been a professional photographer for 21 years. I guess you could say I’m from the old school (that is, no school, self taught).
When I started out as a photographer, there was only one tertiary course in photography in the country, and they had an annual intake of less than 20. Now there are dozens, churning out hundreds of very talented, aspiring photographers every year. This means there is a lot of competition – but if you are self-motivated and tenacious, you’ll make it.
I became interested in photography while studying business at Massey University. My dad had two old Voigtlander rangefinder cameras he used a lot when we were kids, but which were gathering dust in the hall cupboard. I commandeered one of them and began taking photos at the weekends.
I bought my first SLR film camera, a Ricoh KR10 Super, when I went travelling for two years after finishing uni and working in Wellington for a year. I took a lot of photos on my trip, mostly on slide film, which helped me hone my skills. Exposure on slides needs to be perfect.
On returning to New Zealand, I got a lucky break – a staff photographer’s position at the Levin Chronicle, with no previous experience and no formal training. I arrived at work on my first day to be told by the editor that Dan, the other photographer, was on holiday. I’d be there by myself for the week, and by the way, he needed a front-page picture by 11 a.m! The editor showed me where the darkroom was, gave me my camera gear and some black-and-white film, and said, “Get to it.” It was my sink or swim moment. I decided to swim.
I thought I could take a pretty good picture before I got the job. I very quickly realized I had a lot to learn. My self-schooling began. Every day, I would buy the Dominion and the Evening Post (remember those glorious days when Wellington had both morning and afternoon newspapers?) and study the photos in them, looking at the composition, lighting, and content. I was trying to see what the photographer had done to convey the story idea in their photo.
After a year at the Levin Chronicle, I got a job at the Evening Post where my education continued with the five experienced newspaper photographers on the staff. I stayed for six years. During that time we moved from a black-and-white newspaper, having our own darkrooms, to colour film and having a lab print our photos. I made the change from film to digital in 2000.
After another two-year stint overseas, I started freelancing and working for clients such as Learning Media. I recently collaborated with writer Pippa Werry on a story about a scarecrow festival at Gladstone school for the School Journal. The entire country school split into groups of five or six and made scarecrows to display on their fence. I really enjoy working with kids; they’re all about having fun.
My approach to an assignment like this, where we are both starting from scratch, is to constantly communicate with the writer about the story. Because our images and words need to match, we need to know what the other person is thinking. My skills are in creating images and Pippa’s are in writing, and we can offer each other some insight into the direction of the project.
I think it is really important as a photographer to work with the writer to get the images that will match the words. You can tweak the copy after the event, but once you’ve shot the pictures and gone home, it’s all over. You can’t go back and shoot them again.