Rick Pushinsky: the man behind the camera

If you were wondering which genius made us look 10-15% hotter in our family portrait, Rick Pushinsky is the self-taught photographer to thank. Commissioned by the likes of The Financial Times, the Guardian, Noble Rot, The Telegraph, and Chatsworth House, Rick's personal approach makes everyone he photographs glow with confidence.

Originally from Manchester but now based in London, Rick studied architecture and fine art before making the switch to professional photography by devouring blogs and YouTube tutorials while working as a picture editor. He’s snapped the likes of  Ron Arad, Tracey Emin, Piers Morgan, Amanda Levete and Noel Fielding, as well as 30 of the capital’s most creative entrepreneurs (think East London Gin, Riposte’s Danielle Pender and Blackhorse Lane Ateliers) for Hoxton Minipress book Startup London – oh, and us!

Rick has been a pal of the studio for a long time but officially came into the Zetteler fold when we helped him launch his recipe card collection Just Not Kosher in 2017. For this deeply endearing self-initiated project Rick collaborated with his dad Steven Morris to bring some of his pop’s favourite meals, from tuna polpettine to chopped liver and onion, to life with imaginative visual interpretations.

Rick mixes his professional work with an Instagram feed that always makes us chuckle. There you’ll find amusing moments from everyday life, from suggestively shaped fruit and anthropomorphic lamp posts to bizarrely labelled foodstuffs and street-side fails. Humans, it tells us, are weird animals. This keen eye for the comic has led to his latest self-starter, Powerful Mantras, a postcard series that combines encouraging self-help slogans with amusing everyday moments. A Band-Aid clinging to a wall is signal to hold on, while a styrofoam tray of green chips asks us to unleash our anger with purpose. As Rick says, ‘Doesn’t hope have the habit of emerging from the unlikeliest of places’. Here he is in his own words...

What was your route into photography? It must be challenging to set up a creative business in London…

After art school I got part-time work through a friend as a picture researcher on a newspaper TV guide. It gave me time, and enough income to live and work on the paintings I was making. I spent about eight years doing that, as well as freelance research for other papers, then gradually transitioned into editorial photography. Having flexible, ongoing work allowed me to start getting into photography without cutting off my income. During the career change there was some juggling to do: towards the end of my time as a researcher I said I needed a long lunch break for a dentist’s appointment but, instead, went to photograph Il Divo.

The people skills of photographers are often overlooked. How do you get the best out of your subjects, especially when you’re working against the clock?

One purpose of a portrait is to show the character of a person and I think that people are most themselves when they feel comfortable. It’s not enjoyable to be put under that much scrutiny so, on a practical level, I always try my best to make sure people are comfortable physically as well as trying to put them at ease socially. I generally feel quite uncomfortable myself so I perhaps have a heightened sense of other people’s discomfort. Maybe that helps, or it just makes things worse.

Giving very specific directions seems to help put people at ease. In order to arrive with a plan and not waste precious time with the subject, I’ll try to see photos of the space beforehand or at least get there very early. Often I’ll make rough drawings, planning the pictures I’d like to make. That way I know exactly what I’m doing so I can confidently suggest where and how the subject should sit or stand and so on. If the shoot is short (sometimes as little as 5-10 minutes) I stick to the plan, if there is more time (sometimes three hours or more) then the initial ideas can be just a starting point. If plan just doesn’t work and I have to think on my feet, the terror of making bad pictures really focuses the mind.

What’s the weirdest/funniest interaction you’ve had with a celebrity?

Bianca Jagger asking if I could take her passport photo at the end of a shoot, Edwina Currie giving me her letters to post and once I was sent to photograph Jamelia but arrived to find out it was Jameela Jamil.

Powerful Mantras injects a smile into very earnest self-help spirituality and your instagram regularly has us in stitches, how did you find your creative voice? How do you balance your funny stuff with your professional commissions?

With all the kit investment, professional photography might seem daunting to those without loads of cash. Do you think technology is making the profession more accessible?

Digital cameras have been around for long enough for there to be loads of great, used kit available. I often have to go back and revisit photos from three or four cameras ago (around 2010) and, though it’s easy to think you need the latest equipment, I am surprised by how good the files still look. Those cameras are relatively cheap now (around £300) and easily high quality enough for professional work, so I hope that makes kit available for people who can’t get a ton of money together. Film cameras can be bought for even less of course, but the downside is that film and processing costs can be prohibitive. When it comes to technical knowledge, I never studied photography, so have learned pretty much everything from looking online, blogs and Youtube tutorials. Almost all the information you’ll need is out there for free.

How do you think the photography industry would benefit from being more diverse?

For the visual language to evolve it needs to be constantly reevaluated, and that can’t happen without a sense of context. Diverse voices provide that essential wider context and challenge the status quo. Monoculture is a kind of cultural entropy, and it’s boring.

Pick up your own Powerful Mantras postcard set