Lara Platman: 0:04

I'm much more into the psychology of photography and about the space and the personal freedom that it does give and the ability to help you with your normal life, as well how you can look at things really objectively and not have such opinions on stuff if you're looking at it from a point of view of what you are seeing, and you can't judge, you know, it doesn't it stops you judging. And that's, I think that's what photography is really beautiful for.

Angela Nicholson: 0:32

for female photographers. In these podcasts, I talk with women in the photographic industry to hear about their experiences, what drives them and how they got to where they are now. This episode is with Lara plattman, a photographer, journalist and Leica Ambassador with a passion for documenting Britain's endangered crafts and cultural heritage. Hi, Lara. Thank you so much for joining me on the podcast today.

Lara Platman: 1:03

Hello, Angela. It's so good to join you. I'm quite excited about this.

Angela Nicholson: 1:09

Oh, thank you. Now, can we start by hearing about how you first got into photography?

Lara Platman: 1:15

So I started when I was seven.

Angela Nicholson: 1:18

Oh, wow.

Lara Platman: 1:19

My Yeah, my dad had a theatre costume business. He made theatre costumes, and he photographed a lot of his stock. And he also photographed some weddings as well, but he printed in our larder at home, and so at nighttime, we would be printing in the larder and hanging out the pictures. And in the daytime, mum would be hanging out the knickers on the same line and taking our pictures down. So I started around about seven. And then at school, I was still interested in photography. And then my art foundation, I was really, I just was really excited about photography in the dark room, because there was a huge, dark room, and we could print on big paper, not on 10 by eight. It was big paper, like really big paper, and we could paint on it, and we could make it into art, and we can scrap around with it. And then I went and did a photography degree, well, a fine art degree, and I specialised in photography, welding and sound sculpture, because I couldn't figure out whether I was going to be a music musician sort of person or a photographer sort of person. So I ended up doing sound installation and ended up making very noisy photographs. So I printed on metal, use liquid light, silver liquid light and printed on metal, and I hung them in door wells and staircases, and then I printed on linen and made noise happen, and I used dance soundtracks to exhibit my photographs and made myself sort of a complete analogue immersion of like a big, large zoetrope. So you'd actually be in the zero trope looking at the photographs behind you. So you'd be turning around yourself looking at these photographs. So I made a lot of installations during my degree course. Wow. And that's how I started doing photography and and then I ended up being a, like a real photographer afterwards. What does that mean? Well, I got a job as an assistant, and got a job as a picture got a job as a picture researcher at Getty and a an assistant, and ended up being a dance photographer's assistant and then a commercial photographer's assistant, and then became a photographer, photographer. So that's my route into photography, yeah, yeah.

Angela Nicholson: 3:45

Oh, amazing. I love that you used your larder at home. I have, I remember when I was a kid, there was what, we've moved house quite a lot, but there was one house where we had this larder, where we used to it was just huge. You could walk into it, and there was all sorts of stuff. And I immediately pictured you being in there with a with your enlarger. And, yeah, what a great idea. So much better than a bathroom.

Lara Platman: 4:06

Oh, because we use one table for we kept the enlarger there and then where the washing machine was underneath. It was a sort of a tabletop, and then we hung string across, you know, washing line across the top, and that's where we hung everything. And it could drip down and and it was cold as well. So, you know, there was like a slate tabletop in a cupboard. And it was great. And it and it meant that we couldn't be out of anyone's way, you know. So, yeah, but it was pictures at night, knickers in the morning.

Angela Nicholson: 4:37

Fabulous. It sounds like then your your whole background was quite artistic, and some form of art, possibly probably photography, was always going to be your career.

Lara Platman: 4:48

Yes, I think as soon as I did my foundation, my Art Foundation, and I could play in that dark room. So I knew that that was going to be my career, and I didn't know how or what it was going to be, but it was obviously going to be photography. And also, at that point was 1987 88 I just discovered Lee Miller.

Angela Nicholson: 5:15

Right.

Lara Platman: 5:17

And that was that. And Madame Yevonde And Diane Arbus and Herni Lartigue. I just discovered them. And I just thought, my God, this is it.

Angela Nicholson: 5:35

I want to be part of this.

Lara Platman: 5:38

Yeah, and look where they went, look where they travelled, look what they saw, look how they existed, and their projects they did. And if you want to travel or see the world or meet people, or just have a job that is on your own terms, and photography was going to win like hands down.

Angela Nicholson: 5:53

What did you think of the Lee Miller film?

Lara Platman: 5:57

I adored it. And I've known Anthony all that time since 1987 88 and it was about when he discovered, back when he discovered the negatives, I think, because he only knew, knew about the negatives once his daughter was born, because Susan, his wife, wanted to see what if Amy looked like, looked like Anthony when he wasa baby, that's when they discovered the negatives. But the film was great, and and he apparently, Anthony had had so many people want to make a film about Lee Miller, but it was only when Kate Winslet came up to him that he approved, approved the film.

Angela Nicholson: 6:36

Wow, I didn't know that she was great in the film.

Lara Platman: 6:39

She was great, and it was her passion project. And you could just tell it was her passion project. And when, soon as she discovered Lee Miller, she knew that she had to make the film, and she could. But although she had a lot of trouble trying to raise finance and confidence, and there was pandemics and things and but the film was amazing, and it was all very, very close connected to the the Miller and Penrose family. So it couldn't have gone any other way, apart from being amazing and perfect. And I love this section they chose. You know, that was the section that was really poignant to her change of character that he discovered, yeah.

Angela Nicholson: 7:21

So we had a really lovely sort of SheClicks non meetup for that film. So every, you know, loads of us went to see it, but all in different cinemas, different times, different days, and everyone just sort of checked in, and it was like, you know, the rule was no spoilers, but yeah, just to say what a great film it was and how much we enjoyed it. And particularly, everyone said, Oh, you've got to stay to the end, where you see the the original photographs compared with the ones that Kate Winslet took.

Lara Platman: 7:49

Oh, absolutely. And there was a lovely exhibition at Bonhams on Bond Street of the props and the jeep and the clothes. So that was a really good thing to see as well. He gave, I'm a member of the Chelsea Arts Club, and he came. I organised a talk for him to come to the Chelsea Arts Club. We have a talk. And I think that's talk was sold out in about half an hour. And then I arranged a tour of Farley farmhouse, and again, sold out. We've done it for two years now, and now I don't think we can do a tour there again, because, no, they'll be sold out in years.

Angela Nicholson: 8:21

Yeah.

Lara Platman: 8:22

in advance,

Angela Nicholson: 8:22

yeah. So I think so, yeah. Oh,

Lara Platman: 8:24

lucky, lucky. But they do Farley farmhouse do an amazing surrealist picnic in August.

Angela Nicholson: 8:30

Okay, worth looking up now. As well as a photographer, you trained as a journalist, but do the pictures always come first for you, or is the writing there too at the same time?

Lara Platman: 8:42

I trained as a journalist in 2008 when all of us film photographers sort of got the sack from magazines and newspapers, and we all had to go get digital cameras. And then I got a digital camera. Got I got a Nikon D100, and it's in the Thames at the moment, with five other Nikon D100s we we threw them in. We couldn't take it. They were just terrible. And so as soon as I got this, this digital camera, I realised that photography had what was the technology hadn't caught up. Hadn't caught up yet. Needed a good few years to catch up, so I trained as a journalist. But yes, photography does come first, and when I'm writing, I visualise what I'm writing, and I'm always interviewing people, so I've always photographing them, and or if I'm not photographing them, I'm I've got photographs of them because they might be dead, so I can't photograph them, but yeah, I'm very much. I really am visual before I write. And I have a formula that I have I write to, which was great for the from the training, but it's also good because it allows you to sort of picture edit your words. Yes, so to speak, but yeah, so writing has worked really well, and I've written, so I've published a few books, photography books, but then I've interviewed everybody as well. So I've really enjoyed that, and I'm going to continue to do that.

Angela Nicholson: 10:15

Great. Now, we kind of jumped a whole section there, because one minute you said you got a job, or a proper photography job, as you call it, and then the next minute you mentioned that you got sacked as a result of, you know, technological change and things, things moving on. So what was your role? What were you doing?

Lara Platman: 10:33

When I started photography, I was assisting a dance photographer, and then I assisted a theatre photographer. And then I got a job, freelance job as a photographer, and I was always sort of picture editing, it Getty a bit. And then I stopped editing there, and I was working at the Royal Opera House, and then I was working with the telegraph. And then I started working part time at country Life magazine, right both as a photographer and as a picture librarian. So I loved it. I was there for 789, years, and I loved it, because I could take photographs. They sent me out and about, and then the other two days I was in the library researching, which is something I've realised I absolutely adore. I love that solitude and silence of looking and researching something. So I was at country life, but the telegraph had sort of stopped play, you know, they wanted just digital, and it all became agency sort of thing. So that's what I was doing. I was being freelance at Country Life and the telegraph. I worked a bit for the Wall Street Journal, and I worked a lot for magazines until sort of before the pandemic, right? And that's when I had to really take up the journalism section as well, because they just didn't want to carry on paying proper photography fees as such. So I thought, just do both and but then I got sent from country life in, I don't know whenever it was, 25 years ago, to Goodwood Revival as an out and about theatre photographer, and to photograph the theatre, but it just so happened as a motor race. It just so happened there's lots of cars going round and round, and I my dad, before I could take my driving test, wouldn't let me take my driving test until I could not service the car, but at least change the oil and change the tires and work on the car a bit. So I was always quite interested in in the cars. And I had a Morris Minor, and one of my boyfriends had a jeep, so I was always interested in this car kind of scenario. But then I've got to good revival, and everything changed.

Angela Nicholson: 12:49

It's such a great place for photography, isn't it, Goodwood Revival? I'm lucky enough to have been a couple of times and absolutely loved it.

Lara Platman: 12:57

It's bonkers and brilliant. And I met so many wonderful people, and they invited me to the next race meeting. So I had to then, terribly, you know, I had to then go and do the Monte Carlo Rally with somebody as their photographer. And I had to go to spa, six hours classic racing, and I had to go to Le Mans Monte Carlo Grand Prix. Historic, historic. So it suddenly took a completely angle, and I ended up doing these motor racing events. And at the same sort of time, I'd bought a film kit, a Leica film kit, everyone was chucking away their film cameras, I bought a Leica m6 kit, and in it had a f1 Noctilux lens. Oh, and that changed everything, because I could then go back to shooting at nighttime in the theatre or nighttime in pit lanes. So I decided to do pit lane work at night. And that changed everything as well, because people just didn't see a lot of photographers around in the pit lane at night, and then they saw me, thinking, what's she doing? And I just produced all these pictures at night in the pit lane. And that led me on to doing a story in Venice at the Rialto fish market before dawn. So before the tourists arrive, I'd photograph the fish market as they were unpacking. So between four o'clock and six o'clock in the morning, I would be there with my Noctilux lens, because you can, because it just takes pictures without you even knowing in the dark.

Angela Nicholson: 14:35

Amazing. Now, when you're at a race meet, do you, I know you take lots of photographs of people, you know, maintaining the cars and doing all sorts of things with them. But do you also photograph the racing?

Lara Platman: 14:47

I do, but because I'm now a fully fledged Leica, I'm a Leica ambassador, and my kit is small and handy, and my biggest lens is 135 mil. It's a beast with binoculars. It's from nine. 1974 and you have to stand really still, and really if you're going to do some panning along the race track, you've got to really get your hip movement working and your rhythm working and knowing how fast they go. So I do do race track side, but so does everyone else, yeah. So what's that going to get me? And also, watching a race is far more exciting than photographing a race. What I like is the theatre. I'm proper theatre. I'm in the pit lane. The driver change the wheel changes. The people that break down. Sometimes the driver has to drive a change and he hasn't got another driver. It's a one, you know, there could be a two man race, two woman race or something, but he's only one of them, so he has to run down my car. It's hilarious. And so I love photographing that sort of thing. And people just getting ready to get in their car coming back out. So that's I'm I'm born and bred theatre, yeah, so that's what happens with me at a race track when you were talking about photographing the pit lanes at night. I mean, obviously the things that they're doing, they need some light to be working in. And I guess that's a bit like the theatre light. So you have these lovely pools of light with people working in them, and then sort of lovely patches of darkness where, you know, you can't see them. So it's almost like they're stage lit. It's exactly the same. I mean, I think of it as working at the Royal Opera House. You have, instead of having sort of 30 minutes of a rehearsal, you have three minutes. You have to get ready. You have to know where you're going. I'm fully manual as well. I'm not auto focus, so I have to know where my actor is arriving and leaving. I need to know where the light's coming from, where I need to stand, a, not to get run over, but B, to know where my light's coming from and I'm not blocking the light. And if it's raining, it's even better, because the puddles are just sublime. So it's, you have to be ready. It's all about preparation, yeah, and if you're not prepared, you're not going to get the shot. Because you don't, you can't really go, click, click, click, click. It doesn't work. You have to. You have to get them on the apex of the jump. And if they arrive, you get in, and then they get out, and you get out of the way as well. And also, in a pit lane, you can't keep looking down at your pictures because it's not allowed. It's a uncommon rule that you can't look down at your pictures so you don't know what you're going to get until once you've gone into the press room, it is just like theatre.

Angela Nicholson: 17:34

Yeah. So I was going to ask you if you're still shooting film or you switch digital, but the fact that you said mentioned looking down at your camera to check your pictures. I digital or both,

Lara Platman: 17:44

Both. No, I choose film, have to digital. So I'm I shoot film all the time on Pendine Sands Beach, because that would really hurt the camera if it was digital. So, but if I can, I shoot film, because I love my m6 and I've just started falling back in love with my nick on f2 so I'm going to try and get some gone off film in my cupboard and put that into my into my f2 going to get that restored. But no, I shoot film as often as possible. And I've got a Hasselblad, a film Hasselblad, so but I shoot digital because it's easy as well, and digital and the cameras have caught up like have caught up so well. They're just so amazing.

Angela Nicholson: 18:35

Yeah, they're really good at making intuitive interfaces on the digital cameras. They're quite simple and easy to follow.

Lara Platman: 18:45

Yeah, and it's just the same as my M6, nothing's different. Whereas when that Nikon came along, it just said, Oh, we're going to go digital. We're going to go completely put, going to change everything back to front. And couldn't, couldn't do it so, but the the N, the M10P and the M240, which is why I've got they're just the same. The M240 has got a video function on it, and I've used it twice in all the years I've had it, but I try it, just when I first used it, it nearly blew up my computer because the file size was so big. Now my computer's big enough to take that, so I should try do a bit more filming.

Angela Nicholson: 19:25

Yeah, yes, computers have come on a long, long way as well. Now, you mentioned a couple of times you're a Leica ambassador. How did that actually come around?

Lara Platman: 19:35

Oh, so it's very organic, um, scenario. I mean, really super, super, super organic. It was at Goodwood, and I just been invited to go to the Monte Carlo Rally. But before that, so I was at Goodwood revival, and along came this chap with these two eight. Surround his neck, and I looked at them, I was all completely in love with my m6 it changed my life. The I found a lab that processed and scanned the next day so I could get back to giving people digital photographs, but shooting with film and the quality of this negative was just so amazing. So the M6 had changed my life and the noctulux had completely changed my aspect of looking for looking at things. I was at Goodwood wandering around, and this chap came towards me. Saw I had an M6. He had two M8s. And I just said, What have you got? He said, M8 so my Wow, how have you got two? And he said, Because I can. He was, you know, the owner of Leica, so, and he was there and and immediately I just gave him a huge hug and went, Oh, my God, you've changed my life. And dropped everything, apart from his cameras. I was picking everything up, and he gave me his business card. And I said, No, no, you can't be doing that. Can't be giving me your business card. He said, Well, I said, because I'm going to be using your business card anyway. So I got, then at that same meeting, I got invited to do the Monte Carlo Rally with the Alfa Romeo historic team, to be press photographer for them. And so I phoned up Dr Kaufman and said, Can I borrow one of your M8s anyway? When's it for? And I said, January. And he said, No, no, won't be possible. Okay, thank you. Thank you guys, because we're bringing up the M9 and maybe you should try this.

Angela Nicholson: 21:39

Oh, wow, what a great contact.

Lara Platman: 21:41

And so I tried the M9 sent him everything. Just said, This is what I've done. Do you like it? And he said, Well, what else you doing? So I told him, what else I was doing. He said, Well, go and shoot it. Then. And then came the M10, so, and he said, What have you got a wide angle lens? I went, No, I've got a 50 and a, 135, and he said, Well, you need a 24 and I was like, do I Okay, so it's quite organic, yeah. And then this year, I'm shooting on a monochrome, a, Q2, Monochrom.

Angela Nicholson: 22:19

Very nice.

Lara Platman: 22:21

because I'm driving the drivers around. So I wanted something that I could just shoot from my shoulder and not have to focus or anything. So I'm shooting on a monocom.

Angela Nicholson: 22:34

What do you mean? You're driving the drivers around?

Lara Platman: 22:37

Oh, so at Goodwood, the drivers have to get from their campsite to the circuit, and then they have to get from one place to another. And then there's artists as well, like the singers and the theatre people. And so in the morning, I'm driving them around in my old Land Rover.

Angela Nicholson: 22:50

Oh, I see.

Lara Platman: 22:52

As a giggle, because I've photographed there as press for 26, 7 26 years was

Angela Nicholson: 23:04

Quite a while

Lara Platman: 23:05

and and I just thought, Oh, I haven't been I haven't photographed inside a car yet. So let's just shoot from, shoot for my shoulder.

Angela Nicholson: 23:14

At Goodwood, of course, a lot of people are well, most people are dressed up as well. So if you're shooting from it because you've got an old Land Rover, haven't you? So shooting from inside an old vehicle with everyone dressed up various eras will look amazing.

Lara Platman: 23:28

It will look really amazing. And and I've and

Angela Nicholson: 23:29

Has he sent you some red dots to stick Fantastic. I think that's a really good time around?

Lara Platman: 23:43

What like

Angela Nicholson: 23:46

and see where it goes. Because you just had a natural response to this person, not realising it was Dr Kaufman that, you know, like, who he was, essentially. fits had to change stuff around, you

Lara Platman: 24:24

Yeah, and now we're super friends, because he has some historic Alfa Romeos, pre war Alfa Romeos. And when he comes to Goodwood, he's sort of very, very VIP. And so he can't go on the race circuit and take photographs, because he hasn't got a press pass, so I, so I sneak, I sneak him onto the track occasionally, and then, you know, get him back off to go to six from SheClicks. And I've got 10 questions from again. Um, but he, you know, so he and we love watching race together, because we street scream at the cars. You know, we're coming past us and we're screaming. So it's. Great. And, yeah, it's great. So have found a friend in the camera world I've discussed it with the owner of Leica about how I have to that happens to be one of the best cameras ever. It's fantastic.

Angela Nicholson: 25:13

And I think whatever the brand or or model of camera, when you connect with it and you're doing something which seems to sort of play to its strengths, or, you know, just works for your style of photography. It's actually a really joyful thing. It's quite liberating, isn't it, and it helps you be more creative.

Lara Platman: 25:30

It really does help you be more creative because it's an extension of your eye. I mean, we all know a camera is an extension of our eye, and we know? But I know exactly what's going on with my M, and I don't even know I'm taking pictures sometimes, until the end, and I go, Oh, my God, I took so many pictures. And then you think, Oh, I'm gonna have to edit them. There's gonna be so many duds. And you look at me, oh, there's, there's not many duds. I'm okay. You just think, Well, how did that happen? God, I never knew you were taking pictures. It just sniffs out. It just sniffs out pictures. And by the time the event's finished, or the day's finished, and you're exhausted, thinking, God, what did I do? And then you look, you look at the pictures, whether it's on a sheet of film or negatives or on the screen, you think, God, is that what happened today? And it is, it's, SheClickers, and I would like you to answer six questions it's peculiarly, you get into this. You get into a meditative zone when you're really in your craft, whatever craft you're doing, you know, it could be ceramics or painting in or anything, or it could be anything that you're doing. And if you're in your zone of your craft. It's completely meditative, and it's given your brain a complete shake up, hasn't it? When you look at it and go, God, that was good. It was It is liberating, because it's given you this play time that you never knew or realised you decorate my land rover. So I'm going to decorate my land rover please by picking numbers from one to 10. So could I have your Four. in 1960s negligees and things. obviously doesn't appeal to me, does first number, please? right now I'm going to be at 10.6 for that, so that's got to be there, but that's going to give me, and I'm always trying to talk about who's going to be in, in the light, and though, of course, the light is always right, but we just have to make adjustments to make the light right after.

Angela Nicholson: 42:46

It was aperture for me, as you know, when it's first explained, where did those numbers come from? And, yeah, wow, it took. It took quite a while for that to sink in, I think, several different explanations and, you know, experimenting and stuff, but got there in the end, thankfully. Okay, so your final number, please?

Lara Platman: 43:05

Oh my gosh, nine.

Angela Nicholson: 43:10

Ah. So how would you describe your style? That question is another one from Marie-Ange.

Lara Platman: 43:17

Focused, because I fell in love with my noctulux, my f1 noctulux. I very rarely go above 1.4 to 2.8 is where I'm at, and above 2.8 I'm like, what happens now, okay, is there anything too much above 2.80 my god,

Angela Nicholson: 43:36

Too much depth of field.

Lara Platman: 43:38

So I think I really like to really zone in and hone in on something and everything else can just Sod off in the picture. It could just be there, if it wants to. It can just happen to be there. It can just carry on being in its normal jolly self. But I'm really on the 1.4 and I want people to see it, and it might not. It's obviously never, ever going to be in the centre of the picture, because I'm not like that. I'm a magazine girl, so I'm a third across. Yeah? So, so everything's a third across, so the thing in the middle is blurred, and then you've got to find the thing that is in focus, and you go, Oh, that's in focus. So I think focus, yeah, at 1.4 and everything else can just flitter away. And that created my style, because now I know what I'm up to, everything else just fits in and happily so when I do do something all in focus, F 8f, 11, F 16, I think all right, it's got to be really graphic and really minimal and just so pristine. But then when I'm getting into my 1.4 it can be a real mess, because stuff can be happening all over the place. Yeah, happening. And, I mean, of course, I want to be like in the scene. I want to be completely in, in vogue in the photograph. And I always think. That 1.4 makes you really inside the photograph, and then you can just get out of it when you want to. You can swim out of it. But then, if you're doing a fully focused photograph, you're looking at it sort of going well, that's very nice and pristine. But yeah, I think focused. Focused is my style, like, pinpointed, yeah, that's how, yeah, that's how I attack things.

Angela Nicholson: 45:21

It is focused in both sense, isn't it? You're focusing the lens, but also it's your mind is focused on that thing, and that's what you're really honing in on.

Lara Platman: 45:30

Yeah, yeah. And I think, as I was sort of thinking about earlier, artists are very particular mechanics engineers. We're quite sort of a surgical in a way, that we just get on with something, and everyone think everyone else is because just get on with it, and we forget that they're all around us. Yes, get pulled in, yeah. So that's what photography is with me. I just sort of get completely suctioned in, sucked into it, and I have to swim out to get away from.

Angela Nicholson: 45:59

Well, Laura, thank you so much for joining me on the podcast today. What I've really enjoyed about our conversation is that throughout it, you've put pictures into my head, I've been sort of being able to see what you're photographing, or what you're talking about photographing, and your style and the things you like to do. So that's been really interesting. Thank you.

Lara Platman: 46:16

Oh you're welcome. It's been great talking to you, and it's also nice to hear myself understand why photography is it's part of my part of my blood.

Angela Nicholson: 46:27

Great.

Lara Platman: 46:28

It really is.

Angela Nicholson: 46:30

Yeah.

Lara Platman: 46:30

Thank you so much. I hope everyone enjoys listening to this.

Angela Nicholson: 46:31

I'm sure they will.

Lara Platman: 46:31

And gets some kind of inspiration to go and get, pick up their camera and find out what their style is.

Angela Nicholson: 46:38

Well, thank you. Thanks for listening to this episode of the SheClicks Women in Photography Podcast. I hope you enjoyed it. Special thanks to everybody who sent in a question. You'll find links to Lara's website and social media channels in the show notes. I'll be back with another episode soon. So please subscribe to the show on your favourite podcast platform and tell all your friends and followers about it, you'll also find SheClicks on Facebook, X, Instagram and YouTube if you search for sheclicksnet. So until next time, enjoy your photography.