In our latest episode of The Camera Life (Episode 45 - 16 January 2025), Nev Clarke returns to share his recent highs and lows as a part-time photographer.
Nev strives to balance his love of photographing Albany landscapes, working in drug and alcohol addiction counselling, supporting his local youth community, and picking up paid work. Nev first appeared on The Camera Life in August of 2024 (TCL - Episode 25) and, during that discussion, talked of his pursuits as a landscape photographer. Nev speaks freely about his creative journey and how he has taken on a wide range of new photography genres and paid work. What’s most impressive is the organic growth Nev has experienced through working with the local community to not only master his craft but to give back in meaningful ways. As Nev puts it, it’s “The Albany Way”! It’s an interesting topic as many enthusiast photographers desire more paid work, even if just to support their hobby and buy the odd lens.
Nev returned to The Camera Life Podcast to share his continued evolution as a photographer. In his own words, Nev had described himself as a landscape photographer who dabbles in other genres. However, he is now more inclined to refer to himself as a photographer who does a bit of everything. Nev has recently started booking weddings and group events, especially with local youth at a community centre. Nev has even found himself contacted by people visiting Albany seeking guidance from a seasoned photographer. Nev has continued to expand his support of the local community by undertaking project work commissioned by local shires.
In our August 2023 podcast episode with Nev, he talked about his annual tradition of creating a calendar featuring local landscape scenes. Towards the end of 2024, Nev completed his 2025 calendar while supporting other photographers who wanted to make a similar product. In what Nev referred to as “The Albany Way’ he shared his knowledge and experience with releasing an annual calendar to help other creatives start their own series of products. Nev has found that pushing himself to approach new challenges is the key to his growth. He recently contacted one of his favourite local restaurants to capture new food images for their refreshed menu. While the client was happy with the final photos, Nev could see where to improve next time. Nev is planning to build a website to host his work while also exploring the development of a coffee-table book containing his landscape shots.
As a fellow Fujifilm photographer, Nev talked about his love of Fujifilm cameras and lenses. For most of his work, Nev uses a Fujifilm GFX 100MP medium-format camera, but he also shoots with the popular Fujifilm X-T5 APS-C camera. Of course, during both episodes of The Camera Life, Nev talked about his preferred gear and how the Fujifilm ecosystem works for him.
An interesting point of conversation arose as Nev talked about his time photographing a local funeral. Funeral photography is a little-known genre where, much like a wedding, the photographer is hired to capture the day and record essential family moments. Nev learned much about himself as a photographer and that the experience made him stronger. The genre is necessary to many families who want to document just how important their late loved one is. Younger children will later be able to look back on those images to see how valued their loved one was, not just to their immediate family but to the broader community who attended the funeral.
What’s been most inspiring is Nev’s organic growth as a visual creative and how he has branched out to explore many new genres. He has explored a vast range of new genres to determine new fields of interest and further his skillset and capabilities. However, despite some of the amazing images Nev has captured, he finds the greatest joy in seeing others experience the joy of photography. Working with youth groups, Nev provides hands-on training, support, and feedback to guide a new generation of photographers to maturity. Seeing the joy a finished and printed image brings to a young person inspires Nev.
It was an absolute pleasure having Nev back on The Camera Life podcast. If you’re unfamiliar with The Camera Life Podcast, be sure to take a look at our YouTube channel for the latest episodes and, of course, our back catalogue of weekly shows. Our shows are also available on popular audio podcast platforms. If you like what you see, please give us a thumbs up, Subscribe to The Camera Life, and click on the bell icon to receive notifications of upcoming shows.
If you want to look closely at Nev's work, check out the link to his Instagram here.
