Born in Liverpool, Michael Birt studied photography at The Arts University Bournemouth. He has since worked in London, Europe, Asia, and the US, taking portraits for a variety of publications and agencies including The Sunday Times Magazine, The Observer, The Times, Glamour, Tatler, Loaded and Q Magazine. In the United States — New York Times Magazine, Time, Us Weekly, Newsweek, People, New Republic, Fortune, and Forbes. From 1999-2001 Birt work in New York for Tina Brown’s Talk Magazine, where he was under contract.

Gold Medal Winner of the Royal Photographic Society’s, International Print Exhibition 2009. Included in the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize, at the National Portrait Gallery, London — 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012. The National Portrait Gallery also holds over thirty of his portraits in their permanent collection.


Could you briefly describe your career? How did you get involved in portrait photography?

I studied at the Arts University Bournemouth. Other alumni include Nick Knight, Simon Beaufoy, Giles Duley and Wolfgang Tillmans. I then moved to London and assisted two photographers in a Soho studio. The best part of that experience was that Terence Donovan was a couple of doors down the street and visiting his studio was an inspiration.

After a year, I went freelance and worked for Time Out and several other magazines. I had originally wanted to be a fashion photographer, but I was wisely given portraits by art directors. Early commissions included John Irving, Fran Lebowitz and Margaret Atwood. At the time I also wrote to personalities asking for sittings, which helped me produce a more diverse portfolio.

What was your childhood like?

I was born and brought up in Liverpool, with my older brother and sister. It was an exciting place to grow up with the coming of the Merseybeat sound and the influences that brought.

When I was about seven or eight – John, Paul and George drove speedily up to a pedestrian crossing I was on, they almost did not stop. John leaned out and apologized, my first meeting with celebrity-an important encounter.

What is your definition of a professional photographer?

Being a professional photographer means getting paid for what you do and being a full-time practitioner, as with any professional discipline.

Could you please tell us about your most challenging assignment?

All assignments have challenging moments, but generally, it is the situation rather than the subject. Often complicated logistics, time constraints technicalities, and deadlines make for some testing issues. Pavarotti did keep me waiting for two days in a Turin hotel. Il Maestro, as we were told to call him, eventually appeared. He needed coaxing -– I complimented him on his expressive face, he made a
curiously forlorn remark. “My face is the only acceptable part of my body.”

Do you consider yourself an artist?

Most good photographers want to be artists; few are, Irving Penn was one, he said, ‘photographing a cake can be art.’ The constraints of earning a living means making an art image continually throughout a career, is less likely. I have been more of an artist in the last twenty-five years, as I have acquired better clients who let me take the images I want. Photographers need support from magazines or galleries to be creative; it is seldom a solitary existence.

When you’re making portraits, do you take many shots? Are you talking to the person while it’s happening? Is it a kind of confrontation, or is it a conversation?

I take few frames and interestingly, I do not take more now I am photographing digitally. I know when I have the portrait, so usually stop at that point. It is demanding emotionally on both photographer and subject; there is a limit to how long they can both look through and at the lens.

I research the sitters, even if I know them well, to be up-to-date with their career. We talk before and after but during the portrait, I am searching for their physical vocabulary and the gaze in their eyes that sums them up emotionally; that is done with few words. At times there can be twenty or more people in the studio, and I have to block that out. Hopefully, there is never a confrontation, it is
a relationship, however short.


Has your technique changed over the years?

Reviewing my work for a solo retrospective in 2006-7, I looked back to my college work, to my surprise some early portraits were similar to my most recent; I was looking for the same elements as I am now. The technique has largely remained the same, but now more refined - my understanding of light has improved, simplified and became more effective.


What do you detest most in photography?

I do not detest anything about photography, the enormous amount of equipment that one carries is tiresome, as is the business behind a career and in the early days calling potential clients for work was tiresome.



What suggestions would you give to a young person who wanted to become a photographer?

It is not easy for a young editorial photographer starting out today. The structure of magazines and the support they give has all but gone. Working on projects and finding a place for them to be
published or exhibited, is now very common. The benefits of the social medium mean that work can be seen by many and with immediacy.

It is important to have other interests and passions, to
enhance your photographic work, most great photographers I have met, show a curiosity for life. I was working in a studio in my early twenties, Helmut Newton was working there too. At the end of
the day, we talked for half an hour about the IRA bombings, not a word about photography; he was more interested in what was happening around him at the time.

How in your opinion new digital developments and the Internet affect the medium of photography?

Film was a good discipline to learn from as hard to get right, having it as a benchmark was critical for me when moving to digital. I work with the same disciplines photographing digitally as with film, even intuitively taking twelve frames at a time that 6x6 film allowed. Whether film or digital, good photographers will always take good images.



Three books of photography that you recommend?

My bookshelves are crowded with novels, biographies, fashion, art, and photography all of them help with portraiture. Each morning before leaving for the studio or location, I will look at a selection
of favorite photographers and make small drawings of my ideas; often they go unused, but it is a process that makes taking images easier.

Three photographic books:
Bill Brandt, Nudes 1945-1980, Irving Penn’s - Museum of Modern Art catalog 1984 with an Introduction by John Szarkowski and Helmut Newton’s Sumo (the smaller version), published by Taschen.