Cut, warped and distorted: Conor Cunningham discovers a new approach to photography thanks to lockdown

It wasn’t until five-ish years ago – “almost six years ago now” – when leaving school, that Conor started going on long walks with one of his friends, talking about the future and its uncertainties. “We’d just walk around downtown for eight hours at a time. We were both into fashion, and he started bringing his dad’s camera, just for fun. He used to take my picture and photograph my outfits, which we thought were really cool. But they’re pretty bad, looking back.” Then, one day, Conor felt he could do it better and asked if he could switch roles, resultantly taking pictures of his friend instead. “I immediately fell in love with it,” he adds. And dropped out of his degree in health sciences to focus entirely on this new adoration: photography.

Ever since this defining moment, Conor’s been building on his practice “nonstop”. He’s worked hard to get to where he is today, all in all, nurturing a style that’s characteristically his own – and one that’s influenced heavily by cartoons and horror films like The Shining. “I think when you’re starting out it’s really important to develop a style that you don’t waver from too much. It’s good to experiment of course, but I think when it comes to the work you’re presenting to the world, it’s good to have a look that you’re confident with.”

To this day, Conor’s body of work features a wide mix of fashion photography and branding, the type that artfully combs photography with his interests in clothing, styling and film. When working on a shoot, he’ll begin with the storyline before making moves on the colour scheme and props he wants to employ. “Then I set the whole thing up,” he says, noting how he’s only recently started working with producers and production teams. Brainstorming, however, is key, and he’ll try his best to devise something that he’s never seen before. But this customary way of working, as mentioned, has been altered in a seismic manner; as now, Conor primarily (and perhaps temporarily) shoots on FaceTime.

“Having to shoot remotely – for, I would say, 90 per cent of the stuff I’ve been doing in the last year – has been quite limiting on set,” he adds on the matter. “Most of the things I shoot are either in somebody’s house or in a studio, depending on if it’s a company or an individual, with a light set up against a white background. I have to take all of that and make it super different every time.” On a typical shoot, Conor places emphasis on experimentation and crafting something original, so you can understand his frustration with this newfound process. His answer to this problem, though, rests in the edit. “I never used to do so much post-production, and there was a lot more planning and set design prior to the shoot.” But since the impact of Covid-19, this has shifted dramatically – “there’s a lot of coming up with stuff on the fly.”

FaceTime, he says, is similar to the usual shooting process yet much more simplified. Largely set up like a normal studio shoot, there tends to be a full team on the other end of the call. Conor will also have assistants, which makes things a lot easier, but naturally there are a few limitations – mostly when it comes to communication. “Usually, at least when I started, a lot of [the process] was having to explain to the model everything that I wanted to do, getting them to move the phone around and go back and pose.” His subjects also tend to have their own single ring light set-up, which helps to pull the silhouette away from the backdrop and give off as many crisp lines as possible in the edit.” 

An imperative part of the process is Conor’s cut-and-paste method, which situates the models in a new environment or background. “It’s definitely weird at first, but I think it's just about being personable and letting the model know that everyone thinks this is a weird situation,” he speaks of the general method behind it all. “You’ve just got to break down some walls and then people will treat it more like a regular shoot, especially if they’ve been able to see what I’ve done before with it. They’re like: ‘Oh okay, it’s not going to look like my friend took an iPhone photo in my living room, it’s going to look like an actual shoot’.”

Even if the pandemic is what catapulted many – if not most – photographers to use FaceTime, Conor always had an inkling that the industry was heading for a rebirth of the 2000’s digital aesthetic. It’s a trend that he predicted a while ago, perhaps triggered by an increasing sense of nostalgia over recent months. “I just think there’s a lot more freedom, and I think, especially after such a grim year, people are really going to be seeking more bright, colourful, fun and creative ideas,” he adds. “And a lot of that is easier to produce when working digitally – I only work with digital, I can’t do film.” 

So will FaceTime become a more permanent methodology for Conor, and for photographers around the globe? Seeing as he’s just shot a video for American hip hop group Brockhampton, who he’s wanted to work with for some time, and also has plans to work with Nike, Diesel and a jewellery company based in New York, we’re left to wonder as to whether or not the photographer will decide, or need, to use the iPhone’s video calling app for any more of his future shoots. One thing’s for sure, however, is that Conor is ready to adapt to any circumstance, especially when it comes to utilising new media to his advantage. “I’ve gotten quite comfortable with it now.”