Today, I'm interviewing, Gabriel Niedojadlo. Gabriel was one of the first photographers to join us and I've always found his photography intriguing. Our clients seem to like Gabriel's work too as his name regularly pops up when they're searching for a photographer.
Gabriel is London based, and mostly focuses on event photography for work. But despite event photography being a highly commercial field, he manages to bring an arty look and feel with his photos. I find his work cinematic and slightly unexpected for event. He manages to capture those odd fleeting moments and the raw vibe of being there. Somehow his commercial event photography doesn't feel that commercial. I was curious to find out more and also see more of his personal work. Luckily for me, he agreed to have this interview.
All photos © Gabriel Niedojadlo
I grew up in Somerset, first picking up a camera when I was 15 (my twin's camera as it happens!) We had decided to start making music and skate videos at that time. I ended up purchasing a laptop to edit our videos while my brother shot them.
Over time I kept borrowing my brother's camera to take more and more photographs rather than to make videos. I ended up taking a lot of pictures at family gatherings, Christmas, Easter and birthdays.
Photography became one of my favourite hobbies. Walking with my parents went from a chore to an opportunity for exploring landscapes with new eyes that I didn’t know I had.
Photography stayed my hobby throughout university and right up until after 2021 where I slowly began to transition to becoming freelance.
In the meantime that I was coming to photography, my aspiration was to work as a cinematographer in film and tv. Throughout studying for my Psychology Degree at Lancaster university (2015 -2018) up until 2022 I was working in the camera department of short films, low budget features, tv shows and commercials. Finally in 2022 I was getting enough work as a photographer to make it my full time business.
For my personal work my style centres on expressing the temporal moments of a scene, the physical or facial expressions that feel both unbreakable from the moment and that also extend into the future indefinitely from that point of pressing the shutter. Images that can both exist in their own world and be a part of ours. Feeling the flow of time is an important aesthetic in my work.
I have worked with Brands such as Netflix, Heineken, DHL, Redbull, FIFA and Bumble. I haven’t had the chance to work with many publications but this is something I'd like to do in the future.
Recently I photographed the Best FIFA Awards, which felt surreal, the scale of the event, the guests, I felt like I was in a movie.
At the end of last year I had the opportunity to travel to Istanbul for work. That was a great experience with an insane turn around. We were out there for one day, flying out the same day as working and back the next morning. A whirlwind pitstop job, tiring but exciting!
When shooting for clients I try to understand the feeling they want to capture. I then translate this feeling into the given brief. While the style of imagery can change from client to client, I like to bring my own aesthetics to a shoot which as rightly say has a focus on the thoughtful and cinematic.
When I'm shooting for clients I want my shots to communicate a particular part of the story that I've been hired to tell. I know if a shot is right if it both feels interesting to me and also satisfies part of the brief.
When I'm shooting my personal work, if I can perceive the flow of time in an image, whether it stands still or feels as though it moves through the image, that is an image I want to make.
I really enjoy ambiguity in images, especially compositionally. I like to be drawn into an image to explore it and learn what it is trying to show me or even what it isn’t trying to show. When an image leaves room for imagination, I like that.
One of the hardest things for me is marketing myself, putting my name out there to get hired for the style and type of work that I want to shoot.
I like to skateboard, learn new skills. Last year I began learning tango. This year I've been playing a lot of badminton. working on personal photography book projects, and sometimes going for long walks such as the West Highland Way and Great Glen way in Scotland.
In 2022 I walked the Camino Frances to Santiago de Compostela in Spain, a truly amazing experience that I would recommend to anyone!
You can view more of Gabriel's photographic work on Photographerforhire.co.uk or on abrielniedojadlo.com.
Interview by Odi Caspi.
