Five things you may not know about Margaret Moore
- 1. She used to play the accordion.
- 2. She admires Annie Leibovitz and Patrick Demarchelier. Annie Leibovitz used the Photogenic studio in 2007, ‘and it was a masterclass watching her prepare not just to shoot Bono, but for her shoot with Bill and Melinda Gates the next day’.
- 3. She has three daughters.
- 4. The camera she takes on family holidays is a Lumix LX-5.
- 5. She likes gardening, skiing, and animated feature films such as the Toy Story trilogy.
How did you get into photography?
When I was 19 I was given a Minolta SLR by someone who had bought a job lot of stuff at an auction and found this camera in it. Almost as soon as I looked through the lens, I was hooked. It’s a very different feeling looking through a lens than it is looking through a rangefinder. Everything looks so alive.
My first job was in the travel industry, but I started to feel restless. I discovered a photography course at Dublin Institute of Technology, and that’s where Barry and I met, in our early twenties. We’d both worked and then gone back to college.
How did Photogenic get started?
Photogenic was set up in Glasthule in 1991. It was tough building up the business, but we came to people’s attention quickly. Our pictures were different. In our window once we put an ‘out-take’ next to the ‘official’ portrait of a mother and child – in the out-take the mother had got tissues out and was wiping the child’s nose. It got noticed. Actually I think it helped kickstart the whole ‘lifestyle photography’ trend. We won a lot of awards, so that even big players like Kodak were aware of us. From a small base in Ireland, we had an influence. By the time we moved to Dalkey in 1999, we had an established reputation.
How would you describe your approach?
Getting a photographic portrait taken is a hugely emotional thing and it requires a lot of care from us. We are very measured in the way we make sure that people are led by their heads, their hearts and their pockets – not just one or two of the three. Some studios are happy to see their customers once; we like to build relationships over time. We have people whose weddings we photographed coming back to us for family portraits with their children. Technically we keep on top of developments and of course I’m very interested in beautiful lighting, but the main thing in portrait photography is the expression. When it comes to capturing that, twenty years of experience has helped.
People have walked in off the street wanting to buy our images as art. These are pictures of people they don’t know!
Do people usually choose what you think are their best shots?
It varies. Often, I’d say they do, but it’s also true that some of our most beautiful work has never seen the light of day.Are you expensive?
Between 500 and 600 euro for a family portrait, a wall piece. People have sometimes had the idea that our portrait work will cost them three months’ mortgage…that’s never been true.
We do things here that other studios would never bother to do. You get something exceptional, and something that will be in the family for a long time.
Do you do the studio-based work and Barry the weddings?
We both work in the studio, and Barry also does weddings. We both used to do weddings, but both being out on location at weekends while our children were small got too stressful. So now I am studio-based.
What’s new in wedding photography?
The wedding industry is much more demanding now than it used to be. During the Celtic tiger years the demands went flying upwards. It’s faster now – people want hundreds and hundreds more pictures – and because people want something different from what their parents had, they might bring in magazine spreads of fashion shoots as inspiration. But mums and dads still want to see the couple, the family, the group, the outfits and the shoes. When twenty years have gone by, the couple themselves won’t be interested in the shot of the back of the dress, or the pictures of friends, actually. It’s family they want to see. Weddings apart, families are collaborating more these days on getting everyone together for group family portraits that are not to do with anyone’s special event – instead, they might get pictures done of all the cousins, say, or of all the generations together. People love it – it’s nobody’s event, everybody’s in it together and they often make a day of it and go off for a nice lunch or something. It works really well and it’s affordable. For a few hundred euro you have a beautiful piece that will be handed on to the grandchildren.
What’s the most difficult bit of the job?
There’s no taking a picture of a baby when it’s sleep time. And it can be difficult when parents are instructing from the sidelines, or a child takes fright. If it all gets too overwhelming for them I just tell them to come back another time.
And the best bit?
Being in the camera room, taking pictures. And handing out the work – that’s pretty good.
