In the Bag: Suzie Howell
©Ana Flores
Source:In the Bag: Suzie Howell
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©Ana Flores
In partnership with MPB, British Journal of Photography delves into the kit that helps craft Suzie Howell’s signature, serene images
It is a muggy summer’s day in London, and Suzie Howell is on her lunch break in the middle of a shoot day. Born in Bristol, Howell has shot for clients such as The New York Times, BBC, Toast, Financial Times and more. We have met Howell before, when Alice Zoo visited her studio in Tottenham in 2021 (BJP #7902), and accompanied her through the marshes. There, we first heard about her work in progress about a sense of longing and loss, and the relationship of our bodies to nature. That project (then titled Distance, later Bodyscapes, and soon to be renamed) along with another series about the life and practice of a group of nuns in Wales, are reaching a point of completion this autumn. “They both come from the same place, but are completely different projects,” she explains.
©Ana Flores
A lot of my work is about this idea of trying desperately to capture how you’re feeling at the time, and not being able to do it
– Suzie Howell
Much of Howell’s personal work is still created outside and on the move. Walking and roaming through nature, and interacting with it intuitively over time, is a key part of her process. “I don’t think I got on well at uni because you feel like you have to conceptualise something before you do it,” she says. “I’d get a feeling about a place, and want to go and do that. That is how I work; I tend to want to explore either a person, a place or a feeling, and it quite often takes years for me to understand what’s going on.” She describes it as an exploration of “the failure of photography. A lot of my work is about this idea of trying desperately to capture how you’re feeling at the time, and not being able to do it”.
Over the years, Howell has streamlined her kit so as not to carry too much on her back on these long day trips. She leaves the house with two trusty cameras; always the Nikon F2 and either her Pentax 67 or Mamiya 7ii. These days, she might also tuck in a Ricoh GR II compact camera to play around digitally; although, she admits, she rarely looks through those images thoroughly once she gets back home. The ‘film or digital’ debate can get tedious, but for Howell, who actively leans into the plasticity of film in her work, the film cameras function as collaborators as much as they do tools. Her time in the darkroom, playing with the film’s potential, splicing images together, manipulating their expression – is just as crucial as the shoot itself. Often, it is in the darkroom that things begin to make sense, and the story reveals itself.
“It’s a very efficient service. They paid to pick up the lens from my house the next day, and paid you very quickly”
Howell is unafraid to interact with her subject, and will actively participate in the work by “making little sculptures”. “I love documentary,” she says, “but it’s not enough for me. Performance is a big part of it all.” For these moments, Howell carries aids and tools, such as fishing wire, crocodile clips and tape. There is always a stash of plastic bags – sometimes to take finds back to the studio, but also to place on wet ground to kneel on. There is also a small rocket blower, a nifty tool to blow away dust and dirt. All this is stored in a Manfrotto rucksack, with its numerous compartments that lend themselves to keeping the items organised. However, by the end of the day it always ends up being pretty chaotic, she laughs.
Commercial shoots like today unfold a little differently. She will have her Nikon F2 as normal but it will be accompanied by her Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. Howell also swears by her Sigma 24-70mm lens. “Back in the day you would never think about using a zoom lens for big, editorial, commercial stuff. But I think they’ve come a really long way.” She adds: “I quite like for things to not be perfectly pin sharp. It just does the job for me.” Howell purchased her Sigma lens from MPB – an online platform where you can buy, sell or trade second-hand camera gear in excellent condition – a few years back. It is a site she has utilised before, having also used it to sell a couple of older lenses, including her Canon 85mm 1.5 USM lens. “It’s a very efficient service,” she recalls. “They paid to pick up the lens from my house the next day, and paid you very quickly. I essentially traded in two lenses to get my new one.”
Shoots can be long and unpredictable, so being organised with the part you can control is helpful to set you up for the day. For Howell, this means having a plan, and making sure to eat well in the morning. “I get quite nervous before shoots,” she explains, “so I will do everything that makes me feel calm in the mornings. Then the adrenaline kicks in and you run on that for the rest of the day.” She recalls the early days of her career when an assistant advised to always carry a packet of oat cakes in your pocket, a habit she still sticks to today.
The piercing sound of a London bus horn trumpets in the background, like a siren to announce our conversation coming to an end. We bid our farewells and look forward to seeing Howell’s series at the ICA this September.
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