Photographer
Clay Enos is most notably known for his still images of several big films such
as “Watchmen” and “Man of Steel,” but what about the man behind the camera?
Friday, December 5, 2014
The man behind the lens: a career in the works
By
Taylor Cunningham
There
is much more to Clay Enos, still photographer that has worked on the set of several
movies, than just the images associated with his name.
Jessica
Chidester, who first met Enos at a “Watchmen” promotional event in New York,
said Enos one of the most genuine, kind, heartwarming people she had ever met,
and jokingly referred to him as being almost disgustingly nice.
 |
| Clay Enos (photo by Taylor Cunningham) |
"He’s somebody who would definitely take time out of his day to help you with something even though he might barely even know you,” Chidester said.
After
meeting, Chidester kept in touch with Enos and over time they became friends.
She described Enos as being someone she could trust and talk to.
“Any
time that I’ve had problems I know that he’s somebody that I know I’d be
comfortable to go to for either support, a kind word, or motivation,” Chidester
said. “He’s incredibly encouraging.”
The
beginnings of a passion
Enos
studied and majored in photography while attending college, but said his
interest in photography really all began when he was a child at his grandparent’s
house. His grandfather was a filmmaker of old industrial films and “March of
Time” newsreels.
“As a result there were always movie cameras
in the house, so home movies where made and I think it instilled this little
notion that image making is not the domain of others, it’s something that you
can do yourself,” Enos said.
Enos
was not drawn to the motion pictures, however. He felt there was more allure
and simplicity to the still image.
“I
wasn’t really interested in the large production aspects of movie making, I preferred
the individual, kind of auteur, artistic possibilities of the still image,”
Enos said. “Ironically though, here I am working on movie sets where I’m just a
little cog in the machine.”
Getting
to know people in high places
Enos first began
to photograph music celebrities through a job at AOL Music. He photographed artists
from many genres, including Robert Plant, 50 Cent, and Kenney Chesney.
“That
gave me legitimacy in the eyes of a bunch of other people,” Enos said.
These
photo shoots and knowing the right people are ultimately how he ended up on the
set of "Watchmen," which is how he began to start shooting famous actors.
Even
though he gets to meet and photograph all these big names, Enos said his
favorite thing is to photograph regular people found along the way. He launched
a photography project in 2000 called Streetstudio, which
features portraits of random people in cities around the world.
Photography:
impact and expression
Aside from working
on movie sets, Enos recently traveled to Rwanda to do some work for Bloomberg Philanthropies, and one of his images was used for the cover of the Bloomberg Philanthropies Annual Report.
“In
general, I love to have photographs matter,” Enos said. “So they’re something I
know that made a difference, that had an aesthetic impact on those folks and
the projects that they're doing, and that’s really rewarding as well.”
According
to Enos photography is more than a science, and once you get all the technical
components such as shutter speed and exposure figured out, it’s about capturing
what is seen.
“It’s
really about putting together your heart and your mind and sharing your view of
the world,” Enos said.
The
phone as a medium and wise words
Enos takes more
than just photographs with a professional camera, he also likes to snap images
with his phone while he travels.
“It’s a way of nurturing the muses constantly,” Enos
said. “This device is sitting in your pocket that allows you to express
yourself through photography at any time. So you sort of stay vigilant and you
stay in tune with a creative piece of yourself no matter where you are, and I love
that.”
Enos also emphasized that anyone can be a photographer,
and that legitimacy is not defined by what tool is used or what tricks are
implemented.
“In third grade we all finger paint and we’re all
artists, and we all engage in something artistic and we pride ourselves on it
and we bring our stuff home to our parents, and for whatever reason we grow up
and the arts fall away from our daily lives,” Enos said. “But the phone and
photography is this way to reengage that third grade finger paint brain and go
be an artist again.”
Enos gave some advice not only for those looking to go into
the photography career, but other fields as well.
“Love what you do,” Enos said. “Understand that any given
industry is work, so you really do have to love what you’re doing and make that
your paramount, guiding force. Balance somewhere between passion, patience, and
perseverance and you should be alright.”
A cog in the machine: how photographer Clay Enos plays a role in the movies
Clay Enos is a still
movie photographer that has taken portraits of actors and documented the
filming process on several different movies.
Most of the movies that Enos has been a part of were
films by director and producer Zack Snyder. The movies that Enos has taken
photography for include “Watchmen,” “Sucker Punch,” “Man of Steel,” “300: Rise
of an Empire,” and “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” currently in production
and scheduled for release on March 25, 2016.
“The set of ‘Watchmen’ was certainly exciting because it
was my first movie, and the faces and characters of that movie were so rich
with texture and time, because the movie takes place over five decades,” Enos
said. “That was the first time I had taken my strict studio approach and stuff
of New York and put it in the context of the fictionalized world of ‘Watchmen’
to great effect because a nice book came out of it.”
The uses of Enos’ pictures include being used for press
release articles on movies, promotional advertising with various products and
ads, and forming making-of books, though a lot of the images used for advertising
are photo shopped by other people.
“It’s so neat to see how they're taking the pictures and
taking it to different places and using different effects,” Enos said. “Movie making
is a collective endeavor, advertising and marketing around a movie is so
outside of what my responsibilities are, I’m glad to have played a part.”
Enos will also be working on the set of upcoming movie “Suicide
Squad,” which is scheduled to begin filming in Toronto this coming April. Part
of the new DC Comics shared film universe, it will be released by Warner
Brothers Pictures on August 5, 2016, and will star Will Smith, Tom Hardy, and
Jared Leto.
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