In the Hutch with: Holly McCandless- Desmond

Welcome to my hutch, get cosy- its a lil cramped, but I’m sure we can all fit.

In the Hutch is my monthly segment where I will be interviewing prevalent, interesting & fascinating people in the creative industry. They won’t just be photographers, although our first guest is mind you, but will span all avenues so you can understand what makes each member of this industry tick. Prior to interviewing each member if you are part of our paid subscription we will offer an opportunity to send your questions in ahead of us chatting, so you can have some power over the conversation.

However for my first interview it seems fair to bring on the first talent that I ever signed which is a Miss Holly McCandless- Desmond. In case you don’t know who Holly is she is a young, female London based photographer specialising mainly within the sports and fashion sectors. Dropping out of her studies, Holly decided that instead of sitting in the university classroom her best means to learn about photography would be through assisting. Here she finessed and honed her famous lighting skills, which have so expertly led to her own distinctive & technologically brilliantly style. With this in mind, Holly also is fully aware of the brilliance & necessity of lighting expertise, so when she isn’t shooting is often using her platform to educate other creatives on how to improve their technical skills in the studio. If you haven’t for any reason given her a follow she is at hmdfilm on both Instagram and TikTok, now let’s get into the interview…

For those who (god forbid) are not familiar with your or your work, could you give us some context on who you are & how you carved your space in the industry?

Hello hello! I’m Holly McCandless-Desmond, or more people know me as ‘hmdfilm’ and I’m one of your photographers <3. I'm a fashion photographer that also aims to blend portraits, sports, fashion and fine art together.

My photography career timeline feels like a blur to me - especially with the massive strides we’ve made in the last two years with us going into pre-production on our 12th Adidas campaign THIS year (it’s October), winning an advertising award as ‘Most Promising Photographer’, travelling most weeks, shooting some of the biggest talent in the world (that even my parents had heard of), getting an American work visa for ‘extraordinary ability in the arts’ and being recognised from Tik Tok whilst doing my weekly shop - none of which feel entirely real.

I went down the traditional, somewhat old-school route to becoming a photographer by working as a photography and lighting assistant for 3 years. This all started with a bereavement I had going into my 2nd year of uni which led me to drop out and desperately look to find a new creative outlet.

I was in a friendship group of people who all worked in film so I voluntarily gave myself the job of behind-the-scenes photographer. After one indie artist music video, the artist re-reached to me, said they loved the bts photos and wanted to hire me to take their press shots. At this point, I’d never taken photos outside of a video set, never had done my own lighting, editing or direction. So I jumped on YouTube, trying to find resources on photography lighting and was met with either overly complicated technical jargon or examples that felt outdated and old-fashioned.

So I embarked on a lighting assisting career in order to learn more about the photography industry and how everything worked hands-on. I spent the rest of the year running around commercial sets - quickly being picked up by multiple photographers and becoming well-known particularly as a rare female lighting assistant. I realised how many photographers were winging it themselves, didn’t know their technicals but were still being booked for big commercial campaigns - so I thought with everything I do know, surely I could do this too?

I then started casually making a series of videos on Tik Tok called ‘anti-gatekeeping lighting fashion editorials’ breaking down the lighting in my images - attempting to fill the gap of easy-to-understand photography resources online and I couldn’t believe the response. The 5th ‘episode’ of that series gained half a million views and kick started my Tik Tok account. This was a massive boost of confidence and became a massive incentive to keep putting myself and my work out there.

And a few months later, YOU slid into my DMs with a ‘are you currently represented? :)

Fast forward back to today, my ethos as a photographer is centred around transparency, fairness, rebelling against the old-fashion stereotypes, mistreatment & egos of this industry and always aiming to create a welcoming, inclusive vibe online & on-set.

In the past year you have really grown exponentially within the commercial space, would you say there was a pivotal moment when you realised your career was going to escalate?

Genuinely, every single time I had a big opportunity early on, I always thought it was just a random case of luck - there was never a moment where I accepted that “okay cool my career is popping off now”.

But a few pinch me moments that on reflection were massive turning points - Whenever you’ve called me about a job. (Usually when I get a job, you’ll send me a message but a certain few, you’ll call me to tell me I’ve been confirmed for the bigs ones) Seeing advertising decks for major brands where over 50% of the reference images are mine. Getting the first five figure job - sickening. Being recognised in my daily life or going onto set and people already knowing my previous work extremely well.

With eleven collaborations with Adidas in the past year & other clients including Nike, Manchester United, Everlast, BBC x Euros- you’ve established yourself quite strongly into the sports realm of commercial photography, how important do you think it is to establish a niche & how soon should someone try to double down on their style?

I genuinely feel like the niche finds you rather than you find it.

I think it’s undoubtedly important to be known for a very specific style and perspective you can bring to a campaign - but sometimes that can be right in front of you without even knowing it yourself.

For example, I’ve always loved shooting movements but had never thought about shooting sport performances. I always enjoyed using colour theory, shooting bright, block colours - without evening considering how significant colour is in sport. I always liked playing with genre tropes, subverting and re-imagining stereotypes, and at the exact same time, sport brands took a turn - wanting to push their campaigns more into an elevated, fashion space,

I was completely blind to how aligned and perfect my style was for sports until someone else pointed it out and the moment it clicked in my head, I was like “this made sense all along”.

So my advice would be take your time with finding your style, be playful and experimental, eventually something will show a glimpse of promise and then cling onto that and do it over and over again. Keep refining it. Be reactive to other people’s responses to your work, when people compliment certain elements of your work, lean into it and that can be a great way of starting to discover your style when you may be a little blind to your own strengths.

Whilst you are a creative first, you have been in this industry long enough to understand the business that goes into photography- but I know for people who are creatively minded this can be a difficult aspect to juggle. How do you tackle the more administrative necessities of this space?

Well, firstly, I will outsource as much as I possibly can. I have adhd and therefore, I accept that I pay the adhd tax (it’s kinda like girl math and works even if you don’t have adhd)

I know for a fact, I will struggle to do my tax return, therefore the money I spend on an accountant will actually SAVE me money in the future because I won’t get fined for not submitting my taxes on time. Or I know I struggle to reply to emails on time, so having YOU (my agent) reply to them will make me MORE money because I may have never replied by myself.

I’m a big believer in investing in yourself and so far, it’s really paid off. Sometimes I will take less of a rate on projects to pay to have more qualified assistants or experienced retouchers because I know it will allow me to do a better job and if I do a good job, then I will get more jobs from that project. Or I have a small office space I come to everyday which makes me so much more productive and therefore more able to take on a heavy workload. Essentially, be self aware and accept that admin or the business side may not be your strong point - but ask for help and advice for that, because there are plenty of people you can use to make it smoother for you.

Also talk to your friends or make industry/self-employed friends because they will be feeling the exact same way and there is nothing better than an hour long rant over a drink about your admin and a really niche solution one of you found to it.

And lastly, make yourself a really nice spreadsheet template for keeping track of your jobs and get yourself a business account.

The way that a lot of people will know you is through your breakdowns of lighting on your Tik Tok account where you often explain how you managed to achieve certain looks & styles on a more technical level. What is your opinion on the democratisation of information in the creative space? Are there still aspects you like to keep private?

As I was talking about earlier, it can be really hard to find clear, straight-forward, modern resources on photography - which is strange as most other skills you can easily learn online but very few big photographer’s share the behind-the-scenes workings of their shoots and images. Particularly at the beginning of my career, I was very keen to anti-gatekeeping and wanted to share as much as I possibly could to help other people learn,

However, I hit a block with it, mostly triggered by the vast amount of rip-offs and copies that came as a result, as some people wouldn’t just learn and take inspiration, they’d copy the entire shoot from light to edit to styling to set - it was really disheartening for a while. It felt like I had started to give too much of myself.

After taking a little break from it and reflecting, I’ve come back around the other side of it now and feel ready to be open, transparent and re-purse being super open about my work and business. The love I received from followers and brands really encouraged me to put aside the fears I had around it and now I’m restructuring and plotting how to make the change I want to see in the industry on my own terms again.

It felt like a massive moment to be contacted by H&M and told they specifically loved me, yes for my images but also because of how I approached sharing information in the space - even though they had struggled with the gatekeeper-ness of the photographers they’ve worked with.

I’ve loved working with people more 1-to-1 by offering work experience, internship placements, answering questions via DMs/email and seeing the difference I can make that way.

Now, the thing I like to keep most private is more my personal life - I don’t have any personal social media that isn’t about photography and have found a lot of peace with keeping my work and personal life quite separate. For anyone that’s met me in person, you know I’ll pretty much chat about everything.

It’s really integral to learn from our mistakes in this industry and I think more often than not our lack of talking about them only confirms that they will be repeated- what would you say is a common photographer faux pas that you think upcoming talent should look to avoid?

Ooo, this is an interesting one, the way I could write an entire essay on this one - having observed a lot of photographers work when I was an assistant, from my own mistakes and people around me! I’ll keep it to 5 key points.

Relax the ego, we ain’t saving lives- stay grounded, touch grass, we only work in marketing.

Be kind to absolutely every single person you meet- that runner who’s bringing you tea on set will be working their way up to being a producer one day - the person who will be in charge of hiring and paying you - you aren’t above anyone you meet. Know your basics and technicals inside out, nothing more embarrassing than a client asking for a technical change and you not knowing how to execute - learn your camera inside out. Make your boundaries clear - this industry is very unregulated, set what your working boundaries are for yourself (or look into union guidelines if you don’t know yet!) I was told by an ad agency once that the biggest thing they wish more photographers did was show and talk more about themselves - eg: showing their faces, talking about their story, ideas, influences - you don’t have to make a whole Tik Tok showing your life but having your face as your profile pic can help people feel more connected to you!

You are only continuing to rise in this space with both your clientele & online presence growing daily, however it would be insightful to know what do you think is the main challenge you still continue to face?

The absolute classic’s; imposter syndrome, self doubt, overthinking and fear of everything stopping overnight. Most of my challenges and flaws are internal criticism and feeling like I’ve never done enough - I have a very negative overachiever mindset.

My advice on dealing with that if anyone relates is: Take days off where you do something completely different from your creative passion to reground yourself Clean up your digital space to only see content that feels empowering and positive rather than comparative.

Make sure your identity is tied to other elements of your life outside work.

I very much trust your eyes on the industry, you always seem to have such nuanced references across your treatments & moodboards- has there been a campaign or shoot that you think was slept on and should have gathered more attention or accolades?

As I’m sure you are aware, there are many creatives out there who would see you as a source of inspiration, but on the flip side who are the creatives out there that act as inspiration to you & why do they stand out so much?

Merging these two together because I love this! You very much know I’m super picky about my references - I really believe in trying to create a bank of references and inspiration points that go beyond Pinterest or what algorithms push to us. I think especially looking to the past or non-photography sources can be the beginning of really interesting ideas.

Some fairly niche examples of references I’ve been loving in the last couple weeks:

• Photographer, Ewen Spencer (did all Skins campaigns back in the 2010s, my fave ref for capturing groups)

• An instagram page called ‘@gapplaylists’ (archive of GAP adverts between 1992-2006, my fave refs for 90s style),

• Artist, Galerie Phantom (my favourite fine-art artist, big inspiration for how he mixes darkness and vibrant colour)

• An instagram page called ‘@assorted.books’ (a page dedicated to scans of old photo and fashion books, often 90s work you haven’t been all over Pinterest)

• A book called ‘Own Label, Sainsbury’s Design Studio 1962-1977’ - (a collection of 70s food packaging design that feels really silly, great inspiration for colour palettes and surreal props)

• Photographer, Gareth McConnell (I want to paint my entire house like how he captures flowers)

• Pantone's The Complete Colour Harmony Book (A book purely dedicated to 100s of different colour palettes and the linked associations and feelings)

• A website called Wayback Machine (the internets archive, type in any brand and you can use their homepage/campaigns from all the 2000s or they have access to loads of old photography books on there for free)

And then I love mixing tropes of genres together and subverting what you would expect from a shoot. For example, my cover shoot with Crack x Fontaines D.C, we managed to get a cover image where not a single of them are looking down the lens - the complete opposite brief that PR/magazines usually want from a cover (conventionally body fully facing camera, mid shot, eyes to camera) Or a lot of the shoots I do for Nikon are not how you would expect a camera brand to advertise their products (visualising the shoot based on from the design of the camera or features rather than showcasing the camera itself)

Then I love exhibitions - I have a Tate membership and try to pop down there at least twice a month, often spending most of that time in their book store. On the flip, charity shop book/magazine sections can be gold mines for inspiration.

From both working with you & dare I say being your friend, I know you often create goals that are less job focussed but more practice & lifestyle focussed in relation to your career & your place within it- what are you looking to achieve in the next year?

Yes friend <3 My goals this year were much as you say practice and lifestyle focused - some including: ‘not working weekends (unless special circumstances), only being available for work 9am-7pm on weekdays, getting my production process super streamlined from pre-production to final delivery, turning down jobs that don’t spark me’ etc

I wanted to achieve these so we could maintain and create a workflow that allowed for the sheer quantity of work we had coming in without burning myself out in a matter of weeks. My plan is to be around here for a while so I’ve been very focused on putting the building blocks in for longevity. 10 months into this year, I’d say I’m almost there with it! I’ve got the office now, just hired a creative assistant and have a really good list of collaborators who I trust.

The next set of goals are all about refinement and niching down even more. You know earlier when I said find something that works and then do it again and again and again so that each time you are doing it slightly better? Now I’ve found something that works, that’s exactly what I’m going to do.

But for those wanting a more tangible answer, the next goal is the US market…

Any last words of advice for anyone who wants to follow in your footsteps?

Cliche but this industry has the highest highs and lowest lows - you can find out you didn’t get a job you spent a week writing a treatment for and get booked for your dream job within 5 minutes of each other - it’s like getting whiplash sometimes. So I’d recommend really working on regulating and giving yourself coping mechanisms so you can handle ups and downs, rejections and turmoil this industry can throw at you.

And in counter to that, don’t forget how exciting and fun this industry can be - it’s easy to get hung up on the negative or when things aren’t going right but there are some incredible opportunities and experiences to be had out there. Don’t forget to enjoy yourself.

Thank you for your time darling.

Love you x

If you haven’t already make sure to follow Holly on both her Instagram & Tik Tok to see her work as soon as it’s out & to get all the creative + industry advice straight from the source.