The Man behind the Layer Mask
We chat with Ben, maker of beautiful imagery since before [photoshop] history began.
Tell me about your 15 years of diverse creative industry experience? What has that diversity been and how?
Back in 2001 I got my first (not so) creative job scanning and retouching fluff off transparencies at a magazine publishing company. Thankfully after a few months one of the designers left and I moved into the vacant position and started creating magazine layouts. From there I have ping-pong'd my way between design studios, advertising agencies, marketing agencies, printers, publishing companies and working directly or in-house with clients in both production and design roles. I am lucky to have worked across a wide variety of projects for an eclectic range of clients, from food packaging to online surf shops, bottle caps to building wraps, with magazine editors to tradies to financial experts and more…
You’ve also ping-pong'd your way from Manchester, UK to Auckland. What brought that about?
During my travels I spent a few months exploring NZ in a rusty old Toyota Camry and fell in love with the place, two years later I moved here for good. I chose Auckland because it has a thriving creative industry, beautiful surroundings and slightly less rain than Manchester.
Retouching is your passion, what is it about retouching that you love so much?
I enjoy making imagery look as beautiful as possible and taking visuals to places outside of reality. My inner child likes to make things look better than real life and I get a great sense of achievement doing so. It’s also good fun.
When you’re not retouching or managing production, being from Manchester do you kick back to a bit of Joy Division, The Smiths, Take That, Man City and catching up on a bit of Corro or is there something else you do to occupy your time?
Joy division’s tragic end came before I was born so I never really got into them. I have been lucky enough to enjoy the thriving Manchester music scene that they helped to create though so I like them for that. I find Morrissey thoroughly irritating at best. Take That – I’m not really their target audience. Man City – to quote Paul Scholes, “United will always be the number one club in Manchester. The Hacienda is probably still second and it's been shut 20 years”. Coronation Street – I’d rather saw off my leg. Instead of partake in any of your suggested pastimes I prefer to spend quality time with my family, brew beer in my garage and make music (noise).
If you could choose one retouching/photoshop function/tool to work in real living life what would that be and why?
The eraser tool so i could erase all the bad stuff. Actually no, I’d like the ability to create masks. That way I could get rid of all the bad stuff non-destructively, allowing me to hold the world to ransom with the threat of shift > left click.