Nick Sullivan

While researching for photography, Salma went above and beyond. As she explains: "Earlier when trying to find artist facts on Nick Sullivan I stumbled upon his Instagram and as a result I reached out to him asking if he doesn't mind in taking part and answering some questions I had. With no intention of a response back, abruptly I receive a message from him saying that he would be more than happy. Ecstatic I email him my questions." Read the resulting interview below.

S: Whats your educational background?

NS: I studied French Language and Literature in the UK at University, which eventually got me a job on a multilingual, Fashion Trade magazine called International Textiles that was published in English French and German. I also taught myself Italian as soon as I started to travel often to Italy for fashion shows. I have worked as a fashion stylist and writer ever since.

S: Is there a particular technique you enjoy to use in photography?

NS: At the men’s fashion shows in London, Milan and Paris - in the gaps between shows - I began some years ago to do this thing with an app called Superimpose which allows you on your smartphone to layer one photo on top of another. I post them in Instagram with the hashtag #doubletake. I didn’t invent that idea and certainly many others do it better than me. But I find it fun. Some sites have picked these pics up from Instagram. Here’s a link to some: https://mymodernmet.com/nick-sullivan-double-take/

S: I believe a lot of your work surrounds the concept of the past and present (memory). Is this what you set out to explore and, if so, why?

NS: To alleviate boredom between the shows, I googled pictures of famous people in movie scenes or just famous street photos taken in the city where I was at the time. I would identify a street corner where the photo was taken, then go there to take a modern snap of the place. Putting famous images in the context of where they were taken – like David Bowie in a red phone box for the cover of Ziggy Stardust album – it’s a way I guess of entertaining people and myself. But I’m also fascinated that everywhere we go people have been before us, and sometimes the buildings have stayed largely the same since the photo was taken. It gives a sense of continuity. I think the first one I did was taken from American Girl In Florence by Ruth Orkin, it was taken at the corner of Piazza Repubblicca in Florence, Italy in about 1951. The caffe on the corner is called Gilli – a famous Florentine institution - and I know it very well. That’s how I started. It’s certainly much easier to do this in older cities like Rome or Paris. One picture I did was using a photo of a young Picasso in Montmartre, Paris around 1905/6 on a bend of the Rue Ravignan. The cobbles under his feet are more or less in the same place 115 years later! Modern cities are difficult. New York is especially hard because the buildings are torn down every few years, plus all the streets look largely the same.

S: What got you into photography? Why do you not consider yourself a photographer?

NS: I’m a visual person – that’s why I do what I do. I’m an art director and a stylist, but I’m a photographer only in the sense that everyone with a phone is a photographer now.

S: Where do you source your materials?

NS: I call it Forensic Googling. I usually dig stuff up on google, often it’s a dimly remembered photo and the search for it that triggers it, sometimes it’s just because I’m in a particular place. Once I was staying at the Excelsior hotel in Florence and there was a picture in the bar of Liz Taylor and Richard Burton crossing the road outside. I went straight out the door, across the road and lined it up. The hardest bit of all is having a great photo but not knowing where it was taken. Sometimes half the name on the awning of a café, or a blurry street sign is enough to find it on Google Maps. But it takes time. I like the sleuthing part. I also use this to identify watches worn by famous people – hard because they are always very blurry in pictures especially old ones – I also write about watches so it can be useful for a story. Right now I’m researching all the watches worn by Brian Epstein, manager of the Beatles. So far I think I’ve ID’d three…but I have a long way to go.