Brad Rickerby had a camera in his hand before he could walk. As a child he traveled the world with his father, a photographer on assignment for Life magazine. From his father Brad learned the craft of photography and inherited a visual aesthetic that would later infuse his own career as a photographer.
After getting an MBA from Duke, Rickerby became the division controller for the Retail Services Division of the Dreyfus Corporation. Later he discovered that the corporate lifestyle and he were “grossly incompatible,” so he set about rediscovering himself through photography. He left his Wall Street job and went to work for a small newspaper in Brooklyn earning $6 for every published photo, which typically numbered six or seven per week. Thus was his new career born.
Rickerby’s worldwide editorial credits include Paris Match, Life, Time, People, Vogue, Vanity Fair, the New York Times, Reuters, and Le Monde. He signed with Stone in May of 1999. Of his Stone portfolio he says: “I am moving away from the editorial world in order to give more time to producing images I care about.”
creativepro.com: How long have you been shooting professionally?
Brad Rickerby: About ten years. But that doesn’t really answer the question. My father was a photographer for Life magazine back in the ’60s. I was at his knee at about five years old. I had my first byline in Life at the age of seven.
creativepro.com: So you’ve always been interested in photography, then?
Brad Rickerby: Actually, no. My father died when I was about 12, and I hung up the camera for about 20 years. I got an MBA from Duke and was a Wall Street type of guy for a bunch of years. Then about ten years ago I decided the necktie was strangling me, so I took it off, picked up the cameras again and I’ve never looked back.
creativepro.com: I noticed quite a few celebrities among your work. You started off as a paparazzo, didn’t you?
Brad Rickerby: Yes. I did that for about five or six years. I never really liked stalking celebrities. It really is a nasty, dirty business. It never made me feel good about myself. If you’re stalking somebody, presumably they’re important. It gives [the celebrities] way too much credit for what they are. They just think a great deal of themselves and I’m not really sure they’re worth it.
creativepro.com: Judging from your portfolio I’d say you’re a creature of the night. Does daylight interfere with your creative process?
Brad Rickerby: (Laughs) I think so. I never get up until noon. Well, that’s not really true. I do prefer shooting at night. There are really only two good times to shoot — dawn and dusk. And getting up to shoot at dawn is painful, so I end up shooting everything at night.
creativepro.com: So you’re apparently not satisfied with Nature’s lighting?
Brad Rickerby: No. I’ve never been able to do with natural light what I want to do. I keep trying but it never works.
creativepro.com: Most of your work at Stone consists of blurred city lights and action. Is this your signature style?
Brad Rickerby: Yes, it is. I’ve been working on a project with city lights for the past three or four years now. I was inspired originally when I was at a workshop in Florida. I took a couple of pictures of Miami Beach that I really liked and I just kept trying to replicate them. Eventually it just got to be this whole great project that I really enjoy doing. It takes me to a lot of different places.
creativepro.com: Among your stateside photos at Stone, all but the one of the Golden Gate Bridge are shot in New York City. Do other cities leave you uninspired?
Brad Rickerby: I haven’t actually spent a lot of time shooting in the states. You know, it’s not that they don’t inspire me; I just got back from shooting in Miami Beach. I’ve just had the yen to travel overseas for the past couple of years.
creativepro.com: You have a lot of Asian shots. Do you spend a lot of time in the Orient?
Brad Rickerby: Yeah. I’ve made three or four trips over there in the past couple of years. Right now I’m planning another trip to the Orient in October, November to shoot more city lights.
creativepro.com: Do you find the city lights unique over there that you’ll travel such a long way to capture them?
Brad Rickerby: I guess they are. I just love the Orient — Hong Kong, Tokyo.
creativepro.com: There are very few people in your photos. Why is that?
Brad Rickerby: I think that’s because I spent so long chasing after people. I just got so disgusted with the entire paparazzi thing that I just wanted to eliminate people entirely. I suppose in time I’ll have to incorporate them back into my work; it makes the pictures more saleable if there are people in them, but right now that’s just not what I want to be seeing. I like to look at the different colored lights and see how I can fill the frame with them in unique and different ways. People just don’t fit in there.
creativepro.com: Why are most of your images blurry?
Brad Rickerby: You know, I got tired of carrying tripods around. They’re heavy and bulky and awkward. And if I set a camera on a tripod then I’m making the exact same picture that everybody else is making. But if I take it off the tripod and hand hold it through long exposures, I get something that looks more like a painting. It’s certainly unique and different, and that’s what I’m looking for. If it’s got a sort of watercolor or impressionist look, then I’m really happy with it.
creativepro.com: Outside of your work for Stone, are you involved in other projects?
Brad Rickerby: I do a lot of work for Reuters. That and my Stone work pretty much take up all my time. I still get residuals from the celebrity photos as well.
creativepro.com: Do you see your work moving in any new directions in the next few years?
Brad Rickerby: I want to keep the same painterly approach to it, but I want to try to apply that to other locations. I want to find a way to make the same type of pictures that aren’t necessarily city streets at night, but I don’t know exactly how I’m going to do that yet. I want to keep the same impressionistic quality, but I don’t want to be tied to working on a street corner at night.
Read more by Marty Beaudet.
This article was last modified on March 12, 2022
This article was first published on July 13, 2000
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Subject of the article, Brad Rickerby is a
personal friend, so I can accurately guage the qualities of this particular article. And in a word, it was top notch by me!