Si Moore- Bayly & Moore – 2017 Industry Panel

THE WILD ONES

SIMON MOORE – BAYLY AND MOORE – 2017 INDUSTRY PANEL

Our 2017 Wild Hearts Industry Panel, hosted by Greta Kenyon of Together Journal at our Wild Hearts Auckland event, featured a collection of incredible industry leaders.

Over the next few weeks we will be bringing you a behind the scenes interviews with each of these amazing New Zealand entrepreneurs currently shaking things up in the industry.

Trendsetters. Game Changers. New Zealand Industry Leaders. We speak to entrepreneurs who are leading the way and inspiring hearts around the globe.

Today we are excited to be featuring Destination Photographer, Si Moore from Bayly & Moore.

What started in 2009 with not a lot of direction but a love of all things music, adventure and capturing interesting and incredible people has transpired over the years into Bayly & Moore. Soph & Si are a married couple who have spent the last few years working together all over the world and have become a well known name in the NZ industry.

Si originally was in music but “had his finger in a wide variety of creative pies”. After taking a few small jobs here and there and time spent finding their own personal style, fast forward and they had started a company, were on the road and figuring it out as they went. They exude creativity, the understanding of people, what they’re about and capturing the best parts of them.

We were incredibly lucky to have Simon on our Industry panel at our Wild hearts Auckland 2017 and we look forward to hopefully having him back in 2018 to share more of his incredible knowledge.

What are some major career highlights that you have had so far, and how has witnessing so many weddings changed your life/outlook?

We were lucky enough to be named one of the Rangefinder 30 Rising Stars of wedding photography worldwide a few years ago by Rangefinder Magazine in NYC. This kinda made us stop and breathe in and have a look around at all of the wonderful people in love who we’d been alongside all over the world, and realise how crazily special this thing is that we’ve gotten to do for so long. It was kinda like someone else had held a mirror up to it all and it was the first time we’d stepped back and taken stock of the whole thing. And that was when we changed our little motto to be ‘The Brilliant Madness of Love’. Which sums up how it changed our outlook on life, pretty much perfectly.

Describe your style of shooting in three words?

Strength and Intimacy.
Looking at most of our portrait work, those two threads run through it all and it reflects our day-to-day approach to human beings as much as it does the kind of work we’ve fed ourselves. People like Robert Frank, Salgado, Larry Burrows, Dianne Arbus, Gary Winogrand, Walker Evans, Saul Leiter, all of those icons have a body work that speaks to us with an element of calm and dignity, and that’s what we chase.
‘Strength’, as in the kind of confidence that comes from having a very settled idea of who you are in that moment. ‘Intimacy’, as in the feeling that comes from being accepted and knowing that you can drop your guard completely around who you’re with, and just let the facades fall away. Getting both of these things to genuinely rise to the surface in a person (or a couple) at just the right time and with just the right light is the trick, but you know you’ve hit it when you look at the end result and both those things smash you right in the feels.
Strength and Intimacy. Yeah, that’s pretty much it.

What are some major career highlights that you have had so far, and how has witnessing so many weddings changed your life/outlook?

What makes you give yourself a mental high five?

When you’re looking back at someone’s story a year or so after you shot it and it transports you emotionally back to that moment, right down to every smell and sound. When it instantly looks like how it felt. I mean, that’s what we aim for, and that’s what it’s like most of the time but there’s still this lil bit of me that is wonderfully amazed that telling people’s love stories with images works, and that it works wonderfully. It’s kinda like the magic of honey on toast I guess – you know that it’s gonna be incredible, and then you eat it and it is incredible, and the kitchen smells like toast and melted butter and there’s crumbs on your fingers and it’s all sticky and you’re just like ‘YUSSSS, who would’ve thought it could be this good…’ and it’s like that. Every single time. Thank goodness.

Whats your favourite destination to travel to in New Zealand?

Nothing beats driving over Burke’s Pass and into the McKenzie Country and Lake Tekapo. Except maybe driving up the Eglinton Valley heading into Milford Sound in the middle of winter when the whole place is frozen under a hoar frost. Can I have two? Actually, the last section of the road out to French Pass is otherworldly. And the Rainbow Road over the back-country of Nelson lakes National park goes straight to your heart every time. Okay that’s four. So shoot me.