Back in 2013 or so, I interviewed Bico Stupakoff for the sadly short-lived iPhotographer Magazine. Bico had shared a bunch of his work on the PIXELS website in prior years, including outtakes from the centerfold shoot for the Brazilian edition of Playboy Magazine, which he shot with his iPhone. It was the first centerfold shoot shot on iPhone. Inasmuch as used to not like Hipstamatic, it was Bico’s go-to app and he made beautiful pictures. It was clear to me that he knew how to use light and it made all the difference in the world. He clearly knew how to set models at ease.
iPM: Bico, please tell us a little about yourself – where you live, if you hail from Earth, anything like that. Whatever you feel like sharing that isn’t covered in the questions below.
BS: After 3 years traveling all over the world I have settled down in NYC with my wife Loraine.
iPM: What is your background in photography and art? What inspired you to become a photographer in the first place?
BS: My father was a photographer and I grew up in the world of fashion. With him I learned to photograph when I was 13. Using a Nikon F, metering with a photometer, playing with push and pulls in the lab, going on assignments as an assistant, creating sets, lighting, working in studios and on location….He taught me pretty much everything I know and I somehow use all that knowledge even today.
I didn’t go to school for it. I worked in it. I started shooting at the age of 18 for a car magazine called “Quatro Rodas” in Brazil then moving to NYC to be a photo assistant.
I started working small assignments and from there it just grew. I enjoyed the fact that I was making a living “taking photos.” I fell in love with being able to create images I liked and getting paid for it.
iPM: How long have you been shooting pictures with your iPhone? When did you get serious about the iPhone, what was the turning point for you? And which iPhone are you using now?
BS: I have been using the iPhone since it came out.
The iPhone 3.
It was amazing the feeling that I could replace my point-and-shoot camera and have photos to show people right there in my hands. It was more instant then a polaroid. But what made me want to start printing the images was when I lost the phone in the snow and found it a week later. Yes it worked and the lens got some special filter by nature. Remember there were no photo apps yet and the results of the images were amazingly artistic … I printed 11 x 14 sometimes bigger and it was beautiful.
After the iPhone 4 came out I moved to Brazil and there I found the opportunity to use it instead of a DSLR camera. I started shooting some celebrity portraits and the magazines were printing it. I was happy, it was like taking polaroids all day long. One day I got a call from Playboy magazine to shoot a special issue where I would need 60 photographs to be made. On the shoot day I told the magazine I would use my telephone to shoot the entire issue and they gasped but went with it. It was the first time ever a major magazine used only iPhone pictures in an issue.
For me it was a turn-around, a new time in history and I thought that now the whole world was going to be playing the same game, everyone having the tools, an amazing silent revolution that made it possible for a billion new talents around the world in creating images.
Today I have the 6 and will go and get the 6S with the 12 mega pixels camera.
iPM: You no longer use your DSLR cameras. Was that a sudden, conscious decision or did it just happen organically? How has it impacted your career in terms of working with clients and models? When you did the first Playboy centerfold shoot with an iPhone, did you propose it to the magazine, or did you just do it and inform them later?
BS: When I did the first Playboy it was told that I would be using my iPhone. Actually I had two, one was a friend’s and one mine. One was set up in black and white and the other in color. It was only a question of resolution and when I showed them it would be perfect for the magazine size they went for it.
The preference is always the iPhone in your pocket, I don’t walk around with a DSLR anymore.
In the beginning models would laugh seeing me shooting with an iPhone, it was new, they didn’t take it seriously and, as a lifestyle photographer I got great candid moments that it would be hard to catch if I were shooting a DSLR. Lindsay Lohan walked off the set when she realized I was using an iPhone, but I managed to get five images and the magazine used them all.
iPM: How do you light your models?
BS: Lighting is something that is your art. You can have a DSLR, an iPhone, a RED camera, or whatever, but if you don’t know light it can look pretty ordinary. The same with composition. It is what you tell your tool to do!
Light is something you observe, you can see Degas paintings, Edward Hopper, they paint like photography lighting … there is beautiful light everywhere and because of the iPhone, I went on to discover other beautiful light: the one of the dark, the NO light where an iPhone must strain itself to register it.
iPM: Do you ever use third-party lenses on your phone?
BS: I did, I experimented with various kinds. They all give you something different so again it comes back for you to think of what you want to create.
Here are Bico’s shooting tips:
- Know your subject.
- If shooting fashion I think it is always good to have a good relation with your Model…Both of you will make the picture happen, it is important that you both are comfortable working together.
- If you are shooting a portrait, I am always looking to know that person and find what it is interesting about them, then you take them out of context, need to have character, always try various ideas.
- it is imperative to have references, ideas, lighting ideas, situation ideas. Sometimes you get to a location and everything you thought in doing is not there, so then you must improvise, and with your references it helps to always create something …
- Dont be afraid or mad if you are not getting what you thought you would get, keep working on it, keep shooting, don’t worry about errors, use them, errors are good, you learn things with it…. the element of surprise!
And now, back to the interview …
iPM: Aside from fashion work, do you do other kinds of photography professionally? Do you shoot pictures just for fun?
BS: I just had to take a picture of a FIJI bottle of water this weekend. It is a lot of fun. I shoot anything and with all this things you always try to do a good picture, creative and with good lighting. Today taking pictures is a lot of fun and so forth the competition. I love it.
iPM: What or who else inspires you? Painters? Photographers? Other plastic arts? Music? Literature?
BS: Yes all of the above, it is all references, your classics and also today your Instagram. 🙂
iPM: Do you yourself work in any other creative mediums?
BS: I also draw and paint, not as much as I should.
iPM: Off the top of your head, what are your go-to apps, your camera bag, as Marty Yawnick of Life In Lofi calls it? Has your use of apps evolved over time? Also, do you use a tripod when shooting?
BS: No I don’t use I tripod, I should sometimes and I think it is good to have a little portable one so you don’t have lean it somewhere. It is excellent if you are doing time lapses.
iPM: Where do you stand on the old debate about iPhone photography: is it simply a subcategory of traditional photography or do you consider to be a new medium? Do you bother thinking about that at all?
BS: I think the iPhone creates an image like a DSLR, point and shoot, etc., it is less less sharp ? yes , but for our use today which is mainly internet it works, it is just another tool and it is totally fine.
iPM: Has there been any surprising impact on your life from the iPhone, outside of photography, something you didn’t expect?
BS: Yes, a lot more photographers out there, good ones and less work …
iPM: What is this unprecedented era of mobile phone picture shooting and sharing, via social networks, websites, email, apps, etc., doing to human existence? Do you pay much attention to social media like Facebook, Twitter, and so on. Do you use social media to promote your business?
BS: I am no longer on facebook but yes to Instagram, I do use it everyday, I like the fact it is all about pictures. Very interesting to see how the world has become small and how many beautiful images you see everyday.
It is amazing how today we can see each person’s worlds through photography, or his or her captures, as it is said to be.
iPM: Do you have a mantra for daytime? For nighttime? For anytime?
BS: I have a mantra, since I was 14 when I was initiated in TM but like mantras I am not allowed to say what word it is.
iPM: What three creatures, real or imaginary, would be on your personal totem pole?
BS: Dolphin, Octopus and the Sea Hawk.
iPM: Every artist I have ever known has moments of self-doubt, believes his/her work is worthless, hits a self-perceived creative plateau and gets disheartened or even paralyzed. Do you have ways to push through or get around these times?
BS: Yes, Knox, I have sure been through all of it, you have to always accept and always move on. Like we say in Brazil, “if you are in a hole but no one is throwing dirt on you, you can still do something about it.”
iPM: A last word perhaps, Bico?
BS: All I have to say is that the iPhone has revolutionized imagery and the way we live today. Just amazing!
iPM: Thank you, Bico.
Here is a gallery of some of Bico’s marvelous work.
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