For over ten years, Jay Hynes was an art director at various advertising agencies in Melbourne. Wanting to learn more about photography to art direct on photo shoots, he studied at night for 18 months at Swinburne TAFE, in Melbourne, and shot in his spare time. About six years ago, he started to shoot a lot more, including live music bands and portraits. ”It’s fair to say that my creative day job suffered as I’d spend as much time as possible studying, or shooting portraits of other creatives in the office,” Hynes says.
During this time, Hynes had the opportunity to shoot a couple of campaigns for other ad agencies. “I would take annual leave from work and say I was going to Sydney to catch up with a mate,” says Hynes. “Really, I was there shooting.” Those campaigns gave Hynes confidence to change careers, and three years ago he decided to leave art directing to become a full-time photographer.
Besides a couple of TAFE courses, Hynes is largely self-taught. “Although being an art director certainly has helped me pick up a lot over the years,” he says, “I think I’ve learnt the most from simply shooting.” Hynes enjoys the process of coming up with ideas and working through the process of bringing those ideas to life. “I think coming from a creative/art director background helps me when I’m shooting concepts because I’ve been on both sides of the business,” he says.
Hynes always tries to have a personal portrait series in development as well, sometimes with unexpected results. “A couple of years ago, I shot a series called, Grandmas Rock,” Hynes says. “I sent it out to a few magazines and websites and didn’t really think much of it. Suddenly, I was getting e-mails from all over the world with websites asking to feature it.” In 2012, Hynes presented a backstage portrait exhibition concept to the Cherry Rock Festival in Melbourne. The idea was to shoot every band as soon as they come off stage, and then exhibit the portraits in giant poster format in AC/DC lane where the festival is held. The idea took off and this year will be his seventh exhibition.
“I treat every job as a chance to solve a problem in a way that brings the most out of the concept,” he says. Hynes believes that doing something you love, is the greatest career achievement you can have.
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