Nick Rains - Photographer, Leica Product Specialist
Q: So how did you get started in photography? Where did that come from?
A: I started at university photographing. It was a way to get in to see the bands that came to play at the student union for free. I did the photographs for the student magazine in black and white, processing in the darkroom and all that. That was around 1980—45 years ago! After university, I ended up photographing small terrace houses for real estate agents in the rain. Not glamorous at all.
Q: Had you decided by then that photography was your career path?
A: Not really. I had a modest degree in zoology, which didn’t have many direct career prospects. My dad said I had to get a job, so I made my own by setting myself up as a photographer. I had some contacts and opportunities, so it seemed like a good idea while I went to technical college. I did a City & Guilds certificate in studio assisting one day a week for two years. Around that time I saw one of Steve McCurry’s pictures of the Taj Mahal with a train coming in, and I thought, “That’s what I want to do.” I came to Australia in 1985 and I’ve been here ever since, photographing travel, nature, all that sort of stuff.
Q: What brought you to Australia?
A: It was exotic! From the northwest of England, anywhere else was exotic. One of my neighbour’s sons had come to Australia in the late ’70s—before backpacking was really a thing—and he told me amazing stories of adventures in a Mini Moke up the west coast. That really fired my imagination. Some family friends also encouraged me, telling me to “bloody well get on with it,” so I did. There were more opportunities here than in the UK, where there were already so many aspiring photographers. It turned out to be a great place to start in the 1980s when magazines still had budgets and sent people places.
Q: So travel and landscape became your focus?
A: Eventually, yes. Initially I did commercial work, whatever I could get. But I also started doing a lot of travel photography within Australia. I got work from the New South Wales Tourism Commission, the Australian Tourism Commission, and Reader’s Digest Books. Many of their art directors were from the UK, so I fitted in easily with the way they worked. It was right place, right time, and I was reliable. That reliability—doing exactly what I promised, when I promised—turned out to be more valuable than the photography itself. Clients stuck with me because I was easy to work with.
Q: How did you wind up with Leica?
A: I had a gallery in Brisbane for a few years, but it didn’t make much money. Ken Duncan and Peter Eastway helped me a lot during that time. Peter asked me to take on editing Better Digital Camera magazine, which led me to product reviews. Around 2009 I tried the new Leica S2 and developed a relationship with Leica through Ryan Williams, who’s now MD of Leica Camera Australia. From there it grew—shooting with Leica, being invited to Germany, then eventually selling all my Canon gear. When the SL came out, Leica offered me the role of running Leica Academy. It was a natural fit, as I’d already been doing teaching and workshops.
Q: Covid. How did you come up with the idea of the videos?
A: In 2018–19 I was doing a lot of workshops and travel, including a trip to Antarctica. When Covid hit, we just made it back to Brisbane before lockdowns. With the store closed and workshops cancelled, Ryan and I decided to try webinars. Nobody really knew how to do them then, so it was a steep learning curve with dodgy internet and improvised setups. But people tuned in—probably because they were bored—and it grew into a YouTube channel. From a few dozen subscribers it’s now over 25,000. That led me to focus more on tutorials and videos, while Jesse Marlow took over the Academy. Now I also do official Leica videos for head office in Germany.
Q: Looking back over your career, any regrets? Anything you’d do differently?
A: No, not really. I like Helen Mirren’s answer when she was asked the same: she said she regretted not saying “fuck off” more often! But for me, it’s been steady as she goes. I’ve made reasonable choices, nothing too extreme, and I don’t have regrets.
Q: And what do you see in the future?
A: I’m almost at retirement age now, so I’m happy trotting along as I am. I’ve got upcoming work in the Kimberley, New Guinea, Borneo, Indonesia—shooting documentary-style work for a new small cruise ship company. Lots of drone work and building a picture library. I’ll keep doing that because it’s fun, and I’ll continue the printing and tutorials for Leica. I feel very privileged to have achieved so many of my ambitions already.