His irreverent, uproarious, and endearing portraits stop you in your tracks and make you smile, but they also capture the reality behind the mask.
Born in Northampton, England and currently based in the New York metropolitan area, (his studio is in Jersey City, NJ), Christopher Lane shoots captivating portraits that embody the time-honored British tradition of antic whimsy. At the same time they fulfill the classic mission of all good portraiture—revealing something meaningful and compelling about the personality, identity, and inner life of the subject. Some of Lane’s images are laugh out loud hilarious, while others are quietly amusing, but all are brilliantly conceived, masterfully composed and ingeniously executed works that rise to the level of fine art.
Lane’s career began almost by accident, when, as a young man, he haunted the back alleys of London’s famed Brick Lane market and saw “beautiful cameras being traded at the crack of dawn.” Fascinated, he soon picked up a camera of his own and began shooting images on Ilford XP2, a chromogenic (C-41 process) black-and-white film. He loved interacting with people and shooting pictures of them, and that’s what ultimately led to his first big break—the chance to move to America on a Full Presidential Scholarship to the Savannah (Georgia) College of Art and Design. There he met his wife and mentor Jasmine Hsu, whom he credits as his most important teacher, and the one who really inspired him to pursue photography as a profession.
His second big break came when he was still a college student—he snagged a plum assignment photographing Disney and Universal Studios for Newsweek, and that success motivated him to move to New York to “learn the business” in a hands-on way. But what really put him on the map was getting a picture series published by the New York Times, then considered “the Bible” among pro photographers. This led to numerous follow-up assignments including a portfolio featuring Barack Obama that really elevated him to top-tier status.
At Savannah, Lane earned three degrees, a BFA in Photography and another in Historic Preservation in 1999, and a Master of Fine Arts in Photography in 2002. “Perhaps the most important thing I got out of my experience at Savannah was a chance to develop my style and work with some really great professors,” Lane recalls. “All of them were totally different in their approach and each had their own perspective, which gave me a great overview of my future possibilities.” One professor in particular was very cheeky and unconventional, and he wisely encouraged Lane to develop his skills in approaching people. Fortunately he took his advice to heart, and it’s a key element in Lane’s distinctive photographic style.
The recognition of Christopher Lane’s unique vision, mastery of lighting, and overall technical excellence have earned him a number of prestigious honors, including the New York Art Director’s Young Guns Award in 2009, the Photo District News (PDN) Portfolio of the Month in March 2013, and a Jersey City Artist Space Award Grant. He’s had solo exhibitions include Oakman Portraits of Condomania in 2016 and the “Portraits of Now” show at the Red Gallery in Savannah, GA in 2013. His outstanding images have been on display in the Photographic Portrait Awards exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London, the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh, and at the Emerging Artist Exhibit in Somos, Italy. His provocative, entertaining, and engaging images have appeared in dozens of leading publications including New York Magazine, The New York Times Magazine, Der Spiegel, Paris Match, The London Times, AARP Magazine, Bloomberg Business Week, Wired Magazine, and Fortune. And his commercial clients have included such household names as L’Oreal, Microsoft, Sony, Pfizer, Red Bull, and Nike.
Christopher Lane also remains committed to the kind of photographic education that enabled him to be so successful. He has lectured on Controlled Lighting at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York, he has been a Judge and Committee Member of the Art Director’s Club Photography Annual, and he gives annual lectures at his Alma Mater, the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). “I’m a guest lecturer every time I visit SCAD, which is usually once a year,” says Lane, “and I have a really good relationship with the professors. I also hire an intern from SCAD every summer, and I’ve been an on and off lecturer on lighting at SVA, which is really fun because the students are so experimental.”
For the record, Lane’s go-to kit consists of a Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, Canon 85mm f/1.4 Canon L and 24-70mm f/2.8 L lenses, a backup 5D Mark III, and a Canon Speedlight 580EX flash. For bigger jobs he uses Profoto 600R lights, and lately he’s been experimenting with his old Mamiya RZ Pro II medium format film SLR, now fitted with a digital back, which he describes as “very special.”
After viewing the totality of Christopher Lane’s stunningly unique images, ranging from wildly unconventional portraits and documentary photographs to photojournalistic and surreal wedding pictures, it is clear that his photography actually has a transcendent purpose. He is exploring the oddities of human behavior and modern society with an ironic twist, using humor and the unexpected to reveal unsettling truths. He does it by taking people out of their comfort zone and approaching them in a different light. Indeed, he believes that many of his most significant personal projects grew out the parades he used to photograph when he first began shooting. Initially he saw them as “street candy,” but as his career grew he took the sense of “spectacle” from the crowd in the parade and applied it to individuals to “portray them as their individual selves.” But Lane also has a profound appreciation for the formal photographic arts training he received at SCAD because, “it taught me about the art, business, and technical requirements of my passion and profession, giving me a great foundation to strive on.” He considers himself very fortunate to have been given some great assignments that shaped his career, and he thrives on documentary assignment with a portrait twist.
But Lane is not the kind of guy likely to rest on his laurels. “It’s really true that you’re only as good as your last assignment,” he concedes, “and that’s why I put the maximum amount of effort an thought into each one I receive. For every shoot I keep my eye on the prize and strive to fulfill the stated objectives, and I try to achieve four or five options so I’ll have at least one that works for me and my clients. I know that the more I research the subject the more likely I am to create images that translate in the magazine. Christopher Lane is an inspired artist and something of a genius, but as someone once said, “Genius is 10% inspiration an 90% perspiration.” Translation: He makes it look effortless but it tales a lot of hard work.
