Nick Gleitzman photographs

I’ve been taking photographs for over 50 years now – and I’ve seen a lot of changes since I started.

Like all visual media, photography is a blend of art and science. As a teenager, I learned the science part – sensitometry, chemistry and optics, in those days – at Sydney Technical College (where photography was taught as a trade, alongside plumbing and panel-beating), for four years of evening classes, eventually graduating with honours.

An established pro photographer came to the college looking for an assistant, and, after his review of the final graduate portfolios, he offered me a job. My first task on day one at his studio: sweep the floor. My education of photography in the real world had started. I worked for him for the next two years, keeping his studio clean and organised, assisting on shoots, running film to and from the processing lab, maintaining his equipment, and operating the black & white darkroom.

Then, going freelance, for more than twenty years I ran a full-service advertising/commercial studio in Sydney, working with some of Australia’s best graphic designers and art directors. With their influence, I developed an eye for detail, a passion for aesthetic and technical excellence, and my own photographic style. I also got really good at sweeping studio floors.

Eventually, though (at 42, strangely enough – thanks, Deep Thought), I became disenchanted with the world of advertising, and I gave up commercial photography in order to concentrate on shooting landscapes and fine art images.

In 2007, two major events changed the course of my work. I got my first DSLR – a massive paradigm shift in the technical process of image-making – and I came to Hong Kong for the first time. I was blown away by the city’s visually rich urban landscape. My work here has two approaches: the sweeping panoramic cityscapes of this amazing city, and the smallest details of life at street level, where I love making striking images of the colours, culture and heritage of Hong Kong.