Susie Forman Talks Us Through Her Favourite Photos

What is a picture editor?

Being a Picture Editor involves a number of different things.  On a day to day basis I usually work on commissioning photo shoots for the front cover and main features for the magazine.  I start by discussing the story with our editors, then I choose a photographer who’s style is appropriate for both our magazine and the specific story. I then work with the photographer or their agent, to set up the shoot itself, booking a studio or location, hair and make-up etc. If it’s a cover story, either I, or one of our Art Directors, will got to the shoot itself, to make sure we are getting images that will work in our layouts.

As well as commissioning photography, we also use existing images from archives and image libraries such as Getty Images and Corbis. If we are doing a historical feature, I will search for really nice old pictures, which tell the story. I then negotiate a price for use in our magazine and sometimes also the website.

Another important image resource for us is Red Bull Photofiles. This is a huge archive of pictures of Red Bull athletes and action shots from Red Bull events. If we are profiling a Red Bull athlete, this would always be the first place to look as there are so many great photos of all the athletes and events from around the world.

Another aspect of my job is contributing ideas for the magazine and discussing which features we feel would work best at particular times throughout the year.

Why/How did you become a picture editor?

I studied photography at uni and when I graduated I was fortunate enough to get a job as a picture assistant at pop culture magazine ‘The Face’.  At that time I had planned on working as a photographer so I took the job part time, so I could still do some freelance photography, for The Face and other style magazines. I spent four years at The Face, working my way up from Picture Assistant to Deputy Picture Editor and Picture Editor until the face sadly folded in 2004.

After that I decided to focus on photography again and worked as a freelance photographer for a year and half, continuing my work for style magazines, including ‘Intersection’. In 2005 the Deputy Editor of Intersection got a job as the Editor of a new Red Bull F1 magazine and asked me to join her as Picture Editor. This was to be the start of The Red Bulletin magazine and I have been here ever since.

I always new from when I was really young that I wanted to work in the creative industry but it wasn’t until I took A-Level Photography that I really found my place.

Here’s a few notes on the photos above.

1. Climbing – David Lama:

This image is from the Red Bull Photofiles archive.  We actually rotated this photo 90 degrees, before we printed it. When we originally downloaded the image it was in portrait format but we wanted to use it across a double page spread. We tried it on its side and discovered it actually worked better that way. The action in the image and the direction David Lama is climbing in, travels from left to right across the page. This works well in a magazine because it follows the direction you read in, thus encouraging you to continue turning through the pages.

2. Red Bull Compound:

This sums up the perfect picture for a Red Bulletin double page spread.  It is an aggressive action shot but also a beautiful landscape. It is also subtly branded, which is important for us. When shooting action shots the best photos are taken when the athlete is at the ultimate point of their trick. It’s really good if you can get the kicker in so you can gage how far they have jumped and get a sense of the scale of the jump. Having the action to one side of the frame always makes it easier for us to layout in the magazine because you have to consider the ‘gutter’, where the two pages meet in the middle. You don’t ever want the focal point of an image to fall in the gutter.

3. Lyndsey Vonn:

This photo was commissioned answering a very tight brief for the front cover of the Red Bulletin as Lyndsey Vonn was previously on the cover of the Austrian Bulletin and we needed to show her in a different way.  We wanted to portray her as powerful, sexy and slightly aggressive, rather than her usual ‘girl next door’ image. At the same time it was also important to us that she felt comfortable with our suggestions. We settled for a modern take on the 70’s après ski theme. The fact that Lyndsey is very photogenic also helped make a great shoot.

4. Aaron Hadlow:

We commissioned this shoot and did it for a cover shot. We thought it was successful because we didn’t want to have just a photo of his face as people may not know who he is, neither did we want to have a shot of him in action at an event as people would have thought our magazine was a kitesurfing magazine. Therefore, by having a plane studio made the photo very graphic and simple that stands out on a front cover.