Ian Derry was a photographer on The Daily Mirror. After a few years of covering news and sport events around the globe, he left to pursue a new direction in exquisitely lit celebrity portraits.
In 2016, Ian turned his hand to directing. He wrote, produced and directed the film Johanna Under The Ice (watch it at vimeo.com/181027959). “In a photograph, you have to nail everything in one,” he says. “The light, the composition, the moment: you have one split second to get it. I think if you do get it, that is a very powerful thing. You look at some of the best news photos, or some of the best features photos, or National Geographic; all the best shots are when you have all those elements in one split second. That’s kind of the Holy Grail.
“I‘ve always wanted to work with the moving image,” he continues. “Years and years ago, I used to shoot the catwalk and do the Paris, Milan and London fashion shows. And I would try and sneak in backstage and do stuff on a Super 8 camera or a 16mm. I really loved it. It’s always been something I wanted to do, but in those days everything was very expensive.
“As the years have gone on, it’s always been there, but in the background. Then I looked at the market that I work in, which is a diminishing one. Although there are probably more outlets because of the internet, there are also more people trying to work for those jobs, and there’s also a lot less money in it.
“People don’t understand what they pay for online; they pay less for online then they do for print. So I kind of looked at my industry in terms of stills.
“There’s still an industry there: I don’t want to sound doom and gloom about it. But I think diversification is key to survival. Also, I thought to myself: what do I want to do, where do I want to go? This directing thing is something that I’ve always wanted to do.
“I had an idea about a lady who free-dives under the ice. Luckily (or unluckily, however you want to look at it), I got hit by a car and got quite a lot of compensation. Not enough, but quite a lot. So I used that to effectively invest in Ian Derry and make a film. And I loved every single minute of making it.”
“But why go from stills, where you can sum everything up in one split second, to video, which is shot over duration of time? I think a lot of people see these things as similar. I see them as completely different.
“For me, photography is one thing and directing is something completely different altogether. So what I thought about the filmmaking process was that you don’t have that split second moment, so y
