Helen Mirren: In The Picture: Hugh O’Brien

01. Photo by Hugh O'Brien

My name is Hugh O’Brien, I am 19 years old and I was born and raised in Sydney. I was heavily influenced by a woman – Miss Gesterkamp – at my high school. She taught me how to develop black and white film and how to process a negative from putting the roll into a camera to the paper behind glass.
Those first few steps in photography when I was 13 were extremely eye opening to me, considering my lack of mechanical know-how, as well as the fact that I had only ever seen photography as a media type for situations such as trips to visit Santa at David Jones, or my 5th birthday party in Centennial Park. I won a bottom of the range Olympus digital SLR camera in a year 9 photography competition and never looked back. These times are still my biggest inspiration.

I am also fascinated by the city I live in and cities all around the world. Luckily, I have seen New Zealand, Cambodia and more recently Thailand. I want to see the rest of the world as soon and as thoroughly as possible. My plans for the next few years include working as a photographer, study, travel, travel and travel! I love watching people and portraiture thrills me.
I tend to take photographs of insignificant moments; missed action and funny gestures. I find it amazing to watch people as I’m taking their portraits, especially people with character. I love them. My family has an abundance of character and my dad was a main source of that. He died when I was 7 and people with a knack for puns and stupid jokes remind me of him. I love working with interesting buildings and strange interiors of rooms. I would shoot at f1.8 all of the time on my 50mm lens if I could. That thing is like a photographic gem cannon. Everything it sees is gold.
This entire Thailand series was shot with a Nikon D700 and the 50mm 1.8 lens. The D700 features a full frame sensor (FX) and therefore takes bigger, nicer looking photos. I have a couple of other old lenses and flashes I didn’t use in this series.
My website is hughobrien.com.au if you want to have a look at my other work