An interview with interior & architecture photographer, retoucher and PRO EDU tutor Barry Mackenzie

“I spent the next week hanging around and rubbing shoulders with some of the biggest names in the photography industry — Rob Grimm, Aaron Nace, Monte Isom, Mike Kelley, Peter Hurley, etc. It was fucking surreal. I also may have slept on a baby mattress in the garage after being locked out of the house one night.” 

Hi Barry, I hope all is safe and well with you, first of all why Swizzler?

Hey!  Thanks for inviting me to do this interview.  I love what M-mode is doing — I think it’s super important to have a community where we can share ideas and inspire each other! 

The story of swizzler goes back to the mid 90’s during the golden age of hip hop. Back then I was a DJ and went by the name b-swift. Around 2000 when Snoop Dogg started whole fo shizzle my nizzle thing, folks started calling me b-swizzle. I simply dropped the B and added an R at the end. The rest is history. 

I really wish there was a cooler story but that’s where it came from.

Don’t worry Barry, we think you’re pretty cool…

You’ve had a busy few years with your career going from strength to strength. Can you tell us what has been keeping you occupied recently and what your plans for the up-and-coming months and into 2021?

2020 started off with a bang!  I was absolutely slammed from January to March (which is rare) and I was certain it was going to be the busiest year of my career until Covid-19 came along and derailed everything. 

Luckily I was able to fly down to Arizona in early March to visit my good buddies Roehner + Ryan and Seamus Payne before everything went sideways.  I literally flew home the day before lockdown started and things here have been moving at a snail’s pace ever since. 

I’ve only had a handful of shoots this year because of restrictions and things being postponed due to backorders and backlogs.  Winter is usually pretty slow so my plan for the coming months is to continue doing retouching for other photographers and shooting any projects that pop up on the radar. 

I’ve also been busy with my 1-1 mentor program that’s offered through PRO EDU over at aphotomentor.com.

I think that is a great thing to do the 1-1…especially from a guru such as yourself.

I, like many have been a big fan of your work for a while now, could you explain how your career took the directions it has and what got you started?

I’ve always been fascinated seeing the world through a lens! I discovered photography at an early age and have memories of borrowing (without permission) my mom’s Minolta XG2 when I was in elementary school so I could take photos on the playground at recess. This was a secret I wasn’t able to conceal for long and after frequent scoldings for stealing my mom’s camera I eventually let photography slip into the background. 

When I was in my early twenties I stumbled onto the Lomo LC-A — a 35mm Russian rangefinder that’s been clumsily modelled after the Cosina CX series. I fell in love with the Lomo! It was super quirky with a janky lens, questionable metering, and a body that leaked light which created amazing and unpredictable results. 

I became completely obsessed with Russian cameras and spent many late nights researching them on the web and buying them on eBay. My collection grew to include the Fed 5C, Fed 50, Xenit ET, Siluet Automat, Zorki 4K, Lubitel 166B, Elikon 535, and about a half dozen others. 

In 2007 shortly after our first child was born I purchased a Canon Rebel XTi. After spending a decade shooting with fixed focal length film cameras, I was excited to be using zoom lenses again! Also, having the ability to instantly see the results of different exposure, aperture and ISO settings on the back of the camera was mind blowing! 

I started to shoot almost daily — stuff like flowers, my cat, cars, my kid, and more importantly abandoned buildings. Shooting these abandoned, decaying structures became an obsession of mine and living near the rust belt meant urbex meccas like Detroit & Buffalo were only a short drive away. 

Photographing these buildings introduced me to the fundamentals of shooting architecture and after climbing down a rabbit hole I discovered that you could earn a living shooting this stuff!  I started my career as a professional photographer in 2011 shooting real estate. In 2014 I was selected Photographer of the Year by PFRE Blog. 

From there, I began my transition towards photographing interior design and architecture. Working for more a discerning clientele forced me to improve the quality of my work — after many years, and thousands of hours both behind the camera, and in front of the computer, my distinct style began to emerge.

Now that’s quite a selection of Russian cameras!

I always find it fascinating hearing everyone’s backgrounds, each and everyone is so different. It certainly seems to have paid off for you!

You’ve helped many of our community with your successful PRO EDO Tutorials, how did that come to fruition?

Great question!  Several years ago Tony Roslund and I met on Instagram. He and I chatted on the phone a bunch and texted each other daily about lighting and gear and other photography stuff.  During that time, F-Stoppers was hosting workshops in the Bahamas.  Because Tony was friends with Rob Grimm and Gary Martin (the founders of PRO EDU) they asked him if he wanted to fly down to help out with Rob’s seminar. 

As luck would have it, Tony extended the invitation to me. He said if I could get down to Nassau, I could stay with them in the gated six bedroom Mansion they had rented for the week to hang out and assist with the workshop. Holy shit! Pinch me!

The funniest part of the story is Tony was a little ambiguous explaining our relationship and never told Rob and Gary that we had never actually met in person. You know, just a couple of internet buddies meeting in a third world country for the first time! 

At any rate, I spent the next week hanging around and rubbing shoulders with some of the biggest names in the photography industry — Rob Grimm, Aaron Nace, Monte Isom, Mike Kelley, Peter Hurley, etc. It was fucking surreal. I also may have slept on a baby mattress in the garage after being locked out of the house one night. 

After the Bahamas trip I met the PRO EDU guys in NY a bunch of times for the PhotoPlus Expo and our friendship continued to grow. One night while we were in New York, Tony and I talked to Rob and Gary about filming a series of tutorials that would cover everything from quick and dirty real estate to interior design to commercial architecture.   

As you know, 2/3 are now available! Gary and I spoke earlier this year about filming the interior design tutorial but it’s been put on hold due to the pandemic.

Well we’ll keep an eye out for that, fingers crossed things go well with filming.

We love your podcast BAAM with fellow M-mode member Andy Macpherson...where do you both find the time?

Thanks!  I’m pumped to hear that you’re enjoying the podcast — we're having a lot of fun doing it. 

Two things that have been a little challenging are the 16 hour time difference between Australia and North America, as well as the completely opposite seasons. When it’s summer here and I’m slammed Andy is a bit slower and vice versa. That said, we recently chatted about switching things up a little once we get through our first season guest list. 

Moving forward we’re planning on interviewing other professionals in our general field — interior designers, architects, retouchers, etc.

I hear that in regards to the time difference, one minute I’ve been chatting with photographers in New Zealand and Australia, the next Asia, Europe and then the Americas.

It just goes to show how this industry is going from strength to strength and how much talent is out there.

As a photography community we love a bit of gear talk, could you tell us what equipment you have in your bag and enlighten those who aren't familiar a little bit more about your process.

Currently I’m using the Canon EOS R which is awesome — I think it’s the perfect camera. 30MP is loads of resolution and the files are clean and easy to manage in post. I’m also loving the flip out screen, the focus peaking and Canon’s AWB white priority is worth the price of admission. 

A lot of folks have been hating on the EOS R because it doesn’t have robust sealing or dual card slots. Both are non-issues for me because I mostly shoot interiors where I’m always tethered so duplicate files are being sent to my laptop. 

As far as lenses go I use the 24 TS-E, 50 TS-E, RF 24-105 f/4L and the EF 17-40 f/4L.  I also use the 1.4x combined with the 24 TS-E on occasion — the focal length is right around 35mm which is lovely but it does introduce some heavy barrel distortion and vignetting (hey Canon, make a RF mount 35mm tile shift). 

I’ve been on the fence about getting the 17 TS-E for years but I personally can’t justify the cost. I shoot (maybe) 4-6 images a year where I need to go that wide and I have my UWA zoom for those rare occasions. 

For lighting I’m using Flashpoint Zoom-Lion speedlights and Flashpoint RL600-B monolights. I try to bounce light as much as possible but I always bring some satin shoot through umbrellas and a massive 7’ parabolic umbrella when I need to modify the light. 

My tripod is an Indruo AT413 with the Manfrotto 410 Junior Geared Head. Other than that I have a grip bag filled with gels, blackout fabric, poly film, clamps, tape, batteries, reflectors, booties, wipes, etc. 

My editing setup includes a 27” iMac with 64GB of RAM to keep things moving along quickly, a Wacom Intuous Pro tablet and I recently picked up one of the new 13” MacBook Pro M1 for tethering and light editing when I’m travelling — it’s absolutely bonkers. 

As far as gear goes, I feel like a lot of photographers get caught up in buying the latest and greatest when it’s really not necessary.  In my opinion, the only time to replace or upgrade your equipment is when you encounter limitations or when something breaks.  Heck, I used a 5DMKII and a 17-40 as my main kit until a few years ago. I’d say half of my portfolio was shot using that combo. I truly believe that money is better spent on education and refining technique rather than gear.

I’m still on the DSLR bandwagon with the trustly Nikon D850, however will probably move to mirrorless in the not too distant future. The feedback from the new Nikon Z series is sounding positive…

Your images always look so clean and crisp, where did the inspiration come from in creating your stylised look?

I developed my look out of pure necessity and from a shitload of tinkering. Most of my current lighting techniques have carried over from when I was shooting real estate. Back then I was trying to create something different than my competition by quickly creating dynamic directional light often using just two frames. 

Everyone else in my market was doing HDR or lighting from behind the camera so my aesthetic really stood out and potential clients took notice. My look has evolved over time but I can tell you that a pivotal moment for me came about 4-5 years ago when I finally became super proficient using the pen tool and my Wacom tablet. 

Mastering both requires a crazy amount of practice and dedication and I think the majority of people give up — I wouldn’t be surprised if 75% of the Wacom’s ever sold are in a closet or collecting dust on a shelf somewhere. 

My look is based around an isolation workflow which gives me the ability to precisely manage colour, brightness, contrast, or literally any other aspect or nuance of an image down to the individual pixel level. It would be next to impossible to achieve a similar aesthetic using quick selections or luminosity masking. 

I also blend all of my different exposures manually using a combination of low opacity radial and/or linear gradients. I find that when the gradients build on each other they create an ethereal, soft, natural quality of light. 

Another thing I’m know for are my milky white windows. I shoot a lot of new builds and spec homes where the exteriors are usually incomplete and rather than dropping a cheesy view of a golf course or some random coastline, I  simply fill the windows with pure white and adjust to opacity to taste. I find this further adds to the ethereal feel and hides most of the ugly stuff outside.

I’m one of those Wacom tablet guys…haha…just can’t get my head around it. I know I should spend more time perfecting it.

I’ll have to take you up on a one day course perfecting those masking techniques and colour management. It’s always my biggest bug bear, however I’m mellowing to the colour castings these day. I’m going a bit more o-naturale…

What is like to live in Toronto and what is the interior and architectural scene like out there?

I actually live about 90 mins west of Toronto in a city called London, Ontario. It’s exactly half way between Toronto and Detroit. To be honest, things around here are pretty vanilla. 

There are some cool homes dotted around the province but the majority of the stuff here is pretty uninspiring — hideous McMansions and traditional two-stories. I’m always jealous when I see the residential projects in Australia and Europe. I especially love the material palettes and the way the architects and designers down under, and across the pond, use things like slatted walls and cutaways to cast interesting shadows and sexy pools of light. 

That said, there are a bunch of insanely talented photographers around here — heavy hitters like Brandon Barré, Younes and Amanda from Doublespace, Adrian Ozimek and others. 

I’ve had the good fortune to assist Brandon several times and Younes and I recently connected for a coffee while he was here shooting a project. I love meeting up with other photographers when the opportunity presents itself.  Community over competition!

I’m hearing you…Australasia has some insanely beautiful and architecturally dynamic properties. Planning restrictions in the UK can be such a drag in regards to hindering projects here. The biggest issues with living in a ‘World Heritage’ city.

It has been a crazy few years for you and what an adventure you’ve had. …It’s been quite a ‘journey’ as they say….

What would say the highlight of your career would be to this point?

That’s a really tough question and it’s definitely a moving target. 

If I currently had to choose, I’d say helping other photographers is at the top of the list. Back when I started there weren't many resources to learn this stuff outside of an e-book and some sporadic content on YouTube. 

It’s super rewarding getting messages from people telling me that my tutorial, or connecting 1-1 has helped them improve their photography and grow their business.

Well I know I’m one of them!

Do you have any favourite photographers that inspire you and anyone you think we should be keeping an eye out for?

This is probably the hardest question yet!  There are so many talented photographers out there that I follow and admire — it would be impossible to name them all. 

Some of my current favourites (in no particular order): Joe Fletcher, Andy Macpherson, Thomas De Bruyne, Ema Peter, Brandon Barré, Peter Clarke, Casey Dunn, Roehner + Ryan, Lisa Cohen, Emily Bartlett, Simon Devitt, Doublespace, Anjie Blair, Kevin Scott, Mike Kelley, Seamus Payne, Peter Molick, Jack Lovel. 

I could literally go on for days!

I see some familiar faces on that list….I will definitely check them all out!

Lastly, is it true you only eat pizza and what is your favourite topping?

Believe it or not, I do consume foods other than pizza!  I’m basic — give me pepperoni and cheese and I’m happy.  Also, if you’re putting fruit on your pizza, you’re doing it wrong!

To see more of Barry’s work check out his website - www.barrymackphoto.com