Style 43

Chances are, if you’ve picked up a copy of Ride BMX magazine (Issue 109 out now - how’s that for editorial link-up?) at any point in the last couple of years, you’ll have probably noticed a few sneaky “Photos by H-Man” tags there. Equally, if you happen to have ventured outside the usual Facebook/Myspace loop you may have noticed Streetphire.co.uk. Having met H-Man on a few ocassions now and realised how sound a bloke he is, we here at S43 decided to find out some more facts on the man himself.

S:43 - Usual stuff, name, age, where d’you live, occupation…
H-Man - Steven Aitchison aka H Man, The North, Senior Photographer of Ride Mag and Webshite designer oh and digital leader of streetphire.co.uk

Just for the gear nerds, what are you packing in that massive, heavy ol’ bag of your’s?
Ohhh far too much to remember but the main beasts are:

D2X body
10.5mm F2.8 Fisheye
17-55mm F2.8 Wide Zoom
70-200mm F2.8 VR Tele Zoom
3x Metz 45CL4 flash guns
2x Manfrotto tripods
Sekonic L308 lightmeter
P-dubs transmitter and receivers

Do you have any plans to simplify your kit any time soon, or do you rely on it all too much?
Well as I was saying to you the other day I could really condense it with say a 10-17mm zoom and a 28-200mm zoom with some vivitar 285 flashes and some of the jessops telescopic tripods and that could all fit into one of them slingshot bags you have oh and I’d need a D200/D300 for saving on camera body size but all this is possible if and I say If I had a spare couple of grand which I most definitely dont at the moment haha

I think I’ve only ever seen you shoot digital - do you still like to rock the film cameras from time to time?
I dont own any film cameras any more however my roots are in film, I learned on a Minolta X300 35mm film camera with a 50mm and 28mm lens and it took one hell of a lot of films to get to where I am today and even now im still a novice at photography!

How did you get to become one of the “big name” (you know you are!) UK
BMX photographers, e.g. being asked to go on trips and shoot photos? Any tips for aspiring photographers?
Humm well it started with my website really, I was working on that for myself and the local riders, I would go out riding and shoot photos learning about my camera and riding at the same time. A bit further down the line I rang up BMX Rider one day and said that there mag needed some decent photography, at the time I was still shit so I wasnt on about me. Months down the line they rang me up asking if the photographer for streetphire could do a Ben Manual interview. I took the challenge and somewhat did a shit job yet they were happy with it. A year or two down the line and I did my first article with Olly Olsen on the Newcastle Scene and it got published in Ride UK. Over the years i’ve ended up doing more and more with them and its great. I don’t think there was much of a method more of just luck really and even now I still dont class myself as a big name, im just a little fish in a huge sea.

One thing Id say is really work on your photography, understand the geeky shit and as long as you have some kind of an eye for a angle and lighting you’ll do good, work on a portfolio or site like I did with streetphire and contact people and submit articles and photos to the sites and mags, you never know who’ll see it and will like it and if your real lucky they may use it or contact you in the future.

Got any photographers on the come up that you’ve spotted online?
Homer@Passion, Brad@Random, you Mr Westlake, Cookie of Shields, Richo of North Shields; I’\d say these guys are wicked photographers. You need to keep an eye out for them in the future thats if they want to take it places.

What countries have you travelled to as part of your BMX photography career?
Well ive done more traveling because of BMX than ever before, since I got my passport sorted out a couple of year ago like 3 years ago if that ive been to Barcelona (amazing place!!!) France, Germany, Holland and all over the UK except for Ireland which still has to be visited. Plans for more of Eastern Europe, America and Japan are in the future for sure!

Any stand-out trips for you?
Federal Germany trip was an experience that i’d never had before, going away with a pro team was off the hook, the level of riding was too good.
Barcelona was amazing too, out there with a bunch of mates and it was the first time i’d been out of the UK in 10 years! Lots to remember there
Oh and NSF Euro tour, away with 15 of your mates, partying, riding, traveling, nights out, exploring and loads more. It was a perfect summer holiday!

Any bad ones?
Nope not really they’ve all been good so far I’d say, each one has been a different experience

Copy and complete:
The best part of being a BMX photographer is: the result when its shit hot and when the rider and people your with are stoked on the photo too, its that reward which makes you buzz inside.
The worst part of being a BMX photographer is: the lack of development in light weight camera gear and also because your shooting BMX your missing out on the Page3 industry, cold wet English streets with sweaty unshaved guys or Page3 lasses? Hummm

You got to head over to France for a while earlier in the year as part of the Cycling Weekly photographer entourage with Tom Simpson - how did you find the experience of shooting road racing compared to BMX, and have you ever thought of shooting other “sports”?
I’d love to be shooting other stuff yeah, I mean I do really but just not enough haha. Im going to go snowboarding this year hopefully or early next year so i’ll be packing my camera gear along with me and shooting some of that. Its something ive had knocking around in my brain for a while wanting to do the winter sports.
The road cycling stuff has been cool, ive learned to shoot another subject and the mag was totally into the BMX influenced photos, they said they were looking for something a bit different to the work stuff they’d been running in the mags so they asked Tom Simpson and me to do bits for them but we’ve not been away at the same time yet as they no nothing will get done haha. Its nice to have a change, I always say variety is the spice of life.

You seem to somehow be able to juggle your time between shooting photos of people riding, riding, working, running Streetphire and running the Streetphire shop. Is it a struggle to keep everything going? How have you dealt with it?
I havent haha, im a massive shit for letting people down sometimes and im usually late for everything, I guess thats something im working on too, trying to improve my punctuality! Its real difficult to try and run all these things at once but im getting better at it. I realised not too many weeks ago that the only reason that things arent getting done and sometimes im there thinking why is it im in mad debt and have no work is because of myself not getting of my arse and doing things so the other week I just basically said fuck it lets start getting articles into gear and getting the UK covered! So ive been planning little trips to do scene checks, interviews and bike checks. Beware I could be asking to stay on your floor very soon!

The shop side of things is something im working on right now with some friends. Its going to go places but your going to have to keep your eyes peeled for that one.

While we’re on the subject - care to talk about Streetphire? How long has it been running for, and where do you hope to see it go in the future?
I’ll make this a short one as its always boring trying to explain my life for the last 7 years haha. It started in 2000 ish and has been running and evolving over the past 7 years with many a change along the way. Its finally getting somewhere now with the news being updated more often, articles getting made, photos being submitted and bike bits being reviewed. The shop is going to go places and you never know where we will be in the next few years. I dont really have a plan of action but its hopefully going to get bigger and better and involve more scenes all over the place!

Are you planning on developing the shop into more than just a side-piece of Streetphire into being a ‘proper’ online mail order site?
Oh damn I’ve only just read this question now after rambling on, erm yes and maybes, you’ll have to keep watching the space won’t ya!

I know you had some issues with bandwidth, hosting, and all that technical mumbo-jumbo as a result of the burgeoning Streetphire hate-fuelled messageboard - have you managed to resolve the problems, and how do you view the SP board?
Yeah im always getting problems with this burden on my life, sorry I mean streetphire. Its a non stop battle with the hosts, they’ve always got something to complain about if its not bandwidth its server resources and some other stuff. At the moment its kinda stable but from time to time the host suspends the account for a night when the server hosting the message board of shite takes a beating with the amount of salt getting mixed into its hyperthreaded diet.

My views on the message board are pretty much the title of the message board which has always been from the beginning “The Message Board of Shite” take it with a small pinch of salt and remember you have a bike so go ride it and rest your weary eyes and fingers. Its fun sometimes and a shit stirer the rest of the time, the main site however is the thing I really like to work on and develop, I love it when people said recently they have been visiting the main site more than the board, it means somewhere we’re doing the right thing if its the case.

Thanks list?

Stu Landreth
Olly Olsen
Shields guys 97-present day
Tom Bright
Pete Greeves
Ruth Killpatrick
anyone im forgetting because I have a brain like a siv
All the guys who visit the site because its there for you lot so cheers!
oh and you lot at style43 for doing this!

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