Nick Servian

Nick Servian (Image credit: Catherine Cattanach)

When I took myself to Corsica, aged 19, with an old Leica and 10 rolls of Kodachrome, little did I realise it would lead to one of the best jobs in the world. I was given a company car and a Linhof camera, and spent the next 12 years wandering Britain and Europe photographing cities, buildings, pageantry and landscapes. Winters were spent lighting and photographing cathedrals, stately homes and art galleries in great detail.

In the mid-1970s I came with my family to New Zealand and ended up in Wellington, where I helped found a large commercial studio. In the 1980s there were 75 advertising agencies in Wellington alone and business was booming. Assignments took me around the country and around the world.

In 2002 I built a new drive-in studio in Brooklyn with a fabulous harbour view. But digital photography was beginning and that gradually changed everything. I still carry a (digital) camera most days, and street-photography has become a passion.