The French connection

Steven french of Whitemore photographer author journalist

MAY 2017 | Joanne Eisemann

AS AN accomplished photographer, journalist, author and editor, there is not much Steven French doesn’t know about publishing in Tasmania.

Steven grew up and still lives in Whitemore, where his family has history dating back to 1865. His 7th generation Tasmanian grandchildren live next door.

Taking up photography in his early teens, neighbours soon began asking him to take pictures of their stud animals.

“At one stage, Whitemore had the highest concentration of stud livestock of anywhere in the world,” Steven comments.

From there he started taking pictures for Stock and Land and the Weekly Times. Then someone asked him to photograph their wedding, “It all got a bit out of hand,” shares Steven.

Not long after rural newspaper Tas Country began. The editor asked Steven to take some photographs. “My captions kept on getting bigger and bigger…I was full time within 6 months,” explains Steven.

The Mercury bought Tas Country and didn’t have a photographer position for Steven so offered him a job as a journalist. With no formal journalism training Steven taught himself on the job. “I did a few creative writing courses and things like that, but if you don’t learn pretty quick when someone has edited your work you are not going to make it. I also used to analyse how other people had written stories.”

Three years later he and his wife Ellen opened Reflections Photographic Studio in Launceston where they employed nine people. It was the states largest wedding/portrait studio that ran for many years with Steven continuing to be a photojournalist on the side.

The studio closed when Gateway, the then Northern Tasmanian Tourism body offered him a job as marketing manager which he accepted, later being appointed general manager.

The purchase of magazine Tasmanian Life started his career as an editor. Steven wrote many of the stories and shot the photographs used in the publication. “I think its every photographer or journalists fancy to have a magazine,” says Steven of the acquisition. The magazine employed a graphic designer and a sales person.

Since then Steven has edited and worked for a number of Tasmanian magazines and began writing books. “I finished up editing Tasmanian Plus. I was writing and photographing 2/3’s of it I suppose. Then I was getting close to retirement so I gave it up. In the meantime I’d written a book called Hand Made in Tasmania that was on the state’s best seller list for quite some time. It went really well.”

Now retired, his life has changed focus with time being spent renovating the house, teaching their Irish donkey, Missy to pull a cart, breeding Ryelands sheep and using bullocks to do some of the work around the farm. “I’m a great fan of farming using the old methods,” explains Steven.

But he hasn’t completely left photography and writing behind - editing, writing and photographing Sheep Australia magazine twice per year as well as working on various other books, stories and pictures.

Who is the most famous person he has photographed? “I photographed the Queen, she came to Launceston show, I was covering it for Tas Country. She was very cooperative while I was running around in front of her with a camera. Now there would be minders all over you. I didn’t even have a press pass at that time.”

Photo | Mike Moores