Q&A with Teddy Laycock
We recently framed a selection of Teddy Laycock’s photos for the Mt Buller Chalet Apartments. Teddy’s photographs have such an interesting back-story, and we’re excited to share our exclusive interview with Teddy right here on Format’s blog.
For those of you who don’t know, Teddy is a photographer from Melbourne, Australia specialising in outdoor adventure and lifestyle photography. His career has been spent travelling both hemispheres covering snow sports for magazines, professional athletes, Tourism campaigns, and sporting and lifestyle fashion brands. He’s been lucky enough to travel to places some of us only dream of including Iceland, Japan, Southern Patagonia, New Zealand, and of course, in our own backyard of Australia.
We knew a chat with Teddy would be an inspiring one of wanderlust, motivation and guts. Take a read…
Picture: Format working on Teddy Laycock’s series, Mt Buller, for Mt Buller Chalet Apartments.
In 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, you were quarantined at Mt Buller after returning from Japan. What led you to Mt Buller?
TL We landed in Australia two days before it was mandatory to go into hotel quarantine. At that point we had to do a two week self isolation at home. We had flown into Sydney where my car was (parked at my mother-in-law’s home), but she didn't want us to “self isolate” at her place and my parents also didn't want us with them on the mornington peninsula! So we decided to drive from Sydney to Mt Buller, and did our self isolation there.
What impact did this environment have on you creatively?
TL For someone who has spent ample amounts of time in the mountains and snowy environments, having this mountain with huge amounts of snow, at an unusual time of the year, is what was inspiring to me.
Tell us about the series you created at Mt Buller that will appear in the halls of Mt Buller Chalet Apartments.
TL This series of images were shot at the end of April and the start of May of 2020. Mt Buller had just received over 1.5 metres of snow.
'With the majority of Victoria in complete shut down it gave me an incredible opportunity to take the time to shoot photos without people tracking up the mountain or messing up the snow.'
Having the chairlifts still on the ground and covered in snow is something I have also never seen before. During the winter time the ski patrol would normally de-ice all the chairlifts for safety, but with no one around I had the opportunity to shoot action shots during the day with chair lifts covered in ice - it was rather special.
Picture: Teddy Laycock, Mt Buller 2020.
What has been the most challenging assignment you’ve had in your career? What did you learn from it?
TL There have been a few challenging projects, but one that definitely comes to mind was working on a passion project with a friend called “The Roof of Australia”. We spent 4 weeks camping in the Kossicosico National Park in NSW during August. Our goal was to create content and produce a short film about Australian skiing. Each week we had different groups of Australian and international skiers, snowboarders, filmers and photographers come out to join our basecamp. Throughout that time I learnt a lot about group management and expectations and logistics. Which then led me to learn about content creation, and sponsorships with big brands and publishing companies, not only in Australia but also internationally.
Picture: from the "Roof of Australia" trip in 2015 that kicked started Teddy’s skiing and outdoor photography career.
Where will this series of works be displayed, and why is this the right place for them?
TL This series of images is going to be displayed throughout the hallways of the Mt Buller Chalet apartments. It's a big building with plenty of wall space which is perfect, especially as all the images were taken at such a unique time of the year. Normally the lift chairs are fixed to cable during the winter months, but as we were in Covid-19 lockdown when I shot the series, and a rarity that it snowed that much at that time, I could capture an image like that of the federation chair; on the ground and covered in snow.
Picture: Teddy Laycock, Mt Buller 2020.
After adventures like the ones you tend to embark on, how do you decompress?
TL If it's a winter adventure, I usually decompress with a surf trip somewhere tropical. I am usually looking six to twelve months ahead and always planning some sort of an adventure involving snow or surf. Recently we went on a ‘relaxing jungle trek’' in North Sumatra to photograph the orangutans, followed by two weeks on a remote island surfing.
Picture: from Teddy’s recent trip to Northern Sumatra.
Follow Teddy on Instagram for more of his works and adventures.
The pieces
Mt Buller Chalet Apartments had Teddy’s works framed in our 1200x800mm natural Victorian Oak frames:
Picture: the finished product at Format’s workshop.