FRANKINSELLA PHOTOGRAPHY: APRIL COVER

Social media as a showcase

Frankinsella doesn’t boast his own website (yet) although it’s something he’s been thinking about for a while. (“I need to try and balance work and other activities to find time to do this at some point,” he admits.)

Unsurprisingly, therefore, the photographer relies quite heavily on social media such as Instagram to showcase his talents.

So I wonder if he’s concerned by the social media censorship highlighted by The Fetishistas in our March Latex vs Social Media cover story.

“The current situation regarding, for example, shots of latex on social media is challenging,” suggests.

“I have been picked up regarding images that are essentially portraits but, if you look carefully, the model is wearing a latex dress.”

(Fran has recorded an interview about those very experiences with latex model Psycatt — a major contributor to our March cover story.)

“Shots that are clearly fashion shots can be regarded as NSFW,” he continues, “because of the material that clothing is made from. I think context, pose and image style need to be considered when classifying images.

“I do think prevailing cultural influences tend to be cyclical though, and expect at some point there will be a liberating turn of the tide where we feel we are really living in the 21st century again.”

Life outside fetish photography

For Frankinsella, like probably most photographers working in alternative genres, photography is not what pays the bills, but a sideline — albeit a substantial one in terms of the time and love he devotes to it.

Outside photography, he has what he describes as “a busy day job in the space industry” where he has been for most of his working life, barring a short period in the mobile phone industry.

He had initially studied a mixture of science and electronic engineering before undertaking postgraduate studies and research in electronic engineering, then physics again, thus “weaving a path” between disciplines.

“When I started my first job,” he recalls, “I found myself in a department made of research physicists doing electronic engineering, and it felt like the natural place to be!”

Asked what he actually does right now, he says: “My job is quite diverse, but can involve coming up with ideas to solve problems, and taking them through from blank sheet of paper to building something real which works to solve the problem, which is really rewarding.”

He says he finds photography to be “a great complement and counterpoint” to his job. “It plays to my tech side, as you can geek-out over cameras and lenses and kit, but it also has that aesthetic/creative element.”

I have always used Olympus cameras, going back to my original Mju compact and getting an E520 as my first DSLR.

These days I am using an E-M1 Mk III mirrorless camera. I love lots of features of shooting mirrorless — like the WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) view of exposure through the electronic viewfinder.

Also, things like focus peaking that assists with manual focusing when you need it, as well as the fact you can get a lot of lenses into your camera bag.

I love playing with lighting: anything bright and colourful, I am immediately interested in.

With my shooting I use ring lights a lot. I got one as my first light as it was cheap and very versatile.

At a shoot with Natasha Kalashnikova, who also had one, we put our ring lights together and I realised that there were some cool things you could do with more than one. So I got another one and have been using them ever since.

I like shooting both in studios and on location, upgrading at one point to a battery powered ring light to take outdoors. I’ve done quite a few shoots travelling to them by train, with just my camera bag, that ring light and a stand.

I tend to shoot a lot of mixed lighting  — all my work at Sanctum has a mixture of natural