For 24 of Nfocus' 25 years, Eric England has been as permanent a fixture on the social scene as Champagne flutes and mini BLTs. The ladies are drawn to him like a magnet — perhaps it's that his Nikon camera provides a chance to appear in the pages of our publication, but we have a feeling it has more to do with his handlebar mustache, motorcycle jacket, and a certain air of "danger and mystery" we so often hear whispers of at parties. So we figured, for our 25th anniversary issue, we'd turn the tables and put our stalwart photographer in front of the camera for once and shed a little light on this man of intrigue, a motorcycle-racing father who still has a darkroom in his basement. We sat down and had a little chat with our friend and co-worker about his time at Nfocus, his life in Nashville and some of his favorite things — and even discovered a few surprising details ourselves!
Name: Eric England
Profession:Nfocus senior staff photographer
Years in Nashville: 28
Hometown: Sparta, Tennessee
Number of cameras you own: 12-13
What is your favorite Nfocus cover? The Holly Williams cover [in August 2014]. She was actually pregnant at the time but barely showing. It was black and white, which I like, natural light, simple. It was just really pretty.
What’s the most technically challenging Nfocus cover you’ve shot? We did one in August 2006 that was a fold-out cover, and we shot it with the subjects sitting on a fence. We used the fence to line the shot up so that photos could be pieced together in post-production. And the light kept changing and changing, so it was kind of a nightmare, but it ended up looking OK. We did that a couple times for photos that were fold-outs.
What’s your favorite shoot you’ve done for Nfocus? Steeplechase is always fun. Swan Ball is always pretty fun. It’s just interesting to watch the people change throughout the day, the more they get liquored up. Especially since I’m not drinking now, it’s more noticeable.
What is your favorite event to cover and why? It would have to be one of those two [Steeplechase or Swan Ball]. The first one I ever did with Herbert [Fox], it was a women’s shooting match that we use to cover years ago. That was really fun because it was skeet shooting and these older ladies — one was named Shocky P’Poole. I remember she let me shoot her gun, which was really nice. That one was really fun, but we haven’t [covered] it in years.
When did you get your first camera? Probably when I was 8. My dad was a photographer, so I was around it, but then he gave me a little 110 [camera] that I ended up using to shoot my own photos, and he helped me develop it in the darkroom while he was doing his own film.
Who would you like to see perform at Swan Ball? I would like to see an older heavy rock act play at Swan Ball. I feel like the age is getting to where it’s not just the Tony Bennett crowd anymore. It could have some heavier rock. Maybe like Foghat. I mean, “Slow Ride” at Swan Ball would be pretty awesome.
What was your best celebrity encounter? Definitely Jerry Lewis. I did that for a Scene cover, and he was amazing and did his whole kind of shtick and said, “Mr. England, I’m done,” and thanked me for being on time and fast and not taking any more of his time, and told me I was a real professional. And that was fun. Because I grew up watching him on TV and the Jerry Lewis telethons.
What’s your favorite part about your job? Meeting people
The hardest part about your job? Meeting people
What’s changed the most since you started working at Nfocus? Really, going from film to digital has been the biggest change because I used to shoot film, process all my own film. I use to make small 4-by-5 prints of each subject at a party, and then I would pick the best one and then number them, and then they would be identified that way, and they would be black and white for the most part, except for covers, which were color.
What was your funniest/craziest/most entertaining moment at an event? A few years ago at Swan Ball … I was doing [photos of] arrivals, and I had walked inside and was coming up the steps and turned around to catch this couple coming up the stairs. It was someone I didn’t really recognize, and I took their photo, and then she gave me a pair of socks with cameras on them that she said she brought to give to the first person who took her picture. I still have those socks, and one of them has a hole in it now.
What was your coolest/most surreal moment on the job? The dynamic personalities and the social circles that sort of clash and the way they intermingle yet are always sort of nice. There’s surface tension, and then there’s a current underneath that’s fairly interesting.
What is your best job perk? Free food
What did you want to be before you were a photographer? A mechanic was one of them. I wanted to join the Army, but my parents wouldn’t let me, which was a shocker.
Who would be your dream portrait subject? I really like photographing people who are sort of non-celebrities, “really good at what they do” sort of characters. I like people with a lot of opinions that just kind of made their own way because there’s a million ways to skin a cat. Most people, the more eccentric they are, the better.
What photographer (living or dead) would you most like to meet? Richard Avedon. Richard Avedon’s West series, I got into that when I was in school — really strong black-and-white portraits, really simple. And he used an 8-by-10 camera, which I used to use a 4-by-5 a lot, and I used to love the technical part of shooting like that.
What’s your favorite restaurant in Nashville? Mas Tacos — that or Sonic
What do you like to do when you’re not working? Work on motorcycles, race motorcycles, hang out with my kid
What drew you to photography? I went to school to get into the recording industry management business, and after about a year of that, I was like, “This is kind of bullshit,” and I had taken a photography class in school and had gotten recruited by a lady who was a part of the department then, and I just kind of got into it even though I had always said I wouldn’t do that because that’s what my dad did and I was around it, but I had kind of learned it through osmosis, I guess. It was never really hard for me, but it was challenging, and I enjoyed it.
What’s the thing about Nashville that you hope never changes? It’s eccentricity, I guess. But I think it’s kind of already gone. I mean, it’s different now, and you can’t stop progress. It just gets bulldozed over, like Music Row.
What are some things about yourself that most of our readers don’t know and would find interesting? I love to read manuals. That’s what I mostly buy book-wise, manuals for things, sometimes things I don’t even own, sometimes kind of a wish list of things I want to own — cars, motorcycles, whatever. So that’s the kind of stuff I like to read, how-to stuff, especially older stuff. I have a lot of manuals for stuff I don’t have that I enjoy reading because I just like to see how it works and see how people did stuff.
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