I’m a Swiss Army knife.

Photographer. Director. Designer. Writer, and all the other roles and jobs that happen in the background like Art Director, Creative Director, Stylist, interviewer, journalist, reviewer, critic, lighting tech, photo/video editing, getting the coffee, and optimising images or video for web display. I do a lot because I’m lucky to have worked with many great people and organisations over the past 8 years.

In another life I was a stockbroker, a human rights case manager, a Civil Servant where people called me Terry and I wore a tie to work every day. About 8 years ago I bought myself a little SLR for a birthday with money from my nan. I used to practice lighting on pieces of fruit bought from a shop around the corner. The thinking was that a lemon for example is roughly the shape of a head so what works on said lemon in terms of lighting and angles might just work on a real life human being. This idea was put to the test when a friend of a friend called me one evening. He ran a wrestling outfit in a small, gritty suburb of Manchester and his photographer couldn’t make it to an event they had planned for that night. He’d heard I bought a camera and could I come down to the show and shoot the event? I did. My work went on sale at the next event and out-sold the other guy’s work 11-1. I stayed with that company for 3 years before I went traveling, designing all their branding and logos, writing all the copy for the website, rosters and ads and learning a great deal of what works and what doesn’t through the good ol’ metric of bums in seats.

Since then, a lot has changed and some things are still the same. I now photograph people and not lemons but I still try and do what I can to help out and I still have fun along the way. I’ve been very fortunate to work with a great bunch of people from all over the world and have colleagues and cohorts who became friends. 

Nowadays I write long-form articles for magazines, short-form articles for web content and press releases. I do tech reviews, restaurant reviews, product comparisons, infographics, artwork, and interviews where I shoot all the images, write all the words, design all the graphics, then lay the whole thing out so the publication can just drag and drop it into their proofs. I’m also one half of 2 Dudes Productions directing, lighting, shooting and editing video assignments for organisations like the NZ Fire Service and clients like Stevens Dinnerware. All of which is concurrent with the photography where I’m pretty much a one-man show from client emails through to image delivery. 

I’m a firm-believer in DIY. Don’t be surprised if rolls of tin foil and duct tape come out during a shoot, or if something is MacGyvered together to do a job when it’s needed. Sometimes things happen that nobody could predict and so far I’ve been successful at finding a solution, raised eyebrows aside. I build my own electric guitars, furniture, computers, speaker cabinets, and I also make a great porter. One time I needed a knife but couldn’t find one I liked. I bought a blade blank off of eBay and made the handle from an offcut of a guitar neck I had lying around.

It’s a lot of fun.

I’m at 022 162 6091, or info@tezmphoto.com if you’re ever free for a coffee or you need 8 hands but have the budget for 2.

Thank you for your time.

tez m

I have worked with:

UFC, Warner Bros., Sony Music, Roadrunner Records, Candlelight Records, Harley Davidson, Audio Technica, Samsung, Ferrari, BMW, Audi, Lion Industries, Cooler Master, McKinleys, Coca-Cola, Mars, Tenderlink, Geneva Healthcare, The Grove, Baduzzi, S&N, Bedford Soda, Working Style, Barkers, Jane Iredale, Kate Sylvester, Dior, MAC, 5th Avenue, State Theatre, SkyCity, The Sugar Club, Masu, Clooneys, Solar City, Hopt, Woop, MyFoodBag, Mondays, Bluebell Bakery, Thomas Sabo… and many more.