I’m really looking forward to this episode of Storytellers as we’re sitting down with somebody a little different today. Richard Beland is a photography professor, as well as a music photographer, and worked with some legendary acts, been doing it for years. And I think he’s going to have a really unique insight on what it takes to be successful, and how he got to where he’s got today. Richard, thank you very much for being here today.

Thanks for having me, Matt.

Let’s start these like we do all of them. Tell us your story, kind of how you got to where you’re at here today, and all the exciting things in between?

Oh, brother. That’s a pretty wide open question. If I think back, the first time I had any interest in photography, I grew up in Brights Grove, and I was very close to the creek there. I remember the creek flooded and went all over Waterworks, and the lake shore on the corner there. There was this massive flood, so I asked my mother if I could use her camera, and go out and photograph it. I’ve always had this in me to kind of document things.

How old were you when you started that?

Geez, that would’ve been public school, so maybe grade six, seven. The real passion for doing music photography probably came from early high school, maybe even late public school. But, looking at old magazines, like there used to be this magazine called Creem Magazine. I think they were based in Detroit. Hit Parade, Rolling Stone, I’d look in there, because I love, love rock and roll, and I thought, “Who is doing these photographs? It seems like a cool job.” And then, I’ve always been totally obsessed with rock and roll. What they call classic rock now, Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin.

The good stuff, yeah.

AC/DC, Black Sabbath, all that. I just kind of went through the motions. I went to college and I studied mechanical engineering first.

Where’d you go to college?

Fanshawe College. So, I went into mechanical engineering because, like every kid that grows up around there, I thought, “I’m someday going to work in the plants in the chemical valley.” My dad worked in the plants. But one thing about my dad was, he was a very hard worker, but he would always come home and he’d be so dirty. I don’t want to go there and come home dirty, I’m not really into getting dirty. But I want to work. So, my dad said, “Well, you know, they hire draftsmen and that kind of thing.” So, when I went to school, after high school, I studied mechanical engineering. And then, I graduated. So, I had my diploma in mechanical engineering. I did that for over three years. And I started looking for work, I was still pretty young,  maybe 21 at that time.

I moved to Toronto, and then I just realized, “This isn’t what I want to do. I don’t want to work as a draftsman, I don’t want to work as a mechanical engineer.” And I ended up working in this sand blasting place, and I was living in one of these old motels on Lake Shore in Toronto. They’re gone now, they’ve built condos there. And it was kind of a cool place to live, but you’d come home from sand blasting in the sub zero weather, and it just was a tiny bit depressing. And then, the real big point came when I was out on a phone booth, again before cellphones, called up one of my buddies and I was kind of complaining about how terrible this job was. He’s like, “Why don’t you go back to school? Study photography. It’s what you always loved to do.” And that’s what I did.

How old were you when you made that?

That decision would’ve been made around 21, maybe 22. And then there’s a bit of a side story. I went into school, I started studying photography and then a strike came. Very similar to the one we had just last year. So, I had this really interesting perspective about the strike last year, because I dealt with the strike in the college system as a student and as a faculty member.

I dealt with one, too, when I was in school. Yeah.

Oh? What year?

I graduated in ’06, so that year or prior to. I was at Fanshawe, it was like a month long the whole thing.

Oh, yeah. I’m older than you, so I’m talking about 1989.

Okay, yeah. I was barely born. Yep.

I just turned 50 this year.

Cool.

So anyway, the strike came, and we were about five weeks into the strike. I remember going in, it was either my dean or my coordinator, and I just went in there as a young, kind of cavalier student, and I said, “This strike is no good for me. I’m going to withdrawal.” They tried to talk me out of it and I just laughed. I said, “No, it’s not something I want to deal with.” And I actually picked up everything. I got two camera bodies, I bought about 100 roles of film, and I went to Europe with an open end plane ticket, I bought a van, and I lived in the van for six months.

No doubt.

Yeah. True story. Never even stayed at a hotel or nothing.

Whereabouts in Europe did you end up?

Everywhere. I drove over 40,000 kilometers. I just lived in this van, and I kind of taught myself photography the best I could at that time. Learned from my mistakes. You know, shooting on film is a little more difficult. Back then, I drove the entire perimeter of Scotland. I went all along the fishing roads, I bet you I photographed every single castle in Scotland.

Okay, so more like architectural, or landscape?

Anything.

Anything and everything?

Yeah, I just traveled.

Cool.

The trip ended because I was cutting through Yugoslavia on my way to Greece, I wanted to go to Greece, and I got in a car accident. And this was about six months in, and I wrote off van. It was a terrible accident. And so, I packed it up and came home. But the good thing that came out of all that was I learned a lot of life lessons, and I was ready to go back to school. So I went back to photography. I was young, but I was keen, and I was motivated, and I aced it. I did really well. I won a bunch of awards, and I went for three years. It was a three years program back then. And then I graduated, I think it was 1994. And I was ready, it was like I was shot out of a cannon. I went right from London, within weeks, I’d moved to Toronto, and then I all I did was shoot, shoot, shoot, because I was really keen.

Yeah? How’d you get your foot in the door in the rock and roll side of things then?

Well, I guess it goes back to being keen. I wanted to work as a photographer, and I wanted to work in the music industry. About year two at Fanshawe I started shooting for the school newspaper. But I made this deal with the school newspaper, I didn’t want to do lifestyle, I didn’t want to do sports, I only wanted to do the bands that played at the pub. Back then the bands that were playing were like The Tea Party, Sloane, The Headstones, Junkhouse. Every band that’s kind of bigger Canadian bands now. I Mother Earth, they were starting out then. So, I had a good start on it. But I would go to the editor, and again this is before the internet or anything, I said, “Can’t we go shoot bigger gigs? Maybe stuff in Toronto?” And he said to me, “Well, if you do all the legwork I’ll support it.” I said, “Okay.” One of the first things I ever photographed was ZZ Top at
Maple Leaf Gardens. Pink Floyd had reformed at that point, and they played at the CNE, I went and shot that.

I started in the school, at Fanshawe. There was a woman in my class, her name’s Paula Tizzard, amazing photographer still to this day. Someone I really look up to, incredible photographer. Anyway, she saw me printing some of my rock and roll stuff. I was in year two, she was in year three. She said, “You should go talk to my brother, he’s a photo editor at this magazine in Toronto, and he’s name is Ken.” I think it was Canadian Musician or something. Anyway, I want to visit him. He saw my work, gave me a couple chances. One of the great chances he gave me was, I shot Nirvana. He called me up, I was still in school, he said, “Nirvana’s playing tomorrow night.” And so I’m like, “Yes, definitely.” So, I went and shot Nirvana the next night, and that would be within six months of Kurt dying. That was one of my big breaks anyway.

And then that following summer Ken said, “You should go check out this agency that we work with in London, England, because maybe they’ll give you some work.” So, I went to the agency. Turns out the photo editor there is Canadian, and she said, “I can give you a bunch of shows.” Well, she gave me a lot of show. I went and shot U2 in Shtuuckguard, Madrid, Rotterdam. This was on the Zoo TV tour, so it was all very exciting stuff.

And you’re still in your 20s when this is happening, too?

Yeah.

Wow.

I shot a lot that summer. I went back to school, finished my last year, moved to Toronto. So, I already had this big portfolio. And then I shot everything. It didn’t matter if it was the Horseshoe, Lee’s Palace, or Maple Leaf Gardens. The Air Canada Center wasn’t open at that time. It made me a better photographer, and I got to know people in the industry, because eventually they’d be like, “Hey, it’s that guy.” And then, “It’s Richard.” I got to know people based on the fact that I wanted to work. Maybe this is ’94, ’95 now, and I had a cover shoot with Gord Downie. I did the shoot, management called me and said, “Can you come and show us the other shots that the magazine aren’t using, because we might buy them off you.” I didn’t think I’d done that good of a job, I’m kind of hard on myself. Anyway, they went through it and they’re like, “There’s the shot.” And it’s probably one of the more well known shots of Gord. It’s the one where he’s pulling down the toque, and it’s got the TTH sign on it.

It looks like the NHL logo. So, I brought all these live photographs and they said, “You know what? We haven’t hired a photographer for the tour. Would you be interested in doing some tour photography?” with the Tragically Hip. And so, I was trying to play cool, “Yeah, yeah. Okay.” But inside I’m like, “Yes!” So, I did a bunch of shows on that tour, on the Phantom Power Tour. It was during the winter, so I remember it was very exciting because I really felt Canadian. I can still hear that crunch of the snow underneath my feet up in Sudbury, and driving across. I can tell you a dozen stories, but everything just kept perpetuating itself. And the fact that I was always keen, and Rod Baker and I, the guitar player in the band, sat down and were talking. He asked if I’d be interested in doing album photography for them. And then Gord Downie sent me some lyrics, and then we started coming up with that idea, and we did the album photography for In Violet Light. And then I did the publicity for the next album, which would be In Between Evolution.

I’ve shot the Hip now around 150 times.

That’s crazy. Were you there for the last show then?

Yeah, I was in Kingston for the last show. I shot nine shows on the last tour.

Cool. So how important are relationships along your journey? It sounds like that’s pretty well everything, right?

Yeah.

From starting the relationship, and having that piss and vinegar to get out there when you’re young, building those relationships, and nurturing them through the lifetime really, right?

Yeah, I think so. You don’t always get to build relationships. You know, like I’ve shot U2, and The Rolling Stones, and stuff like that.

More so with the magazine, and the editors and that, I guess the artist is kind of the perk that would lead to it, right?

Yes. And so, the Canadian bands. We live in Canada, so the doors kind of open because I’m Canadian, they’re more local. But, building relationships is important. I think, being a fan, but not being too much of a fan. These guys that are asking for selfies, and bugging people for autographs. Even when you want it, it’s almost better to not. People at the management, record label, bands, they want to know that you’re going to go in there and just be the person that’s with the camera, and not the person that wants to take a selfie.

You’re there to do a job, right?

Exactly. Building relationships? Certainly. Building trust, producing.

And executing, yeah.

Yeah, your work has to be consistent. Once you’re in the industry, probably as any type of photographer, highs and lows are going to happen. But you’ve really got to eliminate those lows. When there’s a big budget there’s no room for any sort of … There’s lots of times when I’m working with big, big budgets. You always have to produce. Consistency is important. And consistency comes from experience. I’ve been shooting for over 30 years, professionally for about 25 years, but I’m still doing photography all the time. I still do two, three, four shoots a week.

But photography’s always done well for me, it’s not like I needed to do this for employment. But, I don’t have benefits as a freelance photographer. So, now I’m the coordinator, I’m one of the instructors. We have a team now. And that’s what got me here. And now I live here, and it’s kind of gone full circle. I live up in Camlachie. I’ve got a pond across the street, the lake’s a three or four minute walk. It’s just like when I was a kid growing up in Brights Grove.

Yeah, a little more stable than running around with bands.

That’s a funny one, too. I was actually on the phone setting up another shoot. A phone call was coming through, I looked at it and it was Lambton College, but I couldn’t answer it because I was on another business call. But I just quickly looked and the one thing that came to mind was, “Oh, man. I hope they don’t want me to teach.” And so, I listened to the voicemail later on, it was a friend of mine that works here. He said, “You should call me, I think I have this cool opportunity.” So, I called him up and he said, “I was in a meeting the other day, and they’re thinking about building a  photography program at Lambton college. They want to know if we knew anybody that might be interested. Why don’t you come and have an interview?” And I walked out of there going, “Wow, this is an amazing opportunity.” If you think about it, probably every college in North America has a photography program. Where are you going to get this opportunity again?”

So, I thought, “This is an opportunity I really have to take, because that’s something that’s part of my legacy in a way, and something I’ve never done. I’ve done a lot, but I’ve never done this.” Then the opportunity to have a full-time job with benefits seemed like the right dad thing to do.

So, what brought you to profession you’re in now?

That’s great.

My kids swim every day.

Yeah?

Yeah. I miss Toronto, but I’m happy to be back.

So, do you still get a chance to do some of the band photography now?

Oh, yeah. I did five shoots this week. I was out there shooting in the driving rain, I was just drenched to the bone. I’m 50 years old, and did I not make it past this? But I wanted the shot. Yeah, I still shoot, I still love it. Even shooting concerts, I’m up around almost 4000 concerts now. But I’m still just as excited. When the lights go down, it doesn’t matter who’s playing, if I’m a fan or not. The fact that I’m in there shooting concerts-

You’re doing what you love?

Yeah. I don’t know if it’s still like this, but when I grew up in Brights Grove, it was before MTV, before all the music channels, so you really only had the radio. Back then it was WRIF, WLLZ. I’d listen to those stations, and I was absolutely obsessed with rock and roll. My first concert was in 1983, I saw Aerosmith. I think my second concert, maybe a month later, was Rush. My third concert was Robert Plant. So, it’s kind of ingrained in me to just love rock and roll. So, I wanted a job in rock and roll. I had this love of photography as well. So, to be able to put the two of them together was kind of the
perfect match.

Exactly. And you hear so many stories of guys like you, that start on the path where their dads are, where the stability is, of going to school, to get into the plants. That’s where you want to go, right? And very few actually have the nerve, let’s call it, to do what they love. So, I definitely commend you for that, for actually pursuing it and killing it in that industry, it sounds like.

I owe part of that to my dad as well. He grew up in Timmins. I think they didn’t have the opportunities that we had. His father died when he was really young, so he probably didn’t even finish high school, he probably didn’t even finish public school, who knows? So, he had to bring home money to help pay for the family or whatever. But he always said, “Go to school. Go back to school. Post secondary education, go back. Learn, do what you need to do.” So, he always encouraged me to go back to school.

How did the family take it with you changing directions so drastically, and going the photography route? Obviously, even back then, it probably wasn’t the norm at all to take the risk and go into something totally different than the stable life, let’s call it.

I didn’t have any pushback on that. Following your passion is something that runs in the Beland blood maybe. Parents ask me that question all the time, “Is my child going to be able to make money from working as a photographer?” Or, “How are they going to make money?” I tell them, “If you’re child is good, and they produce consistent work, and they’re motivated.” Because you can get straight As in this class for two years, but if you go home and sit on the couch there’s no work. How are they going to know about you? You’ve got to go out there and find it. It’s not like I was making a ton of money right at the start. I called them my Kraft dinner years in the beginning. So, I certainly lived poverty level in the beginning.

Okay, here’s what it is: Pre-kids? There was no work/life balance. It was just work. But work was life. I mean, I’ve got to say this again, but working in the music industry why do you need a life? That is the life.

And my followup that you can lead right into is, is it possible?

It never was important before.

How important is work/life balance?

Sleep. But I don’t sleep enough. There’s not enough hours in the day. I want to lobby the government to make the day 26 hours, maybe give us eight days a week. I’m like a shark. As soon as I stop, man, I just sink.

How do you handle burnout?

Yeah. I’ll do six hours of driving. Get up at six in the morning, make my kids lunch, get them on the bus, and then I’ll come here and teach. I’ll teach two classes, so there’s six hours of teaching. I’ll get back in my car, drive to Niagara Falls, shoot another show, come back again. I don’t do this every day, but I do it almost every week. I’ll burnout just from the travel part, but I don’t burnout from the work part.

After the concert?

I burn out from travel, but working doesn’t burn me out. I do the concert photography
for Fallsview Casino. So, a lot of items I drive there and back in a night-

Do you ever burn out?

No, there’s no tricks, because I just want to do it. I don’t know what else to do. What do you do with your time if you’re not doing?

Is there any trick that you need, or use, to stay focused and productive? Or, I’m going to guess it just comes naturally.

I’m not finished.

Yeah, well it sounds like you’ve accomplished a lot so far, that’s for damn sure.

Yeah, I like to do something. Everything motivates me. I want to do a lot before I die.

Got to be doing something?

Yeah. I don’t know what it is. But, lazy isn’t a word in my vocabulary. I don’t chill out very well. I’m not the guy that will go sit on the beach for 90 minutes. Like I’ve just …

So, it’s a process more so than just-

I love creating. You know, I keep journals. I’ve kept a journal since I was 16. I have stacks of books that I write in. Nowadays I use a lot of Siri, I just talk into it, and I print it off later. But, I like creating, I like producing. If I don’t have any sort of production at bedtime I wonder what I did with my day.

You just have a true passion for what you do. It just spills out of you, it’s awesome.

Yeah. The shoot i did on the weekend, it’s the head of security at Fallsview Casino. We’re friends, but he’s not a rock star. He’s a rock star because he’s super cool. I treated it just like any other shoot.

That’s perfect. Do you still get as excited to do maybe some of these smaller bands as you do the Slash and Jimmy Paige out there?

I think what motivated me originally was some sort of success. And I love, love, love music. I love rock and roll. I like all music. You know, I’ve photographed every genre of music you can name, but I love rock and roll. It wasn’t important for me to meet Jimmy Paige and Robert Plant, although I have. But it was important for me to get in there and photograph them as much as I can. And then, seeing the photographs. The shoot I did the other day, I’m working on it in my office right now, that motivates me. It’s like opening up a Christmas present “Ah, wow. This is what I wanted. Santa, you’re awesome.” That motivates me. But now my kids motivate me. It’s not like money motivates me, but making a living from photography motivates me. Yeah, I like to get paid for it. But if I can pay my bills through photography? That’s motivation.

Exactly. What motivates you? What keeps you going?

Yeah. But the thing was, as I was saying before, I was keen on photographing. So, anybody who’d let me shoot, I was out there shooting, shooting, shooting. But I was highly motivated, and that’s what I try to tell the students. Whatever it is that you love to shoot, go shoot it. But you’ve got to shoot all the time. Sidney Crosby, an amazing hockey player. But do you think he sits in the summertime and does nothing? You have to use your camera all the time, and you have to be good at it. You need to be able to pick up your camera and make a great photograph without thinking about it. It needs to be all second nature, and problem solving. You can learn for two years, which I think a formal education is really important, but it’s not enough. You’ve got to work all the time. All these guys that are in the NHL, they don’t sit still.

You did what you had to do, right?

You make friends when you’re out there shooting too, yeah.

And if I wasn’t shooting a gig, I was going to a gig. And if I wasn’t going to a gig, then I was preparing to travel to go see a band somewhere else. How I find work/life balance now is, for example, when I go to Niagara i don’t drive home all the time. Sometimes I get a hotel room. I’ll work the whole day the next day in the hotel room, and I’m not exaggerating, I won’t do anything but work. And the reason for that is, because when I’m with my kids I’m putting it over here and I’m not thinking about it. Because I spend all that time away from them working.

Is there anything that keeps you up at night?

Occasionally, stress if I’m worried about something. If I have a bit shoot the next day. It used to be worse, I used to be awake for two weeks. When I think back, The Tragically Hip and Violet Light, I was kind of losing it. I was younger, and I was so worried. Whenever it was a huge budget I really worried about making sure that the client was getting their money’s worth. But, nowadays no. Now it’s important to me that students get their money’s worth, and their time’s worth. I take that really seriously, I take the responsibility of being a teacher really seriously. I don’t want to waste anyone’s time, or anyone’s money, because I know how important that is. So, maybe I worry about things like that. But I think nowadays I’m so tired, by the time I get to bed I’m out. The alarm goes off and, “Here we go again.”

How do you define success?

I think it’s not about money, but being able to pay your bills from work that you enjoy, that’s success.

That’s a damn good way to define it, yeah.

So, when the hydro bill comes in, and I have a check here from a client, that’s pretty successful.

What’s the most important skill you think somebody needs to be successful?

Motivation.

Motivation.

Drive. I used to say this stupid joke, and I don’t say it anymore because I think it started annoying people. But, when you go into this program, on the first day I used to be like, “Put your couch on Kijiji, because you’re never sitting on your couch anymore.” You don’t need your couch. Because if you sit on your couch, you’re not going to do well in school, and you’re not going to do well trying to find work. I don’t say that anymore, because it just sounded too pompous I guess. But the fact is, motivation, drive. You can go work somewhere else, and you just do your nine to five. Lots of people do that, and I think it’s great. It doesn’t work for me. But if you want to be self employed you’ve got to have motivation. And it’s a seriously competitive field, photography. There’s colleges all across the country, so they’re producing students every year. There’s a lot of good photographers that come out of school. I see them here, so there has to be at the other schools. Sure, you can have one, two, three great designs.

Or, one, two, three great photographs. But, how do we know that just wasn’t a good day for you? You’ve got to maintain this consistency. You don’t have to be the very best, but you need to be good and consistent. You know it in your field, and I know it in mine.

100%. When we hire, I don’t care what they’re diploma looked like, or what grades they got. Nine times out of 10 I don’t even look at the resume, I just look at the work. Let the work speak for itself, right?

The work speaks for itself. And consistent work.

Exactly. What is, and this one might be tough for you, the one defining moment where you knew you made it? You know, “I achieved success”?

There’s a number of gigs. I went to Ireland and I photographed U2 at Slane Castle. And I remember looking back and there’s 80, 90,000 people behind me, and the hair’s standing up even now thinking about it. I’d already photographed U2 a couple of times, but going to Ireland and shooting there, that seemed pretty cool. So, I’ve shot a lot of big shows like that since then, that kind of feel cool. Again, it’s not about money, but when I bought my first house. I didn’t have any other job, I bought it with the money I was making from rock and roll photography. So, that seemed very cool. Building this program, you know, that was huge.

Like you say, with legacy, and putting the skills that you’ve built to work, right?

Yeah. That might be the career defining pinnacle. I’ve photographed a lot of great shows, but that was a big, big thing. A lot of the work of the work I did with The Tragically Hip was really important to me. I’d down a few shoots with Gord Downie. Gord and I went out to the Toronto Island together and did a shoot, and spent the day together. A lot of great things came out of that relationship. Nickelback, I know they take a lot of heat, which is kind of silly. But, great guys. They have an album called All the Right Reasons, sold 19 million copies. Those are my photographs in there. So, at least 19 million people are seeing those photographs. Their new album, Feed the Machine, sold them on the idea, and my shots on their album. And it’s on t-shirts. I did the pre-production for it right here in the studio. I went down the Las Vegas a couple months ago to shoot Nickelback. And I went into the Hard Rock Hotel, and every single staff person had a Nickelback t-shirt on, it said Staff on the back, it had my shot on the front.

That’s cool.

So, was running around, “I want to buy this shirt.” And nobody would give it to me. I’m like, “I’m the guy that took the photograph.” And I don’t think anyone believed me, they just thought I was some joker in the hotel. I’m like, “No, I’m the one that made the …” I couldn’t buy a shirt. I complained about it on my social media, and finally someone came forward and said, “Hey, we can get you a shirt.” I don’t think anyone was believing me, I just look like some other person.

What’s one of the biggest lessons you had to learn along the way?

Playing the game of it. And I don’t mean like lying, or being someone you’re not. Despite me rambling right now, I’m a real introvert, and I used to be worse, like a terrible introvert. Incredibly shy, to the point where I was scared to talk to people that I didn’t know.

That’s probably the most shocking piece of this entire interview.

Yeah, it’s true. And I still am a real introvert. In the beginning, I really had to learn that you have to go in and look people in the eye, and shake their hand, and talk to them. And ask questions about people, and engage them. I didn’t do that in the beginning. I was talking about this shoot with Slash. I’ll tell you a really quick story. That day I was worked up. I love Slash, I love Guns N Roses. I’d photographed the band in concert, but I’d never done a big shoot with Slash before. So, anyway, I went in there. It was in this hotel room, he had a bottle of Jack Daniels over here. But I was shaking like this, I was so scared, and I didn’t say anything. I had all these questions in my head. And then Slash said, “Do you want a shot of Jack Daniels?” And I said, “No, I don’t drink on the job. That’s okay, thanks.” And I want back to work. My assistant came up and whispered in my ear. He’s like, “I think you should have a drink because you are shaking so much.

And you’re not talking.” I never did take the drink, but I probably should’ve because it would be a way better story. “Oh, yeah, I did a shot of Jack Daniels.” But, back then it didn’t matter. I remember shooting 54-40, good Canadian guys. Never said a word to them because I was so scared I was going to say the wrong thing. I think the lesson was, go in and be you. Because I can sit and talk one-on-one, I can go talk to my buddies. I think, let them love you for who you are, or not love you for who you are. As long as you’re you, you just kind of go with it.

That’s a good one.

So, yes, I still am an introvert despite.

Are there any opportunities along the way that you missed, and maybe wished you took
advantage of? Doing the shot with Slash, that might be the opportunity? [laughs]

Yeah, I should’ve done that shot of Jack Daniels. A way better story. I never photographed Prince, and I never photographed Michael Jackson, and I really wish I would’ve photographed them both. I saw Prince in concert, but I never shot it. I actually went to the Prince show with the guys from Nickelback, and they gave us side stage seats. Another great story, I’ll tell you some other day. But I never photographed Prince, and I regret it, because that guy is a monster. He’s incredible. It’s not music I listen to all the time. But when I saw him perform, he is …

An icon.

Easily one of the best performers. And same with Michael Jackson. Not music I really throw on at home, but I really wish I would’ve photographed him. So, those are some opportunities that I kind of missed.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

I guess going back to what my dad said, “Go back to school.” I think a formal education is important. We get some students, or I talk to other people and they say, “Oh, I can go on YouTube and learn.” But, the thing about YouTube and learning, probably anything but specifically photography, is you don’t get feedback. So, no one’s telling you what you did right, what you did wrong, how you can improve it. My dad was always keen on formal education, and I still believe that to ring true. So, that’s probably the best piece of advice.

What’s the secret to achieving longterm success, instead of the fly-by-nighters?

Those three Ps again. Patience, persistence, and perseverance. Always treating every job like it’s important to you. It doesn’t matter if it’s Slash, it doesn’t matter if it’s the head of security at Fallsview, I still put everything into it. Treating everything like it’s important. Don’t make anybody that’s paying you less, or they’re not a massive star, feel any less. Everybody should feel like a rockstar when they stand in front of the camera, right?

Is there a photographer, or person out there, that you admire?

I don’t want to say I have a hero, because hero is a strange word. But, there’s a photographer, his name’s Mick Rock, he did the cover of Lou Reed Transformer. He photographed Iggy Pop, and Debbie Harry, and The Ramones, all these guys in the 70s. So, I always loved his work. Bob Gruen is probably the photographer that I looked up to the most when I was a kid. Even if you don’t know his name you know his shots. He did the cover of Kiss Destroyer, where they’re standing there on the street corner in black and white. I wasn’t even a huge Kiss fan as a kid, but I always loved that picture. I look at a lot of career bands, and I look up to them as well. I think, how did they manage to work in a creative environment and maintain it all the way through? You look at guys like Pink Floyd. Led Zeppelin folded because John Bonham died, but they put out 10 years of consistent work. How do you maintain this consistency? So I do look at a lot of rock bands, I look at U2.

They just put out a new record again.

So, more on the creative level? You kind of think of that? Or on the relationship level?

How do you maintain this relationship with an audience that’s ongoing? The Rolling Stones are in their 51st year or something now. I know money is part of the drive there, but they put out new records all the time. What’s this drive for wanting to put out creative work consistently? So, I look at all that stuff, and that gives me motivation, and it’s something that I look up to. Not just photographers, I look at musicians as well.

Where do you see yourself in five or 10 years.

Asleep.

That will be the time you shut her down, eh?

I probably see myself still teaching. It’s kind of funny, because I didn’t want to teach, I never even thought about teaching. I never even considered it, but I like it now. I do like this idea of giving back, I like sharing the knowledge. A friend of mine, Jamie Patton, used to tell me all the time, “There’s not secrets, Richard.” He’s a really great photographer, and I always go, “How’d you do that?” He’s like, “There’s no secrets.” And he would tell me. And I do still believe that. If you want to know how I made a photograph I’ll tell you. I tell stories all the time in class, I use my own photographs. The way I teach in the program, and the way we hire teachers, is kind of a funny thing. We practice what we teach. Not, we practice what we preach. Because anybody can stand in front of the classroom and go, “An F-stop is this, a shutter speed is this.” But if I can come into the class and go, “Yesterday I shot at 2.8 because …” and I can show them shots that I used, I think that helps students.

Especially in realtime like that, really?

Yeah. I think it’s one of the things that separates our program from other programs. All our instructors are working photographers, and that’s really important.

Is there many programs out there that have the sort of background and experience that you guys have?

Oh, I’m sure lots of them do. But I’m not sure that everyone has every instructor. We won’t hire an instructor if they’re not experienced. I used to say you had to have 20 years experience, and my dean, when I told her that she kind of laughed at me. She’s like, “Richard, you’re going to have a hard time finding people that have 20 years experience. Maybe you’ve got to lower it down.” So now it’s 10 years.

Well, let’s jump into rapid fire then.

Rapid fire? Okay.

Well, let’s jump into rapid fire then.

It’s a terrible life for me because I’m both.

Do you read your news in the paper or a device?

The news I read, typically I have the apps for BBC, so I read the BBC news every day several times. And I read The Guardian, which is another UK newspaper, and I read those both on my phone. But, musically, I like reading Rolling Stone, Mojo Magazine, and I like magazines for music because I like the big pictures. So, sorry. Both.

There you go. It’s easy.

News-news, I like on the phone, music news I like in a magazine.

What’s your favorite social media platform?

Instagram. Can I expand on that?

Yeah, giv’er.

Right here in this room, two years ago I was sitting with BC, that you met, or you saw earlier, and his friend was here from Nigeria. And they’re like, “Richard, man, you’ve got to get on Instagram.” I’m like, “What is Instagram?” I honestly didn’t know what it was. I thought it was a video game or something. And they’re like, “No, you have this killer archive, you’ve got to get on Instagram.” So, this was in 2016 just before The Tragically Hip did their final tour. I finally looked at Instagram, and I’m like, “Ah, that’s kind of cool.” So, I posted a few shots from the tour. September 20, 2016, by this point I was sold on Instagram. I made a deal with myself I was going to post every single day for one year. That was my goal. September 20, 2017 came around.

I never missed a day, I posed every single day. To this day, I haven’t missed a day.

How many followers?

Just under 4000. But, they’re all hard fought followers. I intend on going every single day until New Years. And I might even continue. I’m going to do two full years. Richard.Beland, if you want to check it out. But, every single day I posted a new music photograph that no one’s ever seen before. So, sorry, long story. Instagram’s my favorite.

City life or country living? You got a taste of both.

Yeah, I love city life. I love the city. I love subways, I love the hustle bustle, but I love country life now, too. When we first moved back to Camlachie we were outside, it was in the summertime and my daughter said, “Daddy, what’s that noise?” “What noise?” She goes, “That noise.” It was crickets. She’d never heard crickets before, because we lived in Toronto. I’m like, “Those are crickets.”

What’s one thing that’s on your bucket list? There can’t be a lot left, is there?

The Great Pyramids.

Yeah?

Yeah. When I was in that six months in Europe, one of my goals was to go over to Morocco, and drive across the top of Africa, and go to The Great Pyramids. It never fit in with my schedule, but I do want to go to The Great Pyramids.

Dogs or cats?

I’m sorry.

Both?

Both. I don’t have a dog, I never will have a dog because my life is too buys for a dog. A dog needs a lot of love. I love dogs, but I could never have a dog. So I do have a cat, the cat’s name is Boo Radley. I’ve had this cat for 15 years. He’s the toughest cat, I’ve seen  him take on two raccoons before. The raccoons were gone. So I love my cat. But I like both.

Last one. Clean or messy desk?

I live in organized chaos.

There you go. I like that. That’s a general consensus, too.

My desk is messy, but I know where stuff is. Both. Everything’s both.

Straight across the board. It’s easy. Thanks so much, Richard. This has been awesome. Your stories are amazing. We could sit here all day. We might have to do a version two of this later on. That was awesome.

Thanks for your time.