TALKING PICTURES Zac Bayly

Zac Bayly is an Australian photographer, based between Melbourne and London. Contrasting intimate, naturally-lit portraiture with graphic, high-flash photography, his work explores the beauty and character of his subjects, often within wild surroundings. Typified by warmth, desire and subversion, his idiosyncratic style and intuitive approach often involves capturing portraits of friends and newly-discovered subjects in the natural world at dawn and dusk or at night, when landscapes are rendered otherworldly. His past experience as an interviewer contributes a sense of intimacy, curiosity and connection to his photographs. He has collaborated with publications and brands including AnOther, Bottega Veneta, Burberry, Fantastic Man, JW Anderson, More Or Less and Versace, among others. Zac’s debut photography book Flash! was published by London’s DoBeDo Projects in 2024, with a second extended edition due for release in 2025. He is signed to DRIVE globally.

I took this photograph for a book that I made with Do Be Do Projects. The idea was essentially to have these superheroes flying through the air. Obviously, there's a twist – they're all naked. Their bodies are painted like superheroes, and they're flying in so far as they're jumping on a giant ten foot trampoline I bought for my back garden. This project means a lot to me actually, because, who is lucky enough to have all of these incredible people around you? All these people that spend a bunch of time and put their creativity into what is essentially a really silly project. And I know that this series is meant to be images that have an emotional resonance, and this project is quite silly, but I kind of have always felt that silly things, funny things, are the most emotional things for me. I almost never cry, but every time I watch Legally Blonde, I'm crying.

This one's from a shoot that I did for AnOther Magazine last year. I'm not sure why I picked it, other than that, I desperately want a cat, and it was an opportunity to work with some cats, but I am deadly allergic. One time I stayed with my parents, who have four cats and I wound up in hospital after having a big reaction. So photographing cats on a high dose of antihistamines might be the closest I get to living my dream of having a house filled with cats.

This shot is from a shoot I did recently for Versace. You know, in this case, it was beautiful clothes, beautiful model, incredible location, and beautiful sunset happening. But also, it was incredibly windy. The clothes were blowing out everywhere. I don't know, I think I picked it because it's one of those moments where you're kind of not in control; you’re just waiting for it to kind of come together, the wind to blow the clothes in the right way. 

I find that with shooting — sometimes it's this weird mix of, actively pursuing a shot, of hunting for it in a way, and then at the same time, you kind of also need to be namaste, chill out, be patient, and just wait for it to happen.

So this image is of Crystal Love Johnson, who is this incredible drag performer and trans woman. When we shot her, she was living in a homeless shelter and she was so excited about all the fabulous clothes that we'd brought. And despite living in a homeless shelter, she'd given away all of her clothes and handbags and shoes to all of her sisters in the community. Just an incredible person. She had us in stitches the entire time we were up there. 

At one point, we were shooting her right at the water's edge on the beach, and she looked a bit nervous and I was like, Crystal, what's going on? And she was like, “I'm here to do the shot. Let's do it, but a lot of dogs have been taken in this spot by a large crocodile recently.” 

I just feel like she's this divine, larger than life character from another world, another time. It was a real honour to work with her.

One of the obvious things about my work is that I love shooting at sunrise and sunset. As a kid, I had a lot of happy memories at those hours. I'd wake up really early and there'd be all of these incredible birds – like a flock of cockatoos and galahs – outside my window. It's a pretty magical way to grow up as a kid, going on holidays or going fishing with dad or something like that, you'd leave super early in the morning. So yes, I have a lot of happy memories at that hour of the day. Obviously, I regret it every time my alarm goes off at 3am though, but I never regret it once I'm actually shooting!

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