With more than two decades of being a professional photographer, Rob Rickman is one of Fiji’s most renowned and sought-after photo snappers.
Rob was part of a company that published 20 books of photographs in Fiji, Australia and Germany, a testimony of his love for travelling and capturing amazing shots through the eye of the lens.
“I’m not really sure when I picked up a camera, but once in my early primary school days when the teacher gave the students a plasticine to play with, I shaped a rectangle and a cylinder and added it together to make my first camera,” he said.
Rob commercially entered into the world of lenses, pixels and clicks at the age of 18 and has been involved in photography for almost 30 years.
“I shoot pretty much any major genre you can think of. In Fiji, one ends up doing everything at one point or another.”
Rob stated that his personal favourite genres include street photography and portraiture, however, he makes money in photography through Travel/ Lifestyle, Event and Weddings.
Rob says he didn’t attend any photography school and learnt everything from books or from his own peers.
“I never went to any photography school. I had some ‘how to do’ books and was fortunate to meet and shoot with a few photographers whose work inspired me.”
Rob said the one person who has made an influence on his life as a photographer was his friend Peter Henning.
“In the 1990s one couldn’t go anywhere in Fiji without seeing a photo that was shot by him.”
In 2002, along with Glenbo Craig, another photographer and Peter Henning, the trio formed a company Three Loose Coconuts, which was based in Australia, “I really learnt a lot from them and with the Three Loose Coconuts, we published 20 books.”
Rob said he loves his job and still felt that he was learning new things everyday. “The longer you do photography, the more you realise you’re just an observer. Every image I take is a virtual record of what I’m witness to.”
Rob appeared on the front page of The Fiji Times in 1974. The article revealed he shared the same birth date as his mother.
According to Mr Rickman, he still thinks he holds the title of Fiji’s most romantic man.
This after he entered a competition years ago and won on local radio station Legend FM.
He told a story of how he proposed to his wife. Rob, who lives with his wife and five children in Vuda Point, says he believes that out of the many thousand clicks he has taken, one image that has an everlasting effect on him was an aerial photograph he shot of Marriott Momi.
“It’s a hero image, that they’ve used everywhere,” he says.
