The Artist: Quentin Bacon Gets The Picture

I’ve always marveled at talented people who elevate their craft into something from another world. I’ve been so fortunate to be in the presence of sheer masters who far exceed their so-called skill. When certain savant-like interior designers can walk into an empty room and know—not suggest or think they have an idea—but absolutely know what that room needs to make it something special or when a top chef opens a refrigerator and sees only eggs and onions and somehow makes a frittata no one who tried will soon forget, these are individuals who were not only born to do what they do, but are mere vessels of an unknowable creative force. Such is the case with Quentin Bacon, the Australian born and raised photographer who’s made the Berkshires his permanent home for nearly a decade.

When I commissioned Bacon last year to shoot a very prominent couple at their country home—you know the place, five minutes from here; ten minutes from there—I walked in to find the photographer quietly surveying the grounds of the property while his assistant set up lights inside the home. Bacon was polite and reserved, certainly not what I was expecting after my many trips to Sydney, Melbourne and other destinations Down Under—polite and reserved are decidedly not the adjectives I’d associate with the amazing people I encountered on that island continent. More like, audacious and fearless.

I could easily discern just by watching him work that Bacon’s eye was impressive, his framing of the shots genius. By the time we were done a little more than an hour after we started, I realized that I wanted to hang out longer to surround myself with Bacon’s quiet aura, his confident mastery expressed in a whisper. Needless to say, the results of that day’s effort produced beautiful, impactful images I very happily included to accompany the interesting magazine feature. And it’s no wonder. Bacon has worked for Gourmet and Food & Wine as well as photographing cookbooks for the likes of Gordon Ramsay, Ina Garden and—hold on to your hats—Michelle Obama. So, yeah, there’s that.

As another endless summer sadly comes to a close, I asked the in-demand photographer to share some of his favorite captured images from our beautiful corner of the globe. He was happy to oblige. What you’ll see are indelible images from a master at work. Aren’t we the lucky ones that Quentin Bacon chose to be our neighbor from halfway around the world? The answer you’re looking for is “yes, indeed we are.”