G: Tell us about your art: What do you do? What inspired you to start?
I’m a photographer, but to leave it at that is a bit like calling yourself a musician, in that it is such a massively broad label. Consider Mozart and Eddie Grant, for example. Both musicians, but both very different. It’s the same with photography – every photographer is different. There are product photographers, fashion photographers, news photographers, social documentary photographers, landscape photographers, conflict photographers, wedding photographers, food photographers etc. etc. and each one has their own unique style and approach (whether they are aware of it or not). So I’m a photographer – and I photograph people. I like to think that my photography is a form of photographic illustration. I’m not recording a real moment, it’s always planned and posed, and there isn’t necessarily a truth to my photography. Instead I’m trying to capture a feeling or an emotion in a scene or a portrait. Sometimes it can be cinematic like a movie, sometimes more like a frame from a comic book, but I always hope that it prompts questions and a reaction – good or bad. I have always been interested in photography from an early age, and always took photographs. But I didn’t get serious about it until I was working as a journalist. I spent some time editing magazines here in London and in New York, and the thing that inspired me the most was working with photographers. Eventually it became such a distraction that I went back to college and retrained.
G: What is innovative about what you do?
To be innovative is a difficult thing these days, and anyone who claims to be innovative or original is either lying, deluded, egotistical or, very rarely, the real deal. We are preceeded by great masters of the arts who have been there and done that, over and over again. And if we claim to be doing something new, then we need to know our art history. All I’m doing is bringing my own personal take to my own work, trying not to churn out the same clichéd stuff that everyone else is – and which is fashionable at the moment. I hate predictability and always try to deliver something unexpected in my pictures, but I’m also well aware of who inspires me, who I’ve borrowed and stolen from, who went before me and who did it better. So my pictures are really only an homage to the genuine innovators who were clever enough to come up with something truly original, or steal from someone who did.
G: What were your most successful projects/exhibitions so far or what projects did you enjoy the most so far?
That’s a tricky question, because there is one thing that runs through all my projects that makes them universally enjoyable – that I really love working with and photographing people. For a split second, when the shutter fires, you have a personal bond with someone that is yours alone, and no-one can take that away from you. And for the rest of the time, you’re normally having a lot of fun along the way too. I just love working with people, meeting new people, and getting to know new people. It doesn’t matter if they’re celebrities and anonymous people like me, they’re all equally fascinating, and generally up for a giggle. My favourite project to date, though, was a big commission for an arts festival in Denmark called Bunkerlove. It was a chance to go to a new place, meet new people, do new work and really step outside my comfort zone. I produced some of my favourite images during that project, had lighthouses and deserts for my backdrops, and met some truly inspiring artists and creatives. In the end I was incredibly lucky that the pictures were turned into a big exhibition which was my first solo show, and it’s still touring around Northern Denmark at the moment. I was very honoured to have been a part of it.
G: Tell us a bit more about your current project?
Well this is actually an amalgamation of two projects. One was called “A Swelter of Saints” which was a bit of a tongue-in-cheek take on the baroque paintings of saints. Each of the people in the images represents a real patron saint – and you’d be surprised how many there are. There is a patron saint of Russian rocket scientists, a patron saint of artists – even a patron saint of late sleepers (that’s actually me in that picture). The other project was called “You Should Get Out More” and used the idea of the same image being repeated but with a different concept to each one. There are the obsessives, the crooks, the criminals and the overworked, all people who should really get out more! They seemed to compliment each other well, and in my head one project was a vision of heaven, and the other a vision of hell, so it made sense to put them together.
G: How would you describe the art scene in Shoreditch/East London? Why is it unique?
I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with Shoreditch sometimes. It can sometimes feel like it’s trying too hard, like it spends too long in the mirror each morning trying to get its hair just the right amount of scruffy. But then when I’m chilling out in a cafe watching the world go by, or meeting with a potential client discussing the photography business, I love it and come away feeling inspired. It’s never the same twice, and whenever I’m there there’s always something new to see. I must admit I’m not a fan of the big corporates trying to assimilate the indy feel of Shoreditch to make themselves seem cool and young, but I guess in this country the distant hum of the capitalist machine is ingrained in our culture and I’d be a hypocrite to say that I’m not a part of that too. Money makes the world go round, we all need to eat and I like my Adidas Superstar 2s. But if we can get some art into that mix too then it’s all good, and I think Shoreditch is transforming into a huge experiment to see if that’s possible. I’m excited to see what happens next.
G: Who/what are your favorite Artists/Businesses in the area?
I like Boxpark a lot. Like I said above they’re trying to marry commercialism and art and it’s an interesting mix. I think it benefits everyone involved. The brands get to seem young and to be rubbing shoulders with the art crowd, and artists like me get opportunities to share our work. More of this please! I’m also a big fan of anything in Hoxton Square. I cut my teeth as a journalist writing articles about the new web design agencies based there back at the turn of the millennium, so it’s got special place in my heart. My favourite little art spot is the billboard under the bridge at the junction of Kingsland Road and Old Street. I like the way that commercialism gets hijacked there. My top place to hang out, though, is Franco’s Café on Rivington Street. Nothing false about the place, and really the best coffee anywhere, ever.
G: What are your future plans?
My future plans are prett
y straightforward. Keep working hard to produce work that’s a challenge for me to make, and a challenge for people looking at it. And to make a living from it. And of course meet lots of interesting and fun people, and take their photos.
