180 magazine

Tell us a bit about your background and where you are now? Hi 180, I studied at Goldsmiths, so I have a traditional art background, I foolishly did an MA in photography only to realise I never needed to. Now I’m trying to figure out where the boundaries lie in personal work and commercial work. I’m currently roaming around England with my other half searching for locations to shoot in. I’m in an odd place. I may want to re answer this in a few years. How did you get into photography? It is difficult really to clarify this and I have been asked it a lot, but I think it really just comes down to early exposure to these things. I was always surrounded by pretty cameras and associated them with toys I wasn’t allowed to play with, driving me to become wildly obsessed with the whole process as I grew. Any stories about your early career? Big breaks? Disappointments? To be honest I think I’m still waiting for big breaks, photography is a funny career to gage. I still live in New Cross in London with my boyfriend; moaning most of the time that I’m broke and on top of that analogue photography is infinitely more expensive than digital, so any payment I do get goes straight back into fuelling my wanton addiction to photography. So I suppose that the whole avenue is a disappointment really. What are your areas of specialization now? Tell us about that field? Any hints? I specialize in Darkroom process, so the only hint I have is experimentation. What is your approach to work? For instance, if it's fashion or commercial do you use a team? I do have a team. I work with a hair and makeup team, an assistant and I work very closely with the stylist. I guess I spend the most time with the stylist before and after the shoot to fully understand the vision in my aesthetic and their vision for the clothing. How do you shoot your personal work? Personal work, is something I really yearn for. So I may just do a test for an agency or use a friend to experiment with and I approach the shoot with an agenda or focused vision that I let unfold when I get to the location I have chosen. there isn’t really much more to it than that, it is like a snoot to the flood light of imagination. Were you always interested in the areas you shoot or have you changed your focus? I don’t really know what you’re asking me here. Who are your photography heroes or mentors? There is a man called Mike Ware who is a modern day pioneer in the art of alternative processing and all things experimental in the darkroom. We converse often and I am meeting with him soon. I would consider his books and work a mentor. Where do you get your inspiration? How do you keep your work fresh? Honestly, I’m just restless. In sleep and mind and well everything. I have a short attention span and I’ll change my mind in a second. So I don’t know, I just do, I can’t explain it. Are you making a living at photography? Any hints for those starting out on how to make a living? Who are your clients now? Yeah it is my job. All I can say is try to be as honest and different as you can be. I’m currently working on Charlotte Olympia’s look book with Valentine Fillol Cordier for LFW. What are your goals for the future? Who or what would you like to be shooting? I would like to make more films, it’s an itch I just can’t scratch enough at the moment. Most of the people I would like to shoot are dead. ABOUT THE SHOTS IN THIS STORY: Two of these are images of muses of mine, Yasmina Dexter and Hana and to be honest they are just extractions of feeling or thoughts that I don’t want or feel I have to deal with. They are visions I have. They are personal, but they have heavy input from stylists Matthew Josephs and Katie Burnett, two people I really feel I can share my visions with. Hana and Yasmina are fully in tune to play the part for me, they know and understand me and my thoughts well so they owe to the visions. The others are Fashion Images which I enjoyed shooting with Linda Portman Sagum, Mathew and Katie. Everyone I worked with here is a visionary which is such a rare talent. Do you have an overall style or aesthetic for your photography? An artist's statement? Any final advice for young photographers? I’m not sure how to answer this, I don’t have a statement, I’m far to impulsive or restless to have ever written one. Mostly I feel exhausted by art and how much it pulls out of you. I am a young photographer, so not really. All I can suggest is to be ruthless and blindly persistent in pushing whatever angle of photography you have settled with, don’t listen to people who tell you that you should compromise, you are, after all, the one with the visions.