This interview is an unedited version of the text for which apears in the journal.
Why are you so pro-analogue photography? What does it offer that digital doesn’t? Personally I just like the grade, the way it seems to cloak everything behind a layer of silver that etches depth into my film, you can get a sense that the gelatine was once alive and it sings of organic life. I don’t believe that digital images have reached the same depth just yet, I have seen some astonishing digital art but subjectively speaking it doesn’t suit me and my specific tastes. I like to get my hands dirty too!
I believe you have about 30 cameras, could you say a little bit more about them? EG do you tend to use medium and large format rather than smaller formats, and if so, why?
Yes I am somewhat of a collector; I do use half frame, 35mm and all types of medium and large formats. I don’t have an 8x10 though, I wish I did.
Where do you get your cameras from? Is it expensive to buy them or are you a junkshop fan? Do you have your own dark room?
I really have to take advantage of whatever routes I can to secure equipment. There are a few little places around the country I like to frequent but I’ve always got an eye out wherever I go. The trick is to leave a request for something wherever you are, eventually something comes up. I do have a darkroom, it has in time grown in size, from my bathroom to small cupboards and now a whole room and now I am moving again so it will be larger still.
I believe you make up your own chemicals to develop your prints, could you say a bit more about that? Do you know what you’re aiming for each time or are you freely experimenting?
Actually yes I’m quite anal about the outcome, I am always after complete control, of course there are elements of chaos thrown in but nothing I can’t predict within reason. When I do experiment with a new technique I always practice it excessively before I show it to a wider audience than just my partner, I think I am quiet protective of that. I’m driven to experiment with mixing new chemicals and employing other home-grown techniques as I’m made constantly aware that more and more product lines are disappearing from our shelves. It’s one way of surviving in a world that desperately wants to kill off my medium.
I really like the hand-tinted look and colour of many of your colour images – are you hand tinting or is it all done in the developing?
This is certainly my most frequently asked question and in turn has made me rather a defensive person. It’s probably something I will never explain out and out. All I’m willing to say is it’s a culmination of processes; mostly done in the darkroom. I am a very silly and secretive person.
I believe you studied art before going on to do an MA in photography at Goldsmiths. What influence do you think this background has had on your photography?
Actually, I used to be a print maker; mostly specialising in etching and other print techniques. This made me accustomed to a long process involving chemicals to produce images. I think this coupled with my lifetime exposure to photography via my family eventually lead me down the path of more traditional, darkroom-based photography.
Which photographers inspire you? For example, the colours and settings remind me a bit of Bellmer’s Poupee pictures.
Off the top of my head I would have to say perhaps people who have shown dedication to the craft despite their short comings are more influential to me in an aspiration way i.e. someone like Julia Margret Cameron. I always remember this quote about her, from Lewis Carroll, “Mrs. Cameron will do better when she has learned the proper use of her apparatus." I disagree with Lewis, I believe that you could always see her energy and enthusiasm, nothing of hers was ever staid or lifeless despite the use of her apparatus.
You originally started out as an art photographer but now work in fashion photography. How did you make the move? Do you intend to stay in fashion? What do you enjoy about it?
I think this is a very good question and one I battle with myself. I really struggle with this conflict; initially I was really pigheaded about it and I refused to do something that I deemed commercial but now I have come to terms with what my work has become and I believe it has found a home. It’s become more (literally) clear in time and more overtly a marriage of styling and photography as opposed to just a picture by me. I do have every intention of staying a fashion photographer I am very passionate about fashion and its characters. So yeah I love it, I really do but it has become quite apparent to me now that I drift off into tangents and make stranger projects too, that don’t belong in the fashion world. I think it may reach a point where my personal and commercial work has a very clear divide.
You’re doing well with influential magazines such as iD, Vice and Tank, how did you get involved with them? Are there other magazines you’d like to work with, and if so which ones? I am very ambitious about my career and I hope one day to shoot for all the fashion bibles I studied as a teenager. I often try and back-track and see how I made those connections but it was just hard work and constant work flow until people stumbled upon the work and picked me up for a commission; I never really cold called it just happened organically. As for other magazines; somehow I seemed to have evaded many art based photography magazines that I admire, perhaps they saw me as too commercial or not experimental enough. Either way I would like to work with more art based publications too, I quite like Eyemazing they seem to be showcasing interesting pieces.
How old are you now?
I am 27 and 1/4.
I’ve noticed a few younger photographers producing work that’s got a quasi religious, pagan or Satanic edge (I’m thinking in particular of Tereza Zelenkova http://www.terezazelenkova.com/Tereza_Zelenkova/Supreme_Vice.html). Do you think there’s a trend towards cultish work at the moment? If so, why?
There most certainly is, I think it’s the resurgence of films like ‘Valerie And Her Week Of Wonders’ and films by Agento and various other notable films of that ilk. I think it’s quite obviously attached to the changing music scene and the use of the film footage in music videos belonging to ‘witch house’ bands. It seems rather redundant to mention that as a reason but I can’t see why else it would be so prevalent. This movement cropped up about 3 years ago as a backlash to its immediately thematically opposing movement known as ‘new rave’. It probably won’t be long before there’s a swing back to bright colours and optimism again. I admit that I do seem tied to the genre but I think the connections are questionable. This isn’t a personal choice of mine and has really been the result of gradual journalistic pigeonholing.
You’re really well connected online – how does that sit with the analogue photography?
I am very interested in the evolution of any artist’s online presence and I love the growing communities out there. I find it quite exciting that I get to talk to likeminded people about the future of analogue photography and see others doing the same. It seems the internet has made it much easier to bring so many people concerned for a dying art together to huddle and plan its survival.
Did you manage to get the book finished? When will it be available?
Yeah the book is very well finished and ready for print. We have had problems with the cover being printed. So it will be ready very soon, we just had to iron a few of the kinks.
Would you like to exhibit your work as well as publish it?
I am hoping to do a small solo show this year in London if things work out. I have issues with framing; as prolonged light exposure to my original artwork is quiet detrimental so I have to source the best filtered glass for my work.
I notice that you sell prints on your website – is each print unique, given the darkroom experiments?
I am afraid not, it’s hard to gage how much a handprint is worth, so to avoid the politics each print is a reproduction of the original. The images I sell are cleared for resale and not through any commissions.
Part two about The photo shoot Folly.
Is folly a personal project or a commission?
This shoot was a ‘test’. I had recently moved from London to Norfolk and I was experimenting with the idea of doing an editorial type shoot outside of London but still using the people I would in London. On top of that I wanted to make it quite ambitious to see how far I could push my professional work outside the bubble that London can be. So this became an exercise in my production and coordination skills.
What was the concept of the shoot?
It’s strange talking about these things, it is actually meant to be loosely based on Boudicca’s daughters before they were taken away from their mother and treated somewhat appallingly by the Romans. I chose this location as I had long been researching where her Iceni tribe were located, it was known to be somewhere near North Norfolk where I grew up and these were taken in that area. The reason it was called Folly as I saw as a kind of a false fashion shoot.
Have you worked with the models before?
No, another joy of a ‘test’ is to try new things, you are testing the models and the models are testing you.
Did you work with a stylist or find the clothes yourself?
I almost always work with a stylist but on this occasion, as it was a test shoot, I worked with my cousin (Yelena Buck) she is a budding fashion designer/ stylist and she picked out all the clothes and made many of the pieces too.
It’s long for a fashion story; do you see it as a fashion story or something else?
I certainly don’t consider this a fashion story but I would say it is defiantly a ‘story’, as I said before it is really an experiment in trying new things, in this case shooting away from the comfort zone.
It’s also unusual to mix colour and black-and-white in a story or project, why did you do so? Certain pictures, I feel, cry out for colour and some just seem to be strong and stand alone, I wish I had a better rationale to why this occurs. It just seems to be the way I envision certain images when I take them to be coloured a certain way.
How long did it take to shoot?
This shoot must have taken all day; it usually takes around 8-9 hours to shoot everything. We just made it in the nick of time as we had to get everyone back on the trains.
How did you find the locations? I usually find them as a reaction to an idea, I will decide on an area I will shoot and how it is relevant to the concept I have in mind. Mostly these processes are internalised I don’t tend to make a point of the concept outwardly; I try and name them so to reflect the notion or mood however.
Did you have each shot planned out before you took it?
I do, yes, I have a list of images before I shoot and how the story will run, for example I am planning a shoot for Tuesday with a stylist and we have a location in mind but we are meeting tonight to make a running order and to lay out exactly what will be used and how the story will progress frame by frame. So yeah they are all pre planned.
Thank you.
