Milk Magazine

1. How did you start your photographing profession? Why do you love shooting?

I started photography young and I got a darkroom for my 15th birthday and started to experiment. I suppose I was just lucky in that I had access to an amazing shop near by that consists of two guys, a few old men sitting about and wall to wall cameras that you can buy for very little money. So I began working with large and medium format cameras early on. Nobody seemed to be clambering over themselves to buy these wonderful cameras in the part of the England that I grew up in so I now have a collection of cameras that can emulate many of my ideas relatively well.

I love to shoot but I especially love film, it adds to the artistic practise. I hand develop, print and treat the whole process from start to end and during that time an element of chaos leaks in. It has become obvious that there is an emergence of photographers that consider chaos and film as an intrinsic part of their practise. The inky blots and painterly looks are a result of film and experimentation. It seems now that the people who use film now don’t feel a need to make immaculate prints like the Hasselblad or large format slide users of the past used to because we have digital as an alternative to absolute realism. So the use of film as an art form is pushed.

I love the hands on approach to photography, by no means do I believe that it is the only form of photography I can respect but I do think that it is a method most suited to what I am trying to say and for others like me. I suppose it is a purist/ Luddite love of the medium and a worship of its chaos.

2. Your photos are about fashion and ladies? Or how would you describe your style of shooting?

Fashion, without realising it became instinctive to me immediately, as it conforms to my ideals of female beauty and works with my own beliefs of how to exaggerate what is already their in any woman. Until I meet (stylist) Katie Burnett I made all my own costumes and dressed my own models in the way a director would from a typical 60’s film by confirming to a Mise en scène or a controlled environment in order to spell out a narrative. But as soon as I meet Katie it helped to levitate my problem of saying to much or little at once, she always has a way of understanding my vision and helps to complete it with simplicity and effortless styling.  With out Katie I tend to dress the girls in nothing at all.

I use professional models as they are all well mannered and well trained to say what ever you want them too. They are fantastic actresses and an excellent blank slate for any artist to project themselves on to them, but the association with models is synonymous with fashion. I don’t always consider an image with a model in it to be a piece of fashion photography but others do. This is perhaps because current models are a hybrid beauty, creatures from everyone’s ideals. A universal amalgamation of beauties from film stars throughout the ages to histories models and muses alike. A beauty that is very much of our time. Models seem fit into my vision of generalised female beauty.  I consider my work to be a personal projection of myself onto other women in order to tell a story and fashion lends its self to that.

3. What do you try to say in your work? Or you just shoot with the intention to capture beauty? And what is most special part of your photos?

What I am trying to say in my work depends on which project I am working on, and wither it is personal or commercial.

My personal work is usually my interpretation of events past in the form of a ritual. A ritual that reminds us of greater power that isn’t necessarily real but serves as a placebo for confidence and intrigue. This is connected to philosophies I live by and the practises I have incorporated into my life.

Where as my commercial work deals with extracting as much beauty as I can find out of my sitters. I equate beauty with a sort of power that only few people regardless of shapes and size are fully able to utilize. It is that element in women I seek to bring out. The women in my images are usually strong and interesting girls I choose them because I know they can tell my story. They are empowered women, comfortable with themselves, and aware of their magnificence.

4. What inspires your work? Why are they so dark?

I honestly do not consider my work to be intentionally dark, but perhaps my personality sways naturally to the macabre so as a result it is unconscious.

I admire many authors from Dion Fortune and Aleister Crowley to aldous Huxley and Ian Banks.

5. Any artists or artworks you appreciate? Have they inspired you?

Aesthetically Fritz Lang’s film Metropolis is a direct influence on my work. It embodies many things I try to consider about the approach I have to image making.

I find myself drawn to an idea of ‘The future that never was’, or perhaps in my case ‘The past that never was’ implying that these movements are attempts at fictional interpretations to events in our history or future that seem plausible but in fact never happened (or will happen). There are many genres that conform to this ideal, like ‘Steampunk’, ‘Retropolis’, ‘Paleo-Future’. Paleo-Future particularly interests me as it referees to an outdated view of the future.  But I also really like the idea that I could be making images that might be mistaken for genuinely old photographs that might have represented a character in history lost in time.

As far as other photographers I regard Susu Laroche as a great pace setter. She  always raises the bar for what I expect of photographers at our age.

I also have great respect for Neil Krug, Harley Weir and countless other young images makes of a similar vein that stay true to the use of film.

6. Among your works, which one // series you love most?

Unfortunately (for myself) as soon as I have finished a piece I immediately hate it. Although I think this maybe a blessing is disguise as it spurs me on to make something I might be happier with, but alas I have not reached that point yet.

I think I may not be alone in this quest to get better it is just a natural destructive gene built into creative people. 

I like certain skills I feel I have got the hang of more than individual pieces, once I feel I have mastered that technique I feel happy that I can go on to learn another so not to repeat myself too much and to hopefully evolve with the time.

7. What does photography mean to you?

Photography is a voice for the thoughts I have and an explanation to something I would fail to describe in words. If you wanted to know anything about me it is all there in the photographs.