front cover by ollie kirk
created by ewan waddell co-edited by robert mann thanks to: ato alexander lily bertrand-webb louis bever guy catling harry hitchens ollie kirk george muncey josh nice jamie sinclair siam jakob thompson alex tomlinson toby vernon dom white theo white aldwin teva william
for updates about future volume releases and collaborations follow @ewan.runescape on the gram
alex tomlinson (Photographer)
www.instagram.com/a.tomlinson_ www.instagram.com/a.tomlinson_film
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alex tomlinson
Where are you from, and how do you think that this has shaped you? I am from the grim northern seaside town of Blackpool. I think this has affected my images in the way that they are sort of gritty and truthful.
Who are the people in your photos? The people in my photos are friends of mine or just people that I meet when I am out and about. When taking portraits of people I did not know before, I usually spend around 10 minutes getting to know them and their story.
Why did you first start taking photos? I first started taking photos when I was skating with my friends, and the first camera I bought was a little Olympus mju 115 Zoom for £3 in a charity shop. At the time I only had my pocket money so that was really the only kind of camera I could afford, and at first I had no idea what I was doing and just pointed it at anything that moved. It was just a handy pocket sized camera that I could throw around and it wouldn’t matter if it broke, but I swore by that camera for many, many years until very recently when I made my first proper investment in the 35mm game; a Contax t2.
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alex tomlinson
Who do you look up to? In the photography world there aren’t really many people that I do look up to as a lot of the people with similar styles are just other people that are using Instagram to showcase their work. However, in terms of someone who does have a little more recognition, I do really enjoy Daniel Arnold’s work, and you can see how it has rubbed off on my own work. What do you want to do with your future ideally? In the future the dream is to hopefully be shooting for some kind of magazine. Whether that be fashion or documentary based wouldn’t really matter to me as I enjoy shooting both the genres just as much, and you can see the crossovers in both kinds of my work. You have two Instagram accounts, and on one you post only unedited film photos. Why is it important to you that they’re unedited? To me I think it is very important that they are unedited because I think that even if you are to just change the exposure and composition, you are not only beginning to taint the truth, but also you are taking away from the joys of working with film and a point and shoot camera. The photos aren’t perfect, they do miss the focus and the exposure is sometimes off, but that is the charm behind it, if you wanted full control and perfect images all the time then you might as well just have shot on digital.
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ato alexander (Music Artist)
www.soundcloud.com/thisisato www.facebook.com/thisisato www.twitter.com/ato_alexander www.instagram.com/ato_alexander
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ato alexander
Why was it that you first started writing music? It was just a way for me to say what I felt like and put it into words. I just felt like if it was documented and it was off my chest and on some paper then it was kind of like ‘finished with’… And also it’s because when I was younger, I started to face phobias and anxieties and stuff, so it was just something that I could talk to that had patience, you know what I mean? What influences your lyrics? Just life and things not always going to plan. It’s like when things don’t go to plan I kind of revert to music. So when things don’t go to plan in your life it’s actually kind of good for your music because it influences creativity? A silver lining at least? Yeah. That is kind of the comfort in music, that it’s a silver lining in my life, constantly. I think that’s the perfect way of putting it. I don’t know how people do it without music, like, sometimes I’ll be there like, down as fuck, and then I’ll just realise that I have music and I can just write. As soon as I realise that, I just start writing, and then I’ve expressed it and I’m writing it in such a way that I’m excited about it even though I’m writing about something negative. It’s just that because I’m able to write about it in a certain way, it’s making me feel good… and then putting it out and seeing people listen to it, it suddenly becomes a positive thing.
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ato alexander
The way you’re talking about music, it seems like it’s almost a kind of safety net for you. How do you think your life would be different now if you hadn’t realised it could be this? I actually don’t know where I’d be. Music allowed me to move to London, and before London I had huge phobias. There were times where I couldn’t step out the house, I couldn’t go past tall buildings or be in a city, I couldn’t be in crowds of people etc. And it wasn’t just music, it was the process, the desire I had to succeed that allowed me to push my boundaries and get to the other side of fear. Without that I wouldn’t have been able to progress as I have done.
I heard at the end of your song ‘Notion’ an excerpt of a recorded lecture by the Philosopher Alan Watts which I thought was quite interesting. What other forms of art and media are you inspired by other than music? Well I mean I’m at university studying Sociology, so the way in which society works is actually a massive inspiration to me and what I write about helps me understand my place within society you know? It helps me understand the divisions that we experience, for example only like fifty years ago you and me wouldn’t be drinking from the same water fountain. It’s just an interesting time to be alive, and compared to fifty years ago I’m privileged to be living the life I am now as a mixed race person. So yeah I’m very inspired by the changes and developments in society and how we’re still developing as well as slipping backwards.
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ato alexander
People like Chance the Rapper seem to have an ethos of independence, and he gives away a lot of his music for free, but do you think labels will always have more power over independent artists? Or will this sort of behaviour start a trend? Yeah, definitely. People like him and Tyler the Creator, they’re really positive, forward-thinking individuals who aren’t afraid to be themselves, and it’s really refreshing. So yeah, that’s the future… and I actually don’t give a fuck what labels think about me, swear to God. I don’t give a fuck what these certain platforms think about me because actually they can’t really do anything for me. All that really matters is that the music connects with people and the fans like it. But yeah, I think that’s the new way of really doing it, it’s quite exciting. It’s really exciting. It’s so cool to not have this dependence on a middle man who kind of holds the key to your future. Like all you have to do is put good music out, and if you stick together like the way in which ‘The Social Experiment’ have, or the way in which ‘Boy Better Know’ are doing, the world is kind of yours. You can do what the fuck you want. It’s really, really cool. And this is the first time this is actually happening now, it’s actually a revolutionary stage, cause I’ve been through it and even in the last six or seven years it wasn’t like this. People didn’t have that sort of vision. So yeah, it’s quite cool.
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ollie kirk
(Photographer) www.okirk-photo.tumblr.com www.instagram.com/o.kirk www.twitter.com/okirk_ www.shadowaxis.bigcartel.com
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ollie kirk
Your style of photography currently seems very lifestyle orientated. How do you see this evolving in the future? I think as my own lifestyle changes so will my photography... I look back to photographs I took this time last year and can see a difference. I don’t think that’s my style changing, I just think I do a lot cooler shit now and I’m surrounded by different crowds, or people in different places. Being the age I am also, I think it’s the best time to document my lifestyle. I hope one day to document other people’s lifestyles as well as my own, I’m just not in the right position to do so yet. And when do you see yourself being in the right position? When I’m finished with what I’m doing now. What is it you set out to capture when you are making an image? It’s always slightly different depending on my mood or location or what’s going on around me. I like to create moods, I want people to look at the images I’m taking and feel something instead of just looking. Whether that be through photographs at parties where people are dancing and showing their own emotions, or just an image of day to day life where people can stand in my shoes. Capturing people’s expressions is the best, combining that with colour and good surroundings often creates something I myself would like as a photograph. As long as I’m into my work I’m happy.
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ollie kirk
I’m assuming that the people you feature in the photographs you post are all your friends. How do they feel about the way you document your experiences with them? All my friends are mad creative anyway, near enough all of them are artists themselves so it’s not really anything out the ordinary it’s all chill. If my friends can use my photographs for their own projects then that’s wicked or if there’s any way to help them I will, it works both ways. Having photographs to look back at after times with friends is always cool and everyone’s into it.
How did you come to be friends with so many creative people? I don’t know it’s not as if it’s a forced thing. If you’re all interested in the same stuff and want to do the same stuff it just happens, I suppose working where I do helps also. Attending cool events which then leads to meeting new people is often where you meet the people you have most in common with and in most cases it tends to be an art form whether its design, photography or music.
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ollie kirk
A select few of the images you post are black and white. Why is this? I think there are certain images that as soon as I see I’ll know will look better black and white. It’s often photographs that lack depth or contain a lot of natural blacks and whites that look best. Especially with photographs taken using film you get a much more defined photograph which can make the original look so much better in my eyes.
What do you see in the future of film photography as an art form? I think film photography will always be more of an art form than modern day procedures like digital photography so there’ll always be photographers that want to shoot using film. I don’t know whether it’s the whole developing process or the attention required when using film that makes it so much more enjoyable. For the future I think we need to see companies produce new equipment to use with film photography, whether that be easier equipment to use for development or new cameras. However at the moment film photography is popping so that’s cool.
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aldwin teva william (Fashion Designer)
www.instagram.com/aldwintevawilliam
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aldwin teva william
When did the thought of pursuing a career in fashion first enter your mind? I was probably twelve or thirteen and we used to play this silly game where you guess who will be working with what when they grow up and a friend said that she saw me in fashion. I thought that was the stupidest thing I had ever heard at the time, but I guess it actually got into me.
Paris is the fashion capital of the world, but how has living there personally affected your fashion career? It’s a very stimulating city, since it’s Europe’s smallest capital city with the most inhabitants per meter square, it’s like an energy capacitor; it’s very intense and there’s a lot of energy everywhere. You can walk from one world to another, from a happy place to a scary one, into several different cultures. This is inspiring, but at the same time it can just suck the life out of you. However, I do think that if anyone wants to find him or herself, Paris is a great place to do so.
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aldwin teva william
Who or what inspires you creatively? I’ve always been taught to go and seek the inspiration; reading books, having art history classes, going to the museum etc. I’ve never liked this though, and I noticed that while doing this “inspiration quest” thing I was actually losing my own voice somehow. So now I just let inspiration come to me. It could be about last night on the dancefloor, about some guy I just met in the street and was wearing his jacket a certain way, about a talk with a friend, or about one of those sci-fi shows that I love. I am absolutely not one of those people who knows it all and is waiting on his computer for the pictures of the new Chanel show or whatever. A lot of people don’t understand it, or think it’s wrong, but who cares; my creative process comes from inside, not outside.
Over the past couple of months, you’ve been posting ‘behind the scenes’ pictures of what looks like an upcoming project. Can you elaborate a little on what this is? My main thing has always been clothing design, but as an artist I need to use other techniques to express myself. Photography is one of them. Those pictures aren’t supposed to be something finished or defined, it is more about capturing atmospheres, light and colors to use as inspiration for clothing design.
Through your Instagram feed it’s easy to get a general sense of your aesthetic fashion tastes, but how would you personally describe your own style of what you yourself wear? I went through so many phases, just experimenting on myself, I’ve never tried to define or give a name to how I dress. I guess I would call it clean sportswear. In France there is a cocktail called the cemetery, and it is made out all the remaining alcohol of each bottle present in the room. If the world is the room and alcohol are pieces of clothing or trends, my style would be “cemetery”.
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photo by Lily Bertrand-Webb (www.lilybertrandwebb.com)
siam jakob thompson (Photographer)
www.instagram.com/jakob.coy
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siam jakob thompson
Where did you grow up? I grew up in South London, near Croydon but closer to Beckenham. How has this influenced you? I don’t necessarily believe that it has influenced me as there wasn’t much I saw there or learnt there. Also my goals then were completely different compared to what I strive to do and become now.
Where were your goals then? Whilst living in South London, I was inspired to become a football player, a street dancer, or a songwriter.
Who are the people you take photos of? I try to take pictures of anyone as I want people to be acknowledged for their difference in society, whether that be their fashion sense, features, etc, but I tend to shoot people whose fashion sense differentiates them a lot in contrast to how most people dress which is not as appetizing. What do you think has shaped your style of photography? I spend a lot of my free time on the web exploring the work of professional and amateur photographers for ideas and inspiration. What I have discovered is that there is a lot of mediocrity out there and most of this is due to what I call a ‘lack of style’. I believe your style defines your images, and I don’t particularly think I’ve reached that stage to define my style of photography, but I am really inspired by Lise Sarfati’s work as well as Cary Fagan’s work and I would soon like to produce work under those lines, rather than the same old fashion photography.
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siam jakob thompson
What negative impacts do you think the Internet has had on photography as an industry? I don’t really acknowledge the impacts. I tend to look at old photographers and learn from them rather than the modern day photographers. However, I do criticise the internet world for sticking to specific types of people in the photography world, whether that be race, weight, culture/background etc. I believe that everyone should be allowed to have a say behind the lens.
Where do you see photography in your future? I would definitely like to pursue in photography as well as filmmaking, and hopefully I will, however if I don’t It will always be one of my hobbies and I will always have film cameras in my bag. All of your photos feature people. What is it in particular that draws you to portraiture? I believe you can read a lot from a person and one portraiture picture is like a question, well that’s if you contemplate whenever you look at a picture in which I do. A lot of photographers nowadays are going back to the old methods and shooting on 35mm film. Why is it that you cling to the analogue ways? To be totally honest I didn’t know what film was until a few months back, but from then I have always clicked with film. I think film has a lot more to say than digital, and I always say that digital is like knowing what you’re getting for Christmas.
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photo by Theo Whyte
toby vernon
(Streetwear Designer) www.instagram.com/tobbler www.tobbler.co.uk
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toby vernon
Why the name ‘Tobbler’? Tobbler is a nickname that my cousins came up with when we were children since my name is Toby. I have used it for many usernames on social media, but it wasn’t the initial name I had in mind for the brand, in fact it was one of the last ideas I had, but because it held more meaning than the rest it seemed most appropriate, so I stuck with it.
Where do you get inspiration for the designs you make? I gain inspiration from other artists like Egon Schiele, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Dryden Goodwin. I find the use of line with no tone a very minimal and satisfying way of representing a form. I found I can get inspiration from anywhere, films, collage and even strangers I see out and about who influence my ideas. I am continually trying new things and putting together clothes on my sewing machine, most recently inspired by 1940/60’s industrial workwear. I am always stumbling upon new influences and moving forward with my creative processes so it’s an on-going thing really.
The independent fashion world has become exceptionally competitive over the past five or so years. Do you think that this is a good or bad thing? I think it’s good, competition makes people want to do better which is essential to achieving high standards. People are starting their own brands almost every week so you have to strive to stand out among the others. Over the last year or so there has been a ‘’bigcartel boom’’ where everyone is starting to design, print and sell their own stuff including myself. This has really helped people to get their creations seen. It is all so easy and simple to do now, that is why so many people can, and are getting out there.
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photo by Josh Nice (www.instagram.com/joshnice)
toby vernon
What brands do you think are doing a good job at the moment and why? Well obviously Supreme is doing pretty well, if you can sell out almost everything you release you’ve got to be doing something right. Gosha is making a scene at the moment too; I rate what he’s about and appreciate how he is emphasising the ‘youth’ movement, although I think that the term is now overused and being thrown into titles to make them seem current. To name a few more, Margaret Howell, Sunnei, and Cav Empt are personally some of my favourite designers and brands at the moment due to their attention to detail and quality.
What inspired your new range? Mostly Basquiat, his works often involve skulls, and the same goes for Alexander McQueen. I also owe a lot to my time at college. In my second year of art I studied skulls for several months, experimenting with different qualities of line, techniques and mediums. Sculpture, etchings and mono-prints are all techniques that I practiced and are reflected in my designs. This adds a real uniqueness, each etching and mono-print will have different qualities from the last. A few of the key artists I studied at college were Chloe Piene, The Dine brothers and Alexander Calder.
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toby vernon
What scares you? I’m not sure if I’m at the stage where I’m finding anything particularly scary. I’m not very worried about what others think as I design the clothes for myself the way I would wear them, being able to sell them is an added bonus. Having said that I do ask for opinions from those I value the most, my girlfriend, my sister and my friends, as I know they can give me reliable feedback and I trust them. I’m always seeking advice in situations I struggle with and I’m lucky to be surrounded by likeminded, creative people.
If all goes to plan, where will you be in twenty years? Twenty years is a long time and considering I’ve only just turned eighteen, it’s hard to picture. Over the next five years I hope to have completed university and moved to London, but apart from that I’ll wait and see how it turns out. I’m keen to carry on with Tobbler and see where it goes, so far it’s been really enjoyable and as long as I’m having fun with it I can’t see any reason to stop.
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photo by Josh Nice (www.instagram.com/joshnice)
photo by Harry Hitchens (www.harryhitchens.com)
george muncey (Photographer)
www.georgemuncey.com www.instagram.com/gmunchiez www.facebook.com/gmunchiez www.twitter.com/gmunchiez
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george muncey
Where did you grow up? Just south of London in a place called Basingstoke.
You shot a series of photos entitled ‘At Home’. It seems like where you came from means a lot to you. How do you think it shaped who you are today? It’s strangely the opposite, the project formed over a fascination for a photo series based upon American suburbs, one day it clicked that there’s a bunch of people living in those suburbs wishing they lived somewhere else to take photos, like where I live. So I started taking pictures purely based by lighting and composition, finding a completely new take on how to photograph where I live. I think it’s a really hard task to take photos of your neighbourhood after walking through it all every day for 20 years.
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george muncey
Your ‘Youth’ series is a multi-media collaboration with (previously featured) artist Tyler Reed, and artist Maciek Wysoczanski. What was the intention behind this collaborative project, and how did the idea come about? Youth started through a sudden idea whilst browsing Instagram one day where I stumbled upon some artwork, I then connected with Maciek and Tyler on Facebook after finding their work on a mutual Facebook group, the Basement. We talked through the idea and set up the brief the same day, completed a test subject the next day, and wrapped the project within a month. For me it was really important that everyone was as important as each other throughout the process, showing true collaboration through our ideas and art.
Most of your portrait shots feature the subject directly addressing the camera, and by extension the viewer. Why is this? I’ve never really thought about this, I guess it’s just because I’m trying to capture a moment between myself and the subject, eye contact making this more personal and intimate.
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george muncey
From classical style street photography to colourful and vibey event photography to powerful portraiture, your current portfolio of work is very diverse. Do you ever see yourself reducing the diversity in your portfolio and being more loyal to a lesser number of genres? Yeah, completely, I don’t want to do half of the stuff on my site, but as it’s still a business and a source of income I can’t afford to not have a genre of photography on show in case I would potentially miss out on a gig because of it. My intention is to go fully into a mixture between street reportage and fine art, producing books and print. It’s a bit further down the line for now though. I do love taking portraits though, and it’s something I’ll always be doing of my friends no matter what I end up refining into. Which artists or photographers would you say directly influence your work? I’m constantly influenced by friends and people whose work I admire. I could list a bunch of older photographers who everyone would know, so instead: Two young photographers I love at the moment are Jack Latham and Sophie Green, their photos are beautiful, but the icing on the cake is the incredibly well thought out concepts for their bodies of work.
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dom white
(Graphic Artist) www.instagram.com/88lizards
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dom white
How would you define yourself as an artist? Even though I have a graphic style, I still consider myself a fine artist.
How did you develop your current graphic style? It started off as some lizards dancing in suits and fishnets but it’s now grown so it’s that I’m situating them in different environments, both on a page or in a painting. Then I thought that I could make them look good in stickers and pasted up posters as I thought I might as well do it where people can see them rather than as screen prints. Because the thing is, at an exhibition like thirty people might come and see them, whereas if I repeat this image of what I think is quite individual, on the streets, then you get more recognition for it.
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dom white
What have been some shaping points in your artistic career? In my first year studying fine art, because we had loads of lectures about fine artists creating ‘fine art’, I thought I had to create work like that, so then half way through the year I decided I wanted to change to a graphic art & design course because I wanted to make more graphic stuff. My tutor then told me to stay on the course I was on and that I shouldn’t feel obliged to make a certain type of art, I should just do exactly the type of art I wanted to. That’s when I started doing this sort of thing [Dom gestures to a large screen print of his hanging on the wall of his living room featuring a range of dancing lizards]. I just realised that I wanted to actually make stuff that I like, rather than make something that would just fit into what this ‘art world’ is asking for. It was just about making something that I wanted to do.
What was the first initial influence for the lizards? I thought that the artwork on Ancient Greek pottery looked really cool. It was all about that reversed colour, the hand gesture, the bodily pose, and the narrative or conversation between each of the characters. So I started off with doing that but with people in suits, and then I won this competition by Uni where I won a grand and a half to go to Athens - because of my interest in Greek pottery. So I went there for 6 weeks to look through all the museums and all the ancient stuff. I also painted a wall there. After I did a few people in this Ancient Greek style I thought you know, how can I make this weirder? Like more sort of violent and more sort of psychedelic? So I thought I’d give them some weird serpent heads and take away their eyes. I always think about the lizards being like this cult from the future, which is weird in itself because at the start they were influenced by ancient pottery, but now I see them as representing this futuristic dystopian race that’s sort of evolved from humans.
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dom white
When we worked at a print fair together, I saw one of your pieces and it was a scene of lizards dancing at what looked like a pool party in the 1970’s. What was the inspiration for this? That was the lizards lounging and being sassy next to a swimming pool with palm trees, and it’s sort of like all the lizards are representing this critique of the ultimate rich; they’re living this ultimate lifestyle of excess and wealth. They’re like a hedonistic party species… It’s all about them, it doesn’t matter about anything else, they live in the now, and it’s about having as much fun as they can, because they can, because they’re wealthy enough to do this. It’s like with virtual reality… I haven’t done it, but it’s like when you go into the virtual reality world, you’re not doing it to help other people, you’re just doing it to have as much fun as you can, and care about yourself… So it’s mainly about this ultimate life of excess. And I think as well with the repeated imagery that it’s quite like techno, so in that sense has connotations to the drug fuelled party lifestyle of the lizards.
So would it be fair to say that it’s all a social commentary on hedonistic, selfish people? Yeah, I think it’s like the ultimate one percent, as they are alien to us, and we don’t have a clue about what that lifestyle is about or what it’s like.
People like Dan Blizerian? Exactly yeah. It’s just like ridiculous and over the top. It’s sort of inhuman. That’s why they’ve become lizards.
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louis bever
(Photographer) www.shop.louisbever.com www.louisbever.com
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louis bever
You were born in Germany and raised in both France and Italy. How do you think that growing up in this nomadic lifestyle has affected who you are today? I think that I’ve had diverse influences in my upbringing which have helped socially. Communicating with people has been much easier and I have friends all across the world now. I’m also bilingual in French which has been incredibly helpful with my photography documenting Parisian skateboard culture.
You’ve obviously travelled a lot, but what’s one country which you haven’t travelled to which you’d like to? India or Iceland. I can’t decide. Why? Steve McCurry has definitely persuaded me to want to go to India through his work. There is so much colour and so many unique people there that I would love to capture through photography. The countries’ landscapes are beautiful too. It has everything there. Iceland’s landscapes are also fantastic. I would love to rent a car out with my friends or girlfriend and we could drive around the country shooting. I can’t drive and Iceland is big so I would need a traveling companion with a driving license.
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louis bever
You seem to live between two cities; Liverpool and Paris. Which inspires you more creatively? That’s a horrid question because I love them both equally. Both have incredibly diverse cultures and their own specialities. I’d hate to have a preference as I would offend either my English friends or French friends. I’m going to be sensible and say both. I apologise.
You’re regularly affiliated with the popular Facebook community ‘The Basement’, and you often shoot their clothing when they release it. How did you get involved in doing this? I’ve been on the Basement since October 2014 and it’s a great network for people to discuss streetwear, music and photography. I have received so much support on there and two of the admins asked if I was in Paris and the clothes were on my doorstep a day later. When I shot it, I just handed out clothing to skaters I knew in Republique (Paris) and shot them. It was a really enjoyable shoot as I love photographing skaters and the lighting was great. Just briefly for people who don’t know, what is The Basement? The Basement is a Facebook group which allows people with similar interests to communicate from all over the world. The main topics of discussion are fashion, music, photography, art, and advice for those who have their heart broken. People get quite personal on it which intrigues me. The Basement has blown up massively over the past year. Do you think that this is good or bad for its wellbeing? I guess it is a good thing. When I first joined, it was great and it is still great but now there are more people with more interests. There are now more and more photographers who I find amazing on there and I get inspiration from them.
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louis bever
Your photos seem to consistently possess the theme of subtle yet powerful, gold tones. Why is this? Portra 400! If you buy good film then you’ll get fantastic results. I love the quality of the film and I have never been disappointed with the results, even if it does leave me in a dire economic situation.
Are there any particular photographers who inspire your work? A huge amount. My photography taste is split into 1920s-90s Paris, War Photography and Skateboard photography. I love Willy Ronis and Henri Cartier Bresson. But I also love Richard Mosse and Don McCullin. However I also love skateboard photographers like Ed Templeton and Atiba Jefferson. A huge mix really.
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louis bever
You’ve previously said that you enjoy documenting student culture in Britain. What makes it so appealing to you? A lot of people go to university in our generation and have great stories to tell. However I would love to have great stories to tell along with a picture that captures the moment. I always have a camera on me. I love that I could be at a house party in Liverpool and see a fantastic moment and just be able to capture it on my little Contax T2. Although lots of people have point and shoot cameras or disposables, I like to use a lovely camera with fantastic film in it. I capturez the moment but I am also happy with the quality of the photo.
Almost all of your photos feature people. Why is this? People are great to shoot. Yes, some buildings may seem lovely but they don’t change. People change facial expressions and move constantly. They’re interesting to shoot because you can catch a person in the perfect moment doing something incredible and no one else would have that same photo. However hundreds of people would have the same photo of the Eiffel Tower. I like unique shots.
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guy catling
(Streetwear Designer) www.thedopelyfe.bigcartel.com www.instagram.com/thedopelyfe www.thedopelyfe.com
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guy catling
What’s the significance behind the name of your clothing brand ‘Impossible Conversations’? Pretty much it came from me and a few of my mates having proper trippy conversations and asking real weird questions to eachother like ‘what is space expanding into?’ . Just questions that are impossible to answer but really interesting nonetheless.
Some would say that a lot of your designs are very morbid and dark. What would you attribute this to? Haha yeah, a lot of them are. I’m not sure really, I’m mad inspired by death and graveyards and shit, like how life such as flowers & plants can come from something that’s dead and forgotten about like a grave or grave stone. It’s all about interpretation really, on one hand my designs are dark, but then if you look at them in a different light they can mean something else. I love hearing peoples thoughts on the designs, everyone is different and that’s tight. What other brands are you inspired by? Damn, there’s so many brands I’m inspired by for loads of different reasons. Obviously I’ve got to say Supreme is a big one, just through how they market their products and how they have made such a huge impact on streetwear culture. But damn, Set, Palace, SCRT, there’s too many to name.
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guy catling
You’ve been running your brand for quite a few years now. What have been the main struggles and barriers you’ve had to overcome to take your brand to where it is today? Yeah it’s been stupid long already, but I wouldn’t change it for the world. One big struggle working for yourself is obviously money, consistently earning enough is crazy hard, and fuck getting a job so I’ve got to stay on it. Other barriers can be inspiration, as sometimes I’m totally uninspired and I can’t come up with any designs. Advertising too, getting your brand out there is probably the hardest part. All these famous cool people are impossible to get hold of or they want loads of money for one Instagram post or something. Fuck doing that.
What scares you? Sometimes I think the future is scary in a way. When you don’t have any path mapped out and are sort of taking it day by day; it can get pretty scary if you think about it too much. But then again that shit is kind of exciting, keeps life fresh. I can’t think of anything worse than having some sort of daily routine that is stale as hell.
These days there are more clothing brands than ever which makes the market extremely saturated. How do you feel you’ve differentiated yourself from other brands like yours? Yeah it’s crazy, the Internet has opened up doors for loads of people which is great, but I guess I’ve developed my own kind of style and I try to just make stuff that comes from inspiration around me. I try to make my stuff not look like anything else, but like you say it’s so saturated eventually someone will give me shit for biting someone else when I haven’t at all. It’s crazy.
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guy catling
Well now that you’ve got some experience in clothing, are there any other creative enterprises you’d like to experiment with? I think it’s great to experiment with as much as you can in life, as that way you get a taste of things you like and things you hate. I want to get into cooking and food, I think it’s cool if someone is a really good cook and can whip up some fire dishes. I would also like to get into painting and drawing more but I have very little patience so I’m struggling with that, plus my girlfriend is an amazing artist and watching her easily paint some mad scene gets me extra annoyed haha. There’s loads of different ways to express yourself I guess, and I just think it would be sick to master a load of new skills.
What are your main non-fashion related sources of inspiration? One of them is definitely collage art. That sounds weird but I find so many amazing collages that are both handmade and digital that give me so much inspiration. The amount of trippy stuff that I’ve seen from collages is so great, and a lot of time it’ll spark an idea that I’ll use.
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guy catling
What does the word ‘Inspiration’ mean to you? For me inspiration is pretty much everything. Literally I just take in everything every day; my brain is a sponge. Like I’ll get on a train and look at the overhead cables and concrete steps on the station and get an idea for a T-shirt design or a shoot location. I’ve always been quite observant to my surroundings and I think I’ve just carried that through to my practise.
What do you want to do with your life? Sounds corny as hell but I just want to live my life having a sick time and make some money at the same time. I definitely want to carry on with Impossible Conversations, it’s a huge blessing that people actually fuck with me and I can’t thank the supporters enough. But yeah like I said I don’t like having too many plans, I’ll just see how it goes.
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jamie sinclair (Photographer)
www.instagram.com/jamiesinclair92
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jamie sinclair
How would you define yourself as an artist? As an artist I’d describe myself as an immersive photographer with a strong passion in design for print. You’ve mentioned to me before that you spent time living with a woman who was an ex drug smuggler and you made a book about her life. Can you go into detail about how you met her? I worked with her in Marks and Spencer’s. Ah, the infamous breeding ground for drug smugglers. Haha ennit. She was sixty four and the first thing she ever said to me was, “If you hit me with that box one more time I’m going to rip your fucking head off.” – I was basically changing the boxes in the tills and I kept accidentally scraping the back of her leg when I was walking behind her. How is it you ended up living with her? At the time I was making a magazine about cats, so she was like, “Oh you should come to mine I’ve got 4 cats.” - So I was like perfect and I went on down for dinner one day. When I was there though, she came down with these massive photo albums and then put the biggest bag of weed I’d ever seen on the table and was just like “Do you want a joint?”, and from there she just told me all these mad life stories. She was showing me photos like, “Arh yeah this is from when I went to Jamaica when I was twenty to smuggle back a couple of ounces of hash oil.”
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jamie sinclair
Where was she from? Well she grew up in Scarborough, but when she was sixteen her Dad, who was a proper bastard, forced her to move to Canada. She then ended up sort of running away from home and living in this place called Yorkville which was where all the hippies hung out, and then she ended up moving into this University. I can’t remember what it’s called, but it was an experiment where the students were also the teachers, faculty and everything in what was supposed to be this self-sustained university, but it all went tits up and just became this massive hippie hangout policed by the Hells Angels. Then all the drug smugglers moved in and that was like the calling point, and all the drugs would come into there. From there her life just went haywire.
How long did you live with her? I lived with her for six months. I mean I had my own place in Leeds, but two or three nights a week I’d just sleep on her sofa just getting stoned and listening to her stories.
How did you get her to open up so much to you? I think my main way of doing that is so that it’s not about the photography. I would say that I was her friend before I was a photographer in that situation.
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jamie sinclair
What are your thoughts when it comes to documentary photography in vulnerable situations where the subject’s dignity may be compromised? That’s where the morals come in. You’re telling such a truth, and expressing such an honesty of it, it’s then like you almost feel guilty for giving such a truth and such honesty to such a delicate situation… So it’s that balance isn’t it, and it’s also about just having balls to say yeah… like yes, I’m going to document this, I’m going to tell people about this, because people need to see this. I think those are the strongest photographers, the people who can stand their ground and say yes, I am going to do this because it needs to be told… and that’s a really hard thing to be able to do. It’s something I often struggle with… I find that I have to really get to know the people and situation first. Create a mutual respect and understanding, to show I have good intentions. You’ve spent a lot of time in the Calais Jungle Refugee camp. Why did you first go there? Well the main reason I went is because I was sick of hearing all these racist slurs and negative views of these people; I felt like I shouldn’t have an opinion until I actually met them… and my opinion now is that they’re amazing people.
Are you going to go back again? Yeah, I preferred being there. I feel this insane amount of guilt being here. Every day I’m going to work thinking ‘I should definitely be back there’, so I’m quitting my job. I’ve handed my notice in and I’m leaving at the end of July.
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jamie sinclair
I understand you’ve started a charity. How did this happen? I got back from Calais the first time and I was talking in a bar to someone about the trip I’d done, then someone who worked on the bar overheard me and told his friend who then called me and asked if I’d be willing to exhibit my photos and do a talk at their event. They wanted to start a charity so we met up in Leeds Student Union and just hit it off… that was probably back in October [2015]. So after that we did an exhibition in November and raised some money, then we did an exhibition in December and raised some more money, then we did a weekend in December [in Calais] spending the money that we’d earned. Then we came back and we did a big exhibition and big talks and raised a lot more money, and then we did a week in January… So that’s the concept that we work with, and they’re all really passionate about it, and they’re really passionate about the morals and everything. One of the girls, Makele, she’s basically been there since we started, like she’s our direct correspondent and she’ll tell us how much and what they need, and then we’ll try putting an exhibition on here, and a talk, and then she’ll get the money directly into a bank account and she’ll distribute it where it’s needed.
Do you have any projects you’re working on now you can talk about? The past eight or nine months I’ve been working with this old guy who’s addicted to buying books… I mean literally addicted to the point that he’s become a hoarder and his home is basically buried under books and other crap. It’s caused his family to abandon him. So I’ve been working with him trying to clear his flat. Documenting what’s happening, how it happened, and him in general. The mad twist though is he was actually a psychologist back in the day so he knows what’s wrong and how to fix it but it’s just such a struggle as he’s in so deep.
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thank you
rear cover by george muncey