In The Middle
In profile: Adam French and cassio dimande Our Editor-in-Chief Safi Bugel caught up with Leeds-based photographers and friends Adam French and Cassio Dimande to dicuss influences, home developing and capturing Black communities and identities. When did you both get into photography and how?
They’re really beautiful photos, and they’re also really intimate- are they people you know or?
Cassio: In 2013, I was talking to a friend and he said he did a film photography project at his university, where they developed film. The reason he said that was because I said I wanted to get a camera but they were really expensive, so he told me about film cameras. He said they were dirt cheap, you could just get one off eBay for next to nothing. When I came back to Leeds from summer break, I went on ebay and bought my first camera. And then it got out of control after that.
Adam: It started with people I know, like Cassio, but then so far it’s been people who know people; it’s all been word of mouth. It kind of helps because it means the person who’s already had their picture taken can just be like “Yeah it was fine”. The way I photograph is probably a little different to other people; my cameras are very old and very obtrusive.
Adam: I don’t really know, I’m trying to think about all of them years ago. I think probably it started with my mum. She has a terrifying amount of pictures, of everything, of all things except from when she was young because they all got destroyed. So, I‘ve had some sort of weird obsession with taking pictures constantly, and then it turned into a uni degree and now I‘m still doing it. And my cameras have got exponentially bigger. Adam, was your mum a professional photographer or just a casual photographer?
I always find that when taking portraits, people panic and shy away, but I don’t know if I‘m just friends with a really insecure bunch of people (me included). How do you develop that feeling of trust and comfort between you and the person you’re photographing? Cassio: Safi, no way, your friends are not insecure, get used to it! Get used to hearing people flake or change their mind or whatever; it’s just part and parcel. As for sitting with people, I think just having a conversation with them. When they’re just staring at your setup, if you’re talking to them, they almost forget about it. Adam: Conversation is key.
Adam: She just carried a point and shoot. She just kept taking pictures and getting other people’s pictures and kept them all in one place. She’s got two huge boxes at home of just endless pictures she goes through every so often. Your mum must be a pretty big influence then, but for both of you: who or what inspires you when it comes to photography? Adam: Dorothea Lange, Edward Weston, Lewis Hine, Julia Margaret Cameron, Francesca Woodman. Cassio: Right now, it’s Pieter Hugo, a South African documentary photographer. I was given his book by an ex and I just kind of became obsessed with his documentary work in Africa because there’s almost none, it’s so hard to come by. Over time, it’s been people in my circles, so first I was influenced by Tom Porton, who used to own West Yorkshire Cameras with Nick Parker, and then I started shooting more black and white because saw Nick’s work and thought ‘ok, black and white isn’t just boring and moody’. And now I’m really influenced by Adam’s work, as he’ll probably tell you from the endless stream of questions he gets from me. So it’s always been people around me. If I know you and I really like your work, it‘s gonna have some kind of influence on what I’m doing.
Image: IMDb
Adam, I’ve seen a lot about your project on Black Identity, can you tell me a bit more about that? What influenced it, what’s your approach, etc.? Adam: There’s no big plan with it, I didn’t come up with it in a dream or anything, I just had a thought while I was on lunch with my girlfriend a few weeks before starting it. We were just sitting, having lunch, when a group of Black guys on the table next to us started saying “Brother! Brother! Brother!”. I didn’t react to that because it’s not something I naturally react to, but then they asked if I smoked weed, and I don’t, so I said no. I overheard them saying “he’s not Black enough”, so I sort of thought, what is Black? I don’t know, I’ve never known it from either side- I’m mixed race so I’m half Black, half white… I just see it from both sides in different ways. So I thought, after reading a few books on August Sanders, who documented people and life, I may as well have a go at it and just document. At the moment it’s just a work in progress of just taking pictures. There’s no massive idea at the moment, that‘s just what I‘m doing.
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So it’s always been people around me. If I know you and I really like your work, it‘s gonna have some kind of influence on what I’m doing.
Cassio, you also take quite striking portraits. Is the theme of exploring Black identity also a conscious decision for you? Cassio: No, I don‘t think so. I grew up in the US and then moved to Mozambique, where I was born- big identity crisis, right. I was like, I’m American, what am I doing in Africa? I really didn’t identify with being Mozambican, and just when I WAS starting to, I moved to England to go to university, so I kind of like finally got to a point where I accepted by Mozambican-ness, despite having grown up in the West. Like what Adam said, I get told I’m not African enough because I have an American accent, because I look the way I do, because I grew up in the West. So my work for a while was really centred in the West, street photography and portraits in the West. But now it’s moving more towards how I can represent Mozambique in the world. It sounds really ambitious but there‘s maybe like 5 or 6 Mozambican photographers in the entire country, publishing photographers who’s work is out in books or galleries
