I am a 25 year old film-maker and photographer, from London, I shoot on a Canon 5 and 7D with Canon /Zeiss and Leica glass. I studied Film at the London College of Printing.
My approach is to talk, I noticed a few years ago that the more I interacted with the people I was shooting, the more they let go. They stop posing because I wanted to know about them even it isn’t always a comfortable experience. It can be exhausting both shooting and learning about the trauma of people’s lives. But In the same breath it can re-affirm your commitment to making every day count for something. I have had people in tears on more than one occasion, just from recounting their year or their last breakup. The technique has helped me to cultivate the first glimmers of a style to my photos that I am working hard to develop, shooting every spare moment and listening when I need to.
I have always tried to shoot film and stills in tandem, not only because I feel like they feed each other terms of learning processes but also because, with film ,I find that the more I shoot the easier it is to pull things out of my head and get them on screen. Stills are incredibly gratifying when paired with video because all film work takes a long time, in both shooting and editing, but stills can be shot and colour corrected in a matter of days which keeps your energy levels up while working on longer videos.
I would like for my work to be commercially viable, but I’m always looking for subjects and locations that give me a little more. I find the hardest shoots, the ones where we are silently working. I’m far more interested in the stories that people weave around the events that make up their lives.