I mean, I do give physical directions, I say exactly where to be because I always want to go for something a bit staged – not in a sort of posy-posy way – I like working with shapes. LUCY: I guess the people in my best work are people that I’ve chosen because there will be something about them, not necessarily just how they look, but if I’ve got a good rapport with them. ZOE: There’s a definite glint, it feels almost as though if I look hard enough, I might be able to see what they see – you know that there’s something going on in their middle distance that is quite interesting… So, often, when I’m shooting, they’ve maybe been sat there for a while and not much has happened, so I think they’re probably more often than not in quite a calm, waiting state, which is probably quite a nice look to have. The way I work is slow, it’s not like ‘bang bang bang’. LUCY: I think it does have to do with the waiting, in quite a literal sense. Do you try to create this or wait for it to happen? ZOE: There is a lot of depth in your work, not just physically but emotionally, in the gazes of your subjects especially.
Understanding what’s going on, I feel like I connect more deeply with the whole process. As a photographer you can understand the process, how the light captures on the film whereas if you asked me to pick apart a digital camera and tell you what was what and explain the sensor, I wouldn’t have a clue, because it’s very, very complex. It’s not that simple, but if you compare it with the technology of a digital camera, it is fairly straightforward. I think, for me, I understand how film works. ZOE: What attracts you to film over digital? I always have this romanticised view of film over digital, capturing the moment, the physicality of it, as opposed to a clunky restructuring in pixels… LUCY: Yeah whereas, I suppose, with something like painting, there’s no edge, it’s just ongoing. I’m sure people, on seeing your woman on a boat, will be left with a lasting imprint, the boat in the real world, there’ll be the edges of this fantasy world pressing in, it allows the surreal to spread so much further, last longer, there’s an anchor. out of this one, carving a lasting access point, one of familiarity. With artwork, for me the only way is to escape and build a new world. Like why wouldn’t you? For me, why wouldn’t you just? We live in everyday life and everything around us is real and reality. Since the dawn of photography people have been manipulating it, so we all know that it can’t offer an entirely factual record, but having that hook… I don’t like using the word ‘fantasy’ – I always think there is probably a better word for it – but that’s essentially what my work is, and I’ve always been attracted to that side of it, I guess not really much deeper than that it’s just fun.
LUCY: And the fun with it is, from its invention, the whole pretence of the medium is that it was designed to record reality, and for me there is just so much fun in manipulating that. ZOE: That’s something I love about photography – being so reminiscent of reality, there’s a lot of freedom for trickery, it offers an alternative that looks familiar enough to completely change people’s perception of the things it presents. I’m not interested in capturing reality on its own, but I like the ability to keep a hook in it. As a medium, photography as opposed to, say, painting, offers the freedom to create fantasy while still keeping a touch on reality.