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Jamie Hawkesworth photographs situations that display everyday realities. He has contributed to several contemporary publications, more recently collaborating with J.W. Anderson and Sunspel.
From the post-industrial north, to train stations and suburban estates - he plucks his subjects from the street and places them into the prescribed context of fashion. These locations and street castings challenge the cyclical norms of the fashion images seen today. Considering every component to his photographs, including the channels of distribution - Jamie consciously toys contributing to these platforms and maintaining a creative distance to them. A good example of this is the production of ‘Preston Bus Station’, a newspaper comprising of incidental portraits - documenting the building, its iconic presence and everyday use. His process provides respite, viewing fashion from both within the field and outside.
Where did you grow up?
I’m from Ipswich. Which is alright. Not a lot goes on there, but its home, so I always appreciate going back. I was there until about nineteen and then I went to Preston University to study Forensic Science. On the course we had crime scene houses where we would take pictures of fingerprints and footprints that we uncovered. During that year I realised it was that aspect of the course that I was interested in. So after my first year I left the course to join Photography.
So it was a impulsive decision to become a photographer. Are your family creative?
Not really, my Mum’s a cleaner and my Dad works for an insurance company. So they’re fairly uncreative in that respect. My Dad always took hundreds of family holiday snaps though, which I used to absolutely hate!
What brought you to Preston?
At the time, I was looking to study Forensic Science. Preston was the best university for practical aspects of that course. As I had spent a year studying Forensic Science, I joined second year Photography. When I was taking photographs at the crime scene houses, I was shooting on a basic digital camera. But as soon as I joined Photography, I shot on medium format, which is what I shoot with now.
Did everything just click there and then for you when you joined the course?
No, not at all. I just kept taking pictures to explore what I liked and to improve. I spent almost every single day at university taking black and white photos, developing them and printing them. I was so grateful to find something I loved, I just concentrated everything on taking pictures. In the evenings I would spend time in the library looking at British photographers like Tom Wood, Daniel Meadows and Nigal Shafran. Everything about them was so brilliant, it motivated me and inspired me.
After graduating you went back to work on a project with one of the tutors, documenting people at the Preston bus station. How did that collaboration come about?
Yeah, that was with my tutor Adam. He does ‘Preston is my Paris’ which encourages the documentation of Preston. He shoots 35m black and white landscapes and I shoot colour portraits. We thought it would be a strong mix to work on a project together. When Adam told me the bus station was going to be knocked down, he suggested we document the last days of it. The station had lots of empty, unused shops. We rented a shop for the weekend, put a big banner up telling people who we were and stayed there nine till ten both days. I would walk around approaching the public to take their portraits. We later produced it into a newspaper.
What made you choose a newspaper format?
We handed about 200 hundred newspapers at the bus station itself. We had in mind that people would pick it up and read it on their way somewhere. We loved the idea that a thing we had just produced would be crumpled up at the back of a bus. It’s interesting to produce work that goes full circle like that and in some respects, ends up a part of what you were actually documenting.
You often use the public as your subjects. Is that a way of keeping an element of authenticity to your photographs?
Concentrating on the public, with a particular focus on teenagers, is very important to me. Adam, my tutor, always said to produce work that’s relevant right now, to the moment were living in and I think documenting teenagers allows me to achieve this, even if it's at a very basic level. It’s the simplicity that I really love about taking portraits like this and maybe that keeps things honest.
You recently shot teenagers for Man About Town up in Newcastle and in the past you’ve shot Liverpudlian girls for Ponystep. What’s your connection to that part of England?
I am always trying to keep the unpredictability of things to my photographs (in terms of where I am shooting). So that is why I like going off to places like
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