Always nice to see when someone has a style off the glossy photography. Sometimes it’s the grainy and flickering images that make you start your inner cinema. We had a chat with London based photographer Jamie Noise about his inspirations, influences and about the toughest underwater shooting he had.
All of your work is analouge, right? Which camera/s do you use?
Yeah! That’s right! I use a lot of really shitty cheap analogue cameras that are stuck together with bits of tape. But I’d say 90% of what I shoot is either on my Canon AE-1 35mm camera, which was given to me by a friend or on a Polaroid camera which I picked up on eBay for £20.
Your photos are super creative and colorful. What are your inspirations?
Aesthetically I take a lot of inspiration from hallucinogenic experiences I’ve had on Ketamine and Acid. Just trying to recreate visually from memory what I’ve seen whilst tripping. I also take a lot of inspiration from movies, stuff by Tarantino, Stanly Kubrick and Gasper Noé. And I love the aesthetic of old b-movies and the poster artwork that went with them.
What are your influences besides youth culture?
Music. Movies. Friends. Drugs. London. Social Media. And other photographers.
“I like to create a visual hook, something you remember, or that stirs an emotion.”
A good image has to?
Make you feel something. Wether it’s good or bad. I like to approach my photography like a musician would write a song. I try to give my images a “hook”, just like you’d get a melodical hook in a song. I like to create a visual hook, something you remember, or that stirs an emotion.
What was the biggest lesson you learned being behind the camera?
I learn technical lessons all of the time. When you’re shooting film, with old manual SLRs, you always learn the hard way. I’ve had many rolls come back with all of the images out of focus or underexposed. One time I did an underwater shoot, in an outdoor pool, on the coldest day of the year in London. I was told the pool would be heated, it was not heated. The longest we could stay in the water for, before feeling like our organs were shutting down, was 10 seconds. When I got the roll back, not one image had came out. I only shoot in very warm water now!
” I love the aesthetic of old b-movies and the poster artwork that went with them.”
If we were to hang out in London for a night to talk about god and life, what place would we end up?
I live in South East London in a place called New Cross. I’d defiantly take you to my local pub, The Five Bells. The clientele is a bizarre mix of old London locals, musicians, punks, football hooligans and cross dressing art students. It is many things, but it is never ever boring! We could grab some Jerk Chicken from the shop across the road. Watch a weird art band and drink delicious dirty British beer.
What do you want to achieve in the next 5 years?
I’d like to have moved into motion film making, had my work printed in a number of publications, exhibited my work in different galleries and be doing photography as a full time job (I’m currently a graphic designer working on my photography in my spare time).
The most important thing in life is?
Living.
