Why did you start taking photos?

I can’t quite remember why, but it resulted in lots of shit photos of flowers, dogs, old people, and street signs. Flickr helped a lot though, I couldn’t have really asked for a better source of inspiration, which is being constantly updated. I need to mention the photographer Brett Walker, who has undoubtably shaped my work, the man is an absolute genius, and has been mentoring me for the last few years. Without him I would still be stuck potatoshoping photos to death, he forced me to think about the actual taking of the photo rather than slapping on the photoshop. Now I take photos as an addict, I need a camera on me and I constantly need to think about the next photo. Most of my friends have become immune to having a camera shoved in their face.

Did you take photos as a child?

No, I was a massive drawer, and spent much of my childhood obsessively drawing dragons, I was always that peculiar kid in the library reading the hobbit slightly too obsessively. But yeah I have always been doodling and painting, taking photos has become more and more of an obsession. It stresses me out to leave the house without a camera.

Your images are all quite dark, can you tell us a little about that?

I wish I could claim to have some desperately murky past to make me seem far more interesting, but yeah it was pretty normal. I wouldn’t say I set out to be dark, but maybe it is an aesthetic. To be honest smiley people don’t make good photos. They make nice photos, but nothing that is going to make you stop and stare. The best time to photograph someone is when they have had barely any sleep and look rough as hell, because at least then you are getting them, not something that is planned. It is the spontaneity which is the most important, the unplanned which always work best. I definitely am not a ‘dark’ person, I am stupidly optimistic about most things to be honest. I find it weird when people ask me what a photo means, and if they do, I always lie and say it is about sex. I don’t think my view of my pictures should be the correct one, the best thing about art is that people invest their own meaning into it. But I rarely set out to make a photo mean something, in that thinking process it becomes a contrived meaning. Obviously every photo is personal to me in some way, but it is the need to try and grab a single moment or feeling which is far more exciting. If a photo turns out a certain way, it is usually totally by accident.

Where do you want to end up in terms of work?

I always wanted to travel and I always loved drawing/photography, and thus always had it in my mind I would try and do something that would enable me to do both. Ideally it would be the freedom to be constantly taking photos and having an excuse to tear round the globe. If I a made a bit money at the end of the day, it would be a bonus.

Jack Davison

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