Roughly six weeks have passed since my initial email to Laura about a possible interview. She agreed instantly, but it took us a while to meet. Frankly, from what I knew about her – a working editorial photographer, an artist travelling for her personal projects, judge of WorldPress photo awards – it surprised me at all that she found the time to meet.
Eventually we arranged to do this interview on the 1st of January, a day when for many of us getting out of bed is already a challenge. Laura came to see me straight after her yoga class, for which she not only got out of bed, but also charged across town. And that’s exactly how I imagined her – a doer, a talker, a lovely person and a great choice to start this website.
I chose Laura simply because I just love her work. I knew she was young and accomplished which often makes for an interesting person, but I chose her mainly because I love her pictures; the way she perfectly sails the line between documentary and art photography.
Laura comes from artistic family – her father is a photographer and at the age of seven she recalls hanging out in the studio drinking cans of Coke and watching her dad develop images and experiment with darkroom chemicals. However, she didn’t take her first picture until she was 21. After successfully completing a foundation degree in art at Central Saint Martins, foundation degree in photography at LCC and receiving a BA in Photography from University of Brighton, she went on to assist other photographers and began developing her own work.
- Who were your role models (real and/or fictional) when you were little? What about now?
I’ve got so many, and I’ve got so many for so many different reasons. There’s people that have inspired me and then there’s people that, I don’t know, like Annie Leibowitz and Diane Arbus. They are a huge inspiration to me, but I’ve never met them and I’ve no idea what they’re like. Their stories, journey and their representation of themselves is just so iconically inspiring, it’s astounding. The way Annie Leibowitz is not pigeon-holed – she’s not a photo journalist, she’s not a fashion photographer, and she always takes her subject and does something creative with it. Like she paints the Blues Brothers blue. She doesn’t just take a picture.
Diane Arbus is somebody I relate to in a real ‘lone-wolf’ way. I think I have a very romantic attachment to herself and her work. I read her biography recently and I just related to it unbelievably. It frightens me how much I could relate to it. Then there was just a whole other layer of respect that I formed for her and also envy her relentless ability to just take pictures and do nothing else. It’s an addiction for her. The reason she was taking pictures and the reason she went out everyday to take pictures came from a really true place. And I think with the overconsumption of photography, when you become a photographer you’re almost expected to take pictures. And as soon as you expect something from an artist or a photographer there’s a danger of it becoming a burden or a responsibility. I think that it just reminds me when I think of her work, why I love taking pictures. Why I want to go out and take pictures. So instead of reading her biography and thinking ‘oh my god, I need to take so many more pictures’ I thought ‘ ok, I need to just decide whether I want to take pictures and I need to do it because I really want to do it. I don’t want to take it for the sake of it.’ But I think I kind of always felt like that. I think I used to take more pictures. Definitely. I used to go out more.
My mum has always been a huge inspiration to me. More of an inspiration in regards to her strength. She has an absolutely incredible sense of survival, like nothing is impossible and nothing is unachievable. It’s this kind of stubborn mindedness, and I really feel quite grateful that I adopted that, because it’s almost like when I’m faced with a challenge it’s like – this will happen. It is such a useful tool, when you’re faced with something really terrifying, urgent or important. So she’s always had that. And I think that’s come through struggling financially as I was growing up, although she tried to hide that from me. Her answer was always ‘We will survive, it’s fine’ and she worked three different jobs as a single mum. She really worked hard and she just loves and supports me beyond belief and offers me a very honest opinion which is quite difficult to believe when it’s coming from your mother, but also when it’s brutally negative as well and constructive, then it’s really helpful.
Simon Roberts is a huge influence for me. He’s a photographer that I assisted for about three or four years. And he’s a mentor for me as well. He’s just been very influential and very generous, supporting me and mentoring me and he’s not only a great photographer but he’s also a great person. And he’s very together. And I’ve always been really scatty and all over the place. And sometimes I just need somebody to pin me down and to hold me there and he’s always been able to do that for me. So he’s big.
So many inspirations from Kafka to David Hockney… I could go on…
Some teachers when I was younger. For example I did not get along with my photography teacher at St Martins and I only had him for 10 weeks. And I remember the first time that I took a picture and I came back into classroom and he said – ‘how long you’ve been doing photography’? And I looked at him and said ‘five minutes, it’s the first picture I’ve ever taken’. He said ‘I don’t believe you’. And I was just like ‘wow you don’t even like me and you’re giving me this compliment’. And that compliment totally gave me the confidence to continue. I kind of think that if he hadn’t given me that compliment, I don’t know if I would have continued it. I was so lost at St Martins, I was getting through that course to prove to myself that I could do it in a survivalist way. Nobody ever said I was good at something before then, so I thought ‘I’m not sure if I believe you, but I really really really appreciate that’. So even though I didn’t get along with him, he clearly helped.
And I had really good art teachers at my secondary school, good maths teachers. Now I’d say I turn more to podcasts and books and films than I used to. I used to just look at photographers and painters. And I wouldn’t really collaborate with people, where as now I find inspiration in collaborating with set designers, art directors. I totally enjoy doing that now. And other photographers! I never thought Id be able to do a project with another photographer. I always wanted to, I always said to other photographers who’s work I loved – ‘we must do a joint project’, but deep down I knew that it wouldn’t work. I knew we both wouldn’t be able to let go as much as we wanted to. However, I have actually ended up collaborating with one of my best friends on a project and it was so fun and so natural and it doesn’t feel like we’re treading on each others toes, it feels like we’re lifting each other up. It’s really nice.
- What do you value most in yourself? And in others?
What I really respect in other people is often things that I’m lacking within myself. But also… it’s easier to start with what I disrespect in other people. I disrespect people that fear to change. It’s not like I disrespect them, but theres a lot of photographers out there who are scared to fail and I think that losing and failing is such an important thing. Oh God, there’s so many things that I respect in other people, like bravery, courage, independence, selflessness. Generosity – is a massive thing for me. I really hate dishonesty. It’s one of my main things that makes me disrespect people so much. I just hate it. And when people abuse power.
There’s a family who supported me for a few years now and actually I think they inspire me more than anyone else in one way – which is their unbelievable ability to accept and include people and show utter generosity. They have such a warm and generous presence.
There’s a lot I don’t like about myself and I’m learning to accept that, but the things I hope I can be and I hope I can value is my ability to always want to be a better person. And my ability to be honest. I like the idea of progression and self development as well as acceptance. I think the two are very intertwined. I don’t believe in changing for somebody else, but I think it’s important to self analyse, it’s important to look at the parts of yourself that you do dislike and ask yourself why they exist. Sounds very self absorbed, but it has such an impact on other people, a lot of the time its just because you don’t want to hurt the people around you. My job is to connect with people and if I don’t try and become a better person then they’re going to suffer, because I’m not gonna treat them the way they deserve to be treated.
- What was the hardest decision you had to make?
It’s a really good question. I’m faced with difficult decisions a lot. I think the most difficult decisions come from the burden that I just can’t create work without removing it from my identity. I’d love to say that I don’t give a shit about what other people think, I’d love to say that, but I know that a part of me does. In an ideal world – I would just take pictures and I’d run off into the mountains and be really happy. But I have to live and I have to survive, and I’ve chosen the career of a photographer and it’s something I’m really glad I did, because I absolutely love it, I wake up loving my job. But the burden that comes with that is that I have to promote myself to make work and I hate self promotion. And self promotion is such a revealing thing. It is also a misrepresentation of who you are because you have to blag it. If you hate your work you still have to be like ‘ hey can I come and show you my work’, even if it makes you sick, you have to do it, because you won’t make money, and if you don’t make money, you can’t walk around taking pictures. So it’s a double edged sword. Saying that, I’m lucky to have a job I love.
- What’s the most ambitious thing that you have accomplished?
Maybe surviving off photography. Making a living. Touch wood. The hardest things I’ve done aren’t to do with photography.
- What is success for you?
Success for me is happiness in loving what I do, having good relationships with my family and friends and creating, learning and growing. And, lastly, taking risks. That for me is success. Yes.
- Five famous people at your dinner party. Who are they?
Oh good one! Diane Arbus definitely, without a doubt.
Jesus – why not. Theres so many… Kafka – he’d be fun, I think maybe Annie Leibowitz, because I have quite a lot of questions for her. And Rick Mayal. Yeah. I’d love that – Rick and Jesus, right?
- What advice do you wish someone had given you when you were a teenager?
There’s a lot of things that I ‘regret’, but all the mistakes that I made totally shaped who I am. Like everything is part of the journey, right?
I think I wish to learn to love myself and be kinder to myself a bit more. But then I don’t know… all teenagers are angsty and have low self esteem, so I don’t know. Maybe just to be a bit braver. Take more risks.
- The best and worst things about my job are…
Best things are – I do something different every day, my time is my own, I am constantly challenged, it’s unpredictable and there’s no end point… ‘oh if I get here I’ll be done’.
The bad things – is what I said earlier – the idea that I can’t separate it from who I am, that I have to self promote, that if I make mistakes sometimes it can hurt other people.
- Describe yourself in the words of someone who’s in love with you.
Haha! The only way that I can answer that is from what other people have told me and from how well I know myself. I’m going on the basis that – if you’re in love with somebody you kind of put up with their shit and the flaws within them actually become endearing. So I would say impatient, a lone-wolf, unpredictable, curious, adventurous, honest, romantic and loving.
- Who would you like to nominate to answer these questions and why?
OK, so if it’s a man – I would say David Eagleman. A woman – Theresa Breuer, but you’ll have to be quick as she leaves London in a month!!
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