Jessica Gwyneth
by Kaitlyn Bullen on 16 October 2015
For today's brand new art we heart, we revisit the work of amazing London based photographer and stylist Jessica Gwyneth. We chat to Jessica about subcultures, her aesthetic, zines, and the link between fashion and music.
Hey Jessica! Tell us a little about your current creative endeavors... I’ve just got myself my first styling job with a large retail company, which means I’m moving to Birmingham in a week or two until Christmas// the New Year - a whole new city to explore, creatives do discover and collaborate with, as well as being in the same city as one of my favorite artists Elizabeth Isley which is a perfect excuse to work on a little something together again. I’m also just putting some finishing touches to the second issue of my zine Hullu that I’m going to be self-publishing soon. Hullu is a visual record of a generation who are chasing their dreams, showing the spirit of youth - the resilience, the purity and the total self-belief. With the second issue being an insider’s document of young musicians in their intimate personal spaces – be it their studios or bedrooms –created to share the inspiring subcultures they belong to with the wider world.
How would you describe your aesthetic? Has this changed over time? If so, what do you think developed it? I would say my aesthetic is subcultures what I do isn’t just about the clothes but the people, their attitudes and inspiring lifestyles and capturing that in an honest way. I am documenting a contemporary subculture. My photography and styling is a reflection of all the creativity I’m surround by, presented as a fashion statement. I think everyone’s aesthetic changes and evolves over time as we continue to grow – spending so much time in London over the past few years has definitely been a developing period for me.
What are your current inspirations? Tell us about your creative process. What would usually be your starting point for a shoot? Music and fashion have always been intrinsically linked – one wouldn’t exist without the other - an inspiration I like to bring to both my styling and photography - the expression of style and sound - be it a recent shoot I did with Laura Allard-Fleischl where I used some Yak and Kid Wave band tee’s and a custom denim jacket - to documenting musicians through photography in their tour vans/buses, studios or bedrooms. My creative process for shoots always starts with a person or a place, and connecting the two, then bringing in clothes to create work that is the end product of a shared energy.
You are both a stylist and a photographer – do you think you would be able to give over one of these roles to another, or are the two intrinsically linked for you? I always had the idea of being a stylist I kind of just fell into photography, I did the first issue of my zine Hullu and it just clicked and now I can’t stop taking pictures of people and places. I’ve collaborated with photographers where my role is just the stylist and I only collaborate with photographers whose visions I trust, but I’m yet to be the photographer and not the stylist. Usually when I do photography I do the styling too, but I am up for collaborations I just find it harder to find stylists with a similar vision compared to photographers. ?
You have shot various look books for fashion brands, most recently The Whitepepper. How do you strike a balance between your aesthetic and the client’s vision? Whilst shooting for a brand I think it’s a good opportunity to combine the two visions to create something new, something that’s a little different to my usual style keeping with the clients vision and something that stands out from what the brand have done before bringing my aesthetic to the images.
What is your favourite shoot to date and why? Do you see your shots as separate entities or part of a larger, inter-related body of work? It’s so hard to pick a favourite, the shoot I did with Sean Semmen just before he died was really special the lighting was just magic and almost rainbows appeared across him when I got the film developed, it was possibly the hardest shoots to edit down too as each image just nailed exactly what I wanted to say perfectly. I also collaborated with photographer Paola Vivas and styled a shoot for DNA magazine, which was the first time that I collaborated with another photographer and I couldn’t have been happier with how the images came out. I like see what I do as all part of a larger, inter-related body of work documenting the time we are in rather than separate entities they all connected, everyone I’ve worked with knows or knows of each other – it’s such a small world!
What would your dream shoot look like? Which other creatives are you a fan of at the moment? My dream shoot is forever changing every time I do a shoot I always say it’s my “dream house” I have almost a wish list of places that I really want to shoot in. A dream would be to travel doing shoots with creatives and shooting in creative spaces.
What can we expect to see from you in the near future? In the near future you can expect the new issue of Hullu zine, another zine of a series of pictures I took of a bunch of Politically Involved Girls in their spaces called P.I.G, and a couple of look books and lots of collaborations!
