I first came across the photographer, Jamie Hawkesworth (b. 1987, Ipswich, UK), thanks to his cover for Vogue's 'Reset' issue last August. We've probably all been struck by the beauty of reeds glimpsed at sunrise or sunset, be it in a city-park with half a pond or by a lake deep in the countryside. Actually bringing out the beauty of such a view can prove tricky though. With this image, Hawkesworth succeeds in turning something fairly everyday into something magical, while crucially (from Vogue’s point of view) capturing the mood of the first national lockdown in which many of us found solace in nature amidst melancholic, tumultuous times. Through Hawkesworth’s lens, these reeds glow in a fiery light, their tips resembling candles blowing in the wind.
I then realised I'd seen his work on the cover of Vogue only a month before, his portraits of Covid-19 key-workers featuring on the July 2020 'The New Front Line' issue. Both sets of images appeared as though lit from within and were infused with a rich, caramelly glow. Since then, I’ve discovered these warm buttery tones are a trademark of Hawkesworth’s colour photography, a simple but incredibly effective way in which he makes an image his own.
Talking on the podcast, Talk Art, he states
"When I first started travelling around England...it would always be quite cold, and once I got the pictures back, it didn't feel as optimistic as I would like so I started to warm up the pictures a little bit because I wanted the pictures to feel very optimistic and celebratory of a place."
Hawkesworth’s first photographic series was shot using natural light in Preston bus station, the north side of the station creating cold light and the south side bathing his subjects in a softer, warmer light.
“Your relationship with colour is so important, and the way you interpret colour and what it means to you, and I think once as a photographer you can understand your pallet then you can start articulating that in your photographs, and you can tell when that’s someone’s picture.”
Hawkesworth’s warm colour pallet is now a part of his aesthetic DNA, even his images of the Antarctic, one of the coldest places on earth, featuring tones of ochre and sepia:
When it comes to colour and composition, many photographers are understandably inspired by painters. Hawkesworth’s dusty oranges, vibrant yellows and warm browns remind me of English Romantic painters like Constable and Turner. These very famous landscapes make it look like the sky was permanently on fire in the early 1800s. New research indicates that the eruption of the Tambora volcano in Indonesia in 1815 sent large volumes of ash and gas high into the atmosphere which then spread around the world, giving Britain incredibly intense and otherworldly sunsets.
‘Teignmouth’ by Turner is one of Hawkesworth’s favourite paintings:
Hawkesworth is lucky enough to have his images exhibited in art galleries, as well as in travel and documentary editorials and fashion magazines. It’s easy to see why The Gentlewoman magazine recently commissioned him to photograph the highly romantic Knepp Wildland, a major conservation area of 3,500 acres in West Sussex where, since 2000, nature has been left to govern itself free from human interference.
Hawkesworth’s route into photography is a fairly unusual one, as it was only whilst studying Forensic Science aged nineteen at the University of Central Lancashire that he first picked up a camera. On his course, mock-crime scenes were staged for the students who were taught how to piece together clues and document evidence with the aid of a camera. Hawkesworth transferred to Photography in his second year and immediately learnt how to shoot using a medium-format camera (rather than the standard 35mm process taught to students in their first year of study).
Perhaps his introduction to photography via crime-scenes has made his images all the more truthful. “Honest” and “truthful” are words often used to describe his work, Edward Enninful, editor of British Vogue, stating “Jamie’s photography is always very honest.” You feel, even in his fashion photography, as if layers of ego and artifice are being unpeeled so that the humanity, truth and essence of the photographic subject is exposed momentarily to the camera. Take, for example, the photographs he recently took of Kate Moss for i-D magazine:
Kate Moss resembles both a time-travelling Julia Margaret Cameron muse lost in reverie, as well as just being herself, as natural, unfiltered and emotionally open as when she posed for Corrine Day at the start of her modelling career.
Hawkesworth’s nature photography has also been incorporated into his fashion campaigns, this image of a tree creating a beautiful diptych, its twisted, sun-drenched branches complimenting the model’s flaming coppery locks and the purpley-blues of her clothing.
Hawkesworth cites Paul Nash as an influence.
Whether shooting in black and white or colour, Hawkesworth has a knack for bringing out something romantic and dreamy (or “optimistic” as he might say) about his subjects, whilst also depicting them simply as they are with a sharp, almost scientific precision. His photos present us with a more sophisticated, “authentic” version of Instagram’s ‘Golden Hour’ hashtag, which has become a sort of photographic genre of its own, used by people when they post selfies of themselves at sunrise or sunset, the light creating a natural filter which flatters the face. Ultimately, the cult of #goldenhour has a universal appeal that transcends time and technology and that speaks to our very human love of sunlight, and therefore of life itself. It’s probably no coincidence that, amidst uncertain times, the art and fashion worlds have embraced Hawkesworth’s vision so strongly, thanks to his love of light, his respect for the natural world, and perhaps most importantly, the way his photographs present us with optimism and hope.
