Tell us a bit about yourself and your background;
I grew up in Perthshire on the east coast of Scotland. I came to London to study photography at LCC. Dropping out pretty quickly! For many reasons. Not being able to afford it was one of them. I managed to get some assisting work and found I learned more in 3 days of that than I had done in 6 months at university. I grew up skateboarding and certainly initially got into photography through that. Skateboarding and photography were an escape for me back then, a distraction. I would say photography still is. It’s a great way to document life. My friends and family would agree my memory isn’t the best.
“Editorial projects seem to be increasingly more commercial in their nature. By that I mean to say they seem to be far more dictated by a brand to seem more like an ad campaign.” – Douglas Irvine
As a young photographer, is the dichotomy between editorial projects and commercial jobs creatively frustrating? How do you navigate this?
There are quite a lot of people that would argue there isn’t such a dichotomy between editorial and commercial jobs at the moment. Perhaps only from a financial aspect. The impact of the pandemic, a general disinterest in printed publications (no thanks to Instagram!), and a realization from brands that they can just as easily create their own platforms are all contributing to a big shift in the editorial world. Editorial projects seem to be increasingly more commercial in their nature. By that I mean to say they seem to be far more dictated by a brand to seem more like an ad campaign. I guess the aesthetic that is popular right now seems quite pared back as a result. This certainly presents a challenge to make it interesting at times if only for myself. It’s all forcing us to get more creative. Which can only be good!