photographer: jonathan hallam

the other day i had a lecture at university taken by photographer jonathan hallam. to be honest, i hadn't heard of him really... but when i saw his work, i knew i recognised that from a variety of places. he was such a quirky, crazy and eccentric character.. really funny too. he had the whole lecture room laughing with some stories he told about himself, his life and well, just funny little things he said.

i found the whole lecture fascinating and i really love his outlook on the fashion industry and his story of how he got to where he was. he sent out some strong messages about individuality and being yourself within the industry, which i thought was really positive and very influential. his work reminds me of juergen teller's, using similar direct flashes of light for a vintage effect.

you will probably recognise this shoot of his mostly, it's from topshop's 'dress up' collection. i remember seeing the images plastered over the walls of the shop last year... and really loving the grimey, rough location. it contrasted with the highly embellished party dresses.

one thing that amazed me was that he shot these images, like he does all of his work, on film. i find it amazing that a huge high street brand like topshop didn't want to see the images immediately from a digital SLR camera, and they allowed jonathan to take the negatives away and develop them properly.

another thing i loved was that none of the images are retouched at all. he truly believes that "retouching is sick" and wasn't afraid to voice his opinions about the effects of retouch and airbrushing on society. i truly admired that. he never retouches his work, "the girls are beautiful why would i want to retouch?.. imperfections are beautiful and i'm attracted to that."

jonathan hallam, originally from yorkshire, started out as a hairdresser and then became assistant for renowned hair stylist eugine souleiman. who has created looks for everyone from givenchy to gucci, viktor + rolf to prada, you name it. so jonathan soon picked up the inside knowledge of the fashion industry.

he did an exhibition of experimental hair dressing for dazed + confused, in which he said "i pretty much destroyed their hair, kind of like anti-hairdressing" - alexander mcqueen himself attended the show. he also toured with the chemical brothers working on the lighting and projections of the show. he told us that he realised he wanted to become a photographer on his first fashion shoot where he was styling the hair, and never looked back.