When we first saw Oliver’s work we were STOKED. The UK photographer had a mixture of raw street documentary photography ranging from graffiti, mopeds, urban-wear, drugs and tattoos, and all of this contrasted with a lot of professional frames, textures and colors that most street photographers know nothing about. As we dug deeper into his IG profile, we realized there was a also a lots of intimate portraits that, unlike what we’ve seen within the British film kink community (that we also love), were clearly full of a masculine sensitivity towards sexual encounters. This is rare, and so is him. A rare strain of scary looking fellas with a golden heart and a brain filled with as many experiences as talents. Only 90’s kids with a in-and-out of technology life would understand.
In this interview he opens a door into his reality; his past, present and future, and how his shots are treasures that, if it wasn’t for his love for film, would be just moments wasted in time.
SO WHO ARE YOU
Who am I? I’m Oliver Cargill, OC, film photographer born in Yorkshire, living and working in the south.
CLICK HERE TO CHECK OLIVER CARGILL’S FIRST DGAF.WORLD EXPLICIT PHOTOSET
WHAT ARE YOU MADE OF
I’m made of water, oxygen, coffee and impure thoughts. Im a film fan, been shooting on film for 10 years already. It wouldn’t be life without it.
WHAT DO YOU DO/HOW DO YOU DO IT
Shit, just live my life and try to remember to have film in my camera I guess. Yeah, I think just being a purist and this avid film fan it just pushed me to constantly shoot no matter what the subject was. It was like, I had this urge in me to discover, so it didn’t take much me to grab a model or a friend or whatever, you know?, and just release something or, like I said, experiment, try something.
I think its this curiosity that seems to link myself and other film photographers, is yeah, is this curiosity. You wanna know whats gonna come from it, you have a feeling, and you kinda have an idea of what you want, and a feeling of why you’re doing it. But yeah is this “not knowing”; an itch that you always have to scratch, that it just meant that I was shooting naturally, I didn’t have to try.
So, how I do it, I’d say it has to be natural. I think as soon as photography work is forced to me thats when I don’t seem to enjoy it. I don’t see me working as a professional photographer; I had to do that quite a lot over my 10+ years working in the industry, but its something that, as you can find your style like, as all people associating you to a particular style then your work becomes more constant, the energy becomes constant, which makes it feel natural to me. So you take on the work that you actually wanna do.
GROWING UP IN THE 90’S V/S 90’S TRENDS TODAY
First of all I’m glad I was born in the 90’s. Seems like everybody is trying to go back in terms of music, clothes, and the imagery, but it’s cool to have been actually a 90’s kid, y’know? From the bad hair cuts, mom and dad putting you in some questionable clothes, having a youth that was surrounded by cool technology; playstation, the birth of the playstation, the N64, and if it wasn’t the tech I was looking I would have to be out, staying on the pit bike and mini crossers, so I really had an active childhood as well as an inside kinda geeky one, like I said with the playstation and all these other bits, and even discovered cameras and was being inched into cameras, and discovering my love for analogue cameras actually.
I’m just hoping that I’m always trying to kind of, retain it, even in my work. I think a lot people that have seen my work have come across the detail I got, like, it’s real, is old film. Ive never really meant it to be like that, but film has that power of nostalgia. As I got older I’m constantly drawn by my inspirations from the 90’s as a kid, and still be discovering new stuff and new bits of old technologies that I missed. And I think it comes back down to the curiosities of these things like ‘I don’t know how this camera takes pictures like’ or ‘how this old video camera works’ so, again I think it’s that curiosity. And that can’t be a trend. I can see now what todays kids are drawing from the 90’s without really living in them, so there’s not much truth in it. I think that for me and my photographs its all about showing the truth in either yourself or your subject or what you’re trynna put across. There’s no indoctrination, theres no photoshop. I don’t fuck around with none of that. It’s just, it is what it is. It Is what you create.
BEING 30+ AND STAYING CREATIVE
It’s all about having balance between the all. I have a partner, and a house and a cat, and a ton of responsibilities. So a lot has changed as I’ve got older. In my early 20’s I was a savage, I could afford to be rare. Now it’s all about the balance of staying creative, having your home life, social life, sex life, it’s all about balance. Balancing everything out, is just part of it really. Like there’s times where I hate social media, there’s times I really benefit from it. Times where I’m completely dropped off, others im in it completely. But yeah obviously comes down to balance between your work life, home life, love life, social life, it’s all really important. I would say I’m grateful for my growth because it has slowed me down and I don’t look for that instant gratification in my work, like in my photography.
BRIGTHER FUTURES: MESSAGE TO NEW GENERATION
I feel like, I don’t wanna point fingers, but I feel theres a bigger push now with ‘content’ and this idea that ‘I need to create content’ or ‘have I posted in a day or two’, and I think that then it pushes questions like are we creating work for instagram and for other peoples happiness, or ours? and thats the thing about growing that slows you down, and I’m grateful for that because I’ve got 10 to 12 hours to live the life I live, shoot it, and try to learn and grow every time I’m shooting.
