BELOW SURFACE:
INTERVIEW - JESS FINE
Words: Samuel Edwards
Photography: Jess Fine
WE RECENTLY SPOKE WTH BRISTOL BASED FILM PHOTOGRAPHER JESS FINE - DISCUSSING HER INSPIRATION, DAILY LIFE + COMMUNITY.
It wasn’t until Jess started shooting film around 6 years ago she discovered her passion for photography. Whilst shooting snaps of her journeys travelling and partying through Europe in 2017, Jess started to build a repertoire of documentary shots, being supplied a camera by her grandpa before travelling she’s defined her style along the way.
’I remember just taking a load of random snaps of the people and places that we were coming across, usually of me and my friends getting mashup on a beach in Croatia or at a club in Berlin. I realised how much I loved documenting youth culture and that I wanted to continue doing just that when I came back home’.
It is indelible that Jess’ style comes from a place of heart with her love for youth culture, its distinctive in her work, capturing what it's like to be a youth in today's modern climate. ‘I am constantly feeling so inspired by the creativity within my community and I love the whole attitude of no one really giving a fuck about what anyone thinks. People are free to be whoever they want, entirely free of judgement. I have so much love for the people around me’. Her shots are a window into her life as a young adult exploring her new home in Bristol, which she has been exploring for the past 5 years after moving from London.
Jess has a regular day-to-day life which we can all relate to, recently picking up a super bad habit of being sucked into a Spotify hole until about 4AM - but haven’t we all! Other than that she’s been exploring Bristol, enjoying cycling around capturing shots of her life, her circle of friends and community on her Minolta Syntax 5 and Olympus OM10.
There is nothing which brings me more joy than getting a roll of film back. Whenever I’m doing a shoot there’s always at least one shot which I’m especially stoked to see the turnout of. Even if it comes out completely out of focus, it still feels dope as it brings such a strong sense of nostalgia to that exact moment when I took it. I feel so blessed that it has become my job to hang with such amazing people and just capture them doing life.
With Jess’ work constantly growing she has so many plans upcoming, recently working with Dazed at Wide Awake festival she tells us ‘Young Jess is screaming about that!’ She’s working on an ongoing project producing a book, which is now in the making to be released soon .
‘I’d like to think that my work is super authentic in presenting a raw depiction of my daily life, as well as incorporating the freewheeling and spontaneous energy of what is existing around me. I always struggled really hard with having that mindset whilst growing up. It’s awesome how I’m able to represent that mentality now from the people around me as well as within myself’.
