Interview with… Benjamin Haywood

Photos by Benjamin Haywood.

1) Can you tell us something about you?
I just went to meet someone and ended up sitting on a bench for an hour in the freezing cold before coming home again.

2) Where do you live and work now?
I live in Uckfield, a town near Brighton, England.

3) How long have you been a photographer?
I’ve taken photos for a year and a few months.

4) How did you get into photography?
I really got into it when I bought my pentax.
I saw some guy at a carnival with a vintage minolta slr and thought it looked cool. I wanted a camera from then. Very shallow I know, but it’s different now. It is genuinely my love. Which is weird I suppose.

5) Where your inspiration comes from?
My inspiration comes from people on flickr and my friends who I photograph.

6) What does it mean for you streetphotography?
I’m not sure that the question makes sense. I’ll guess a bit. Street photography is to me, perfect moments of interaction between people and their urban surroundings. Looking to the masters of street photography this is what you will see. Bresson is an obvious one but he was pretty good. I like Donna Ferrato and also the Hamburger eyes photozine people do great street shots.

7) Can you tell us something about your portraits, what’s is important to focus for you?
Well my portraits vary from one to another by vast amounts. What I try to look for is a photo which captures their person, even if it’s staged, i’m not gonna make them have their head a certain way. I guess I also look for things I personally find interesting. I like taking photos of my friend Nick because is face is just so interesting. It’s a gift to photography.

8.) What are your future works, do you have a special project?
Well i’m gonna be working on some Polaroid project thing (with peel apart 669 film). I’m putting together the photos from an abandoned house I took the other week to make a series on it. A set called ‘a forest’ with loads of quite magical, surreal portraits in the woodland. And in about 2 years I will have put together a set from my year in Australia.