I hope they are fun. There are a lot of quiet, moody photographs around now – whimsical, waifish young people staring off into the distance. I don’t mean to denigrate that style, but I think there’s a bit too much of it around. I like pictures that feel like a real moment when someone is having a good time. I think it’s harder to shoot something like that than someone looking all deep and thoughtful and mournful. So yeah, I guess I try to get that kind of atmosphere in my pictures when I can.
On your site you have a photo of an old man blowing an incredible amount of fire out of his wrinkly old mouth. Who is he and is that real?
Yeah, it’s totally real. Danny Lynch is his name. He was an old circus performer called The Great Stromboli. It’s part of a series I did on ageing rebels and mavericks. That photo was taken in front of his house in Manchester.
Is that his wife in the background? She seems pretty unconcerned about the whole thing.
Yeah, she was going into the house to make a cup of tea. She said, “Cup of tea darling?”, I said OK, then all of a sudden he was blowing fire and she was dashing off to put the kettle on. With the dog and the station wagon in the photo too, it was a very suburban backdrop.
Speaking of the juxtaposition of his wife going to make tea while he breaths fire, that sort of contrast seems to be a loose theme in some of your photos. Like the black guy with the swastika tattoo, the crazy tribesman hanging out in a snowy suburbia, and the naked bald man sitting on a bench next to a couple of squares.
The tribesman that you mentioned was from a tribe in Papua New Guinea. They were visiting a family in the mountains in Wales. But I’m glad to hear you say that, I think you’re right. I’m working on a project for a book and the idea is exactly that: cultural contradictions.