EJ: A lot of your images appear as diptychs, how do you go about pairing images together?
CT: Pairing images to me is a craft in itself. When you look at how photographers like Albert Elm or Paul Kooiker pair their images, it becomes clear how much of an important part it plays in how the viewer reads them. I’ll put images aside for years waiting for the right picture to pair it with. With the right pairings, you can give something a new lease of life, and thread this needle of narrative through the pages.
It’s all about sequencing and picking your punches. You can’t just go full throttle with powerful images one after another, people need a breather, something to punctuate your images with. I like the democratic nature and consistent rhythm of the photobook, every image the same size, it lends itself to pairing and sequencing – they all get the same sized platform to sing off.
EJ: How did growing up in Yorkshire influence you?
CT: I liked growing up in East Leeds, I’m a proper home bird. I live in London now, but I’m in Leeds three weekends out of four every month usually. I miss home loads, so I want to be back all the time. I’ll always go back for Leeds United games. I think some of the interiors you see in the book show my background, my nan’s house, Crossgates Snooker Club, and pub carpets. When you’re a kid in those environments, you don’t realise you’re soaking it all up, and now they seem to leak into my work without ever really thinking about it.
Those environments, alongside things like my dad’s work, seem to influence my work. My dad is a welder, and one of the first zines I made Problems… Problems…Problems… Solution. was all shot in factories with him welding. When I was a kid, I would always go to work with my dad during half-term or holidays, just to save me dossing around. Eventually, I started to bring my camera, probably out of boredom. I think the ‘hard graft’ mentality of my family has always helped me to keep churning out work. Photography is easy really, you can’t be complaining about it, and I don’t think I’d get too much sympathy from my family anyway. The artist Allan Gardner, who wrote the foreword for At Least Until The World Stops Going Round, said “Yorkshiremen love to speak in metaphors.” I’d never thought of that before, but, when I think of listening to my mates or my dad, I realise we do tell a good story. I think that helps me when taking photos, it’s that same knack of storytelling.
