Oliver Hadlee Pearch remembers first picking up a camera as a small child. “I don’t think I was very good though,” he laughs, “I had too much ADHD.” He started thinking more seriously about photography at 16: “I loved sitting in cars, watching everything pass me by and watching the light fade… The light is what fascinated me.”
Today, 24-year-old Hadlee Pearch is in demand for his filmmaking skills – his trio of music videos for Jungle featuring street dance troupes, roller skaters and a six-year-old breakdancer are mini masterworks – but fashion photography is his first love.
“Fashion was always something I was drawn to,” explains the regular contributor to Dazed & Confused, i-D and Wonderland. “It’s like a piece of invisible string that pulls me in. I want to take soulful fashion images, with a personal feeling… Aura is a weird word and it makes me think of hippies, but there is definitely an element of that in my work.”
MY PIONEER HERO: José Mourinho
“C’mon, he’s the manager of Chelsea – what else needs to be said? He’s just special. He makes you believe that you can take on the world!”
