I think whether or not the body is politicised depends on the interpretation of the person viewing it. To me, a body is a body. It's a beautiful if not completely normal thing, which we all use as a machine. I often tire of my body's constant upkeep: pissing and eating, shitting and watering... yawn. Whereas to a person from a different generation or from a different culture, a naked body is an emblem of taboo. I guess I like the flexibility of its interpretation. I also just like tits.

I think photography can allow the exploration of a subject to a certain extent, but when compared to my other practice of painting, it's actually fairly limiting. We recognise objects and people in a photograph pretty immediately, and in this we find familiarity. People like to understand shit, so most tend to prefer photography as a medium compared to painting (especially abstract painting). With abstract art, it’s all about interpretation: finding emotion and meaning within a puzzle of new, deformed and unrecognisable shapes and shades. So, compared to painting, photography for me is actually quite safe. It is, perhaps, quicker to portray a message within photography, but painting allows for that message to become far more transcendent.

If you mean beauty as a social construct, engineered by capitalism, then there is definitely mundanity in that. Beauty in its truest form, by default, can't be mundane. Saying that, I think I do tend to lean towards finding beauty in the mundane. I think most photographers seek to do that, as it's seeing the unseen and bringing attention to what most people pass by that we enjoy. It’s nothing new: finding beauty in ugliness, or humour in the darker parts of humanity. It'll never dry up as a creative source; there will always be a plastic bag caught in the wind that causes a photographer to have an American Beauty moment. There are probably eight dudes with a camera totally transfixed by a Lidl bag as I type.

I like being present in my images sometimes. The fact that I am of a similar age and the same sex as the models I shoot is also a positive thing for me. I think it’s nice to remind people of that important element of empathy by using my shadow, or a toe creeping into frame. The taker of an image can dictate how it’s viewed by an audience. Knowing a photographer is a sex offender or simply a straight cis male can totally alter the perception of a sixteen-year-old girl's portrait. Whereas if that same image was shot by a woman, or perhaps a friend, that uncomfortable intimacy becomes innocent and real. There can still be sexuality to it, but knowing the subject is comfortable and in a non-compromising position gives it a sexiness I can feel good about. Her comfort and confidence is so much sexier to me.

Fashion is so weird. Everyone is such a freak in fashion and, albeit full of contradictions and faults, it's a world I enjoy exploring. The platform it gives my work is ideal. To put it bluntly, fashion photography allows me to make a career out of shooting shit with a degree of artistry and politics on a consumable level. I'd feel I was preaching to the converted if I just shot fine art photography for obscure art galleries, and in the interim complained about working three bar jobs to pay the rent.

Tomato, my parrot.

I've never really thought of it like that. I guess if you consider theatre as everyday life (meaning ‘all the world's a stage’), then yes. I like to imagine that what is going on in front of the camera would be happening regardless of my presence. The aim usually is to create something as ‘uncomposedly composed’ as possible. I'm a bit fed up with morosely static fashion shots of bent over girls looking down the camera lens.

I am very into Chris Killip and Nick Waplington at the moment. Their by-chance compositions and the real life moments in their images is something I'd like to reinterpret and use in my work. People stepping out of frame as if bored with the image entirely and anti-photography rule breaking makes me very happy.

Getting to know yourself by interpreting what's around you.