LPA FUTURES 2023 / TIM JOBLING

Now that the Futures 2023 winners have been announced, we thought we’d take the opportunity to introduce you to all three of them individually.

First up we have Tim Jobling, known for his eye-catching pop, flash photography style, we sat him down to get to know him a little better.

Great to have you as part of our new Futures line up. Congratulations! What inspired you to apply to Futures?

I’m absolute thrilled to have been selected as one of this years futures winners! I’ve followed LPA and the photographers they represent and been aware of the futures competition for a number of years. I’d always been interested in the winners when they were announced and I’d thought about entering in previous years, but I don’t think I had the confidence in my work before now. 

The reason I decided to enter this year was that I’ve worked really hard on getting my work to a place that I’m happy with, I’ve spent time refining my style so it’s very recognisable as my own, as well as putting time in to my brand as a whole so I’m making work that I really love and hopefully resonates with people too. I’ve always loved what LPA do as an agency and the type of work that their photographers make, it’s got an uplifting feel and centres around the moments in life I love to capture myself. I thought it would be great to be part of their roster of photographers and have access to their expertise to help me get to the next stage of my career, working on larger scale shoots with bigger clients and I’m super excited to see what the next few years have in store!

What are you mostly looking forward to in the next 2 years of being part of Futures?

As a freelancer It’s very difficult to know if the work you’re making is right or not and a lot of the time you’re just guessing as to wether you’re moving in the right directions. You can ask peoples advice and opinions on your work but you never know if they are being truly honest! The thing I’m most looking forward to is having the input of Lisa and her team on my work and having some honest critique. Knowing there is someone else who is looking out for you and making sure you’re heading in the right directions is going to be invaluable. As I mentioned before having the access to the knowledge of everyone at LPA to tap in to is going to be amazing and I really can’t wait to get stuck in and work on some fun shoots together.

How did you get into photography? 

I would say I first got in to photography through skateboarding, I used to take my dads old 35mm camera with a fisheye gaffer taped to the lens along when we would go out, and I loved shooting pictures of my friends skating, but I quickly realised it wasn’t necessarily the skate images that were the best but more the shots of my friends hanging out and messing around that were the most fun. I started taking the camera along whenever we went out and would just shoot whatever was happening. After skating it moved on to music when we all got in to various (terrible) punk bands, I would take the same old camera along and shoot the chaos that unfolded at the shows. By this point I had started a photography A-Level, and we had an amazing teacher who introduced us to the idea of making more conceptual work and experimenting with different lighting and techniques as well as developing our own black and white film. All of this really cemented my love of photography, although I had no idea at that point that I would make a career out of it, but here we are!

What were the main things you learned while working as a photo assistant?

Assisting taught me a huge amount about working in the photo industry. It gave me the opportunity to work in lots of different areas of photography that I wouldn’t necessarily have done so otherwise, and I found that even if these aren’t areas I’d push my own work in I was able to take elements of what I’d learnt and apply it to my own practice, giving me a much broader technical knowledge. However by far the most beneficial thing about assisting was getting to work on all different sizes of shoots and really getting to see how they run, what helps the shoot go smoothly as well as problems that you can come up against and how to work them out so you always end up with the best result for your client. Meeting people and building relationships at that early stage was invaluable in helping me when I made the move from assisting to shooting my own work.

Your work is very bold and colourful, how did you adopt this style?

Colour has always been important to my work. I want my images to be fun and uplifting and I think colour always helps to bring out those positive emotions. Early on I was drawn towards shooting Artists and crafts-people, all of which are still subjects I love to shoot, and in most cases colour was a huge part of these peoples practises so I wanted to get that across in my imagery. What’s interesting is a lot of this type of work can go the other way, it can be fairly soft and desaturated, and I felt I wanted to do the opposite, use a much more contrasty and bright style that helped show what these people are about. My work is now a lot more varied but I’ve found the same principles can often be applied to lots of different subjects. There is no one size fits all approach and I’m always adapting to what I’m shooting, but I try hard to keep my work consistent and recognisable. Most importantly it’s just really enjoyable to shoot in this way as it gives you so much freedom and flexibility and hopefully helps my work feel more dynamic.

You’ve shot some interesting characters; how do you find them?

Projects come about in all sorts of different ways, it might be that I get an idea, do some research, find someone that fits what I’m looking for and reach out to them. Or like the images from Carter Road Skatepark I was heading to India for a different job and wanted to shoot some personal work while I was there, I came up with the idea of skateboarding, found the skatepark and then contacted some local skaters on Instagram who were happy to be part of the shoot. A lot of the time shoots come from mutual connections, people you have worked with in the past, or even friends. I think the more you become known for a certain style the more that work will come your way, and that’s definitely what’s happened in my case. One thing I have found is it’s always worth reaching out to people, even if you think they may say no it’s always worth sending a polite email, you’d be surprised how often people come back with a yes.

Do you think it’s important to always be working on and adapting your craft?

For me its essential to constantly be developing and adapting my style, partly to keep up with the changes in trends that are always happening, but mostly to stop myself getting stuck in a creative rut and going crazy! It’s very easy to find something that works and stick with it, but what clients want might change overnight so making sure you’re keeping your portfolio fresh and interesting is really important. This is also why I think its massively important to shoot personal work, where you’re not having to stick to a brief or have input from other people, you can just shoot what you want however you want, experiment and have fun with it. Another big benefit of this can be people seeing what you doing and decide that would work for their brand/campaign etc, and give you the job!

What’s your favourite thing about being on a shoot?

It sounds obvious but I would have to say it’s having a camera in my hands and taking pictures, it’s what I really love to do! It’s also fantastic working with lots of different people, whether you’re meeting them for the first time or they’re people that you’ve worked with on lots of jobs, it’s always fun having that sense of camaraderie and a joint goal you’re all working towards, and its massively important to me that my shoots are a fun place to be. I can’t stand working in silence so there’s always music going and hopefully everyone is enjoying themselves. I try really hard to make people feel at ease when taking their picture as this is when you get the best shots, some people I photograph aren’t necessarily used to being in front of the camera so I want them to feel as comfortable as possible, and I always try and get a smile out of them. There is nothing more satisfying on a shoot than when people see the shots we’ve been working on and really love them.

 What would be your dream commission?

This is a tricky one for me as there are so many different types of jobs I enjoy shooting. I think the best shoots for me are based around a group of people enjoying themselves and having fun, this could be real-life situations or a shoot involving models, as long as there is that genuine connection with the subjects. I’m really enjoying shooting people interacting with food and drink at the moment, it offers so many opportunities for different types of shots, portraits, details and the products themselves, so something based around those elements would be amazing, and if there was some sunshine and palm trees involved that wouldn’t be a bad thing!

Aside from photography do you have any other passions?

I would say the things I enjoy most outside of photography would be skateboarding and music. Both things have had a huge influence on my life and continue to inspire me. I try to get out and skate as often as possible, but it’s becoming rarer and rarer, partly because of time and partly through fear of coming off and hurting myself, I don’t quite bounce back as well as I used to! Again music has also been a source of inspiration to me, whether it’s listening to it or playing it. I played drums in various bands but had to give them up when I moved to London as they were a bit too big and loud for the average flat. I took up playing the guitar (very badly) a few years ago and it’s great to have another creative outlet, and it’s a perfect for switching off when things get stressful. 

Above all else the most important thing to me is my family. I have two young children and keeping them happy and inspired is my main goal in life. I’ve been trying to get both of them on a board with very little success, but I’m slowly bringing my daughter around to my music taste, and I’ve managed to get my son obsessed with Star Wars which are the best films ever made, so we’re getting there!

We are delighted to have you on our roster for 2 years Tim, watch this space everyone!