WILL ANDERSON

The first cameras that myself and my sisters were given were little 110 Kodak cameras. We photographed a lot of animals. This picture was from one of the first films I could find. I must have been about eight. It was a favorite back then.

1991 Newcastle Upon Tyne.
Alcoholics.
During my Art and Design Foundation course I took a photography elective. This was the first time I had used black and white film.
The teacher assigned a project called 'I am a Camera, thinking blinking recording'
He set all of us off without a camera to walk around and remember things we liked. If you saw a shot you blinked and remembered. The next week he gave us a camera to try and look for similar situations to those we remembered by blinking and recording.

In 1993 I studied Graphic Design in Tilburg Holland as an exchange student which was part of a program while I was studying in Middlesbrough. I lived with a very interesting still life photographer named Remco. He was adamant that I learn how to work with one light in black and white. He made a lasting impression on me and opened my eyes up to another side of photography. I loved living in Holland and completed some of my favorite Graphics based work there.

I moved to Bath 1995 to finish my Graphic Design degree. My studies and work in Graphics became more conceptual here.

I took a photography elective as part of my degree.
My tutor Katrina Lithgow introduced me to a Hasselblad camera and medium format photography.
I became obsessed and photographed my Grandmother's abandoned house for over a year. 24 of the pictures turned into the book 'Death in a Good District' you can see it here
Katrina Lithgow taught me how to really think in a different way. About long projects, time, documenting and narrating a story or idea. She also introduced me to many great photography books that changed my whole perception of photography.

In 1996 I discovered Photoshop.
For one of my final year Graphic Design projects I photographed this camel ornament and then painted over it in Photoshop and designed this stamp along with 5 others.
This stamp won a traveling scholarship from the Royal Society of Arts London. With the aid of the money,  in 1997 I came to the USA and have been here even since. 

 After I graduated my first job was in Northern Italy as a Graphic Designer. I would take pictures from my window. This was one of my favorite.

In 1998 I bought my first medium format camera when I was visiting Berlin. A Czechoslovakian Flexaret.

I discovered the highly saturated 50 ASA Agfa Ultra Film and walked the streets of Miami. There's more here.

Miami 1998: The first time I went to a fashion show. I liked the pictures and thought I should try and work more in fashion photography. More here

After the fashion show pictures I decided to start  taking pictures for models portfolios. This was one of my first tests in 1998. More here.

I started to take more still life pictures with my new Pentax 6x7. 

In 1999 I actively started to document young models living in New York. Later the pictures became the book Apt.301. Here is the finished book

After the attack on the World Trade Center and the following Bush anti war protests I became more interested in street photography. More here

In 2006 I went to a printing factory in the Southern Chinese province of Guangdongto do a press check for the book Apt.301.
Most of the workers lived in dormitories at the plant. They worked 12 hour shifts with few breaks, seven days a week. For some monthly incomes were not more than $150. Many of them came from the poorer Northern provinces and sent a portion of their wages home to help their families.
It made me think about all the fancy books we look at in our leisure time whilst relaxing and not working. More here

I met Michele Outland in 2006 she was an art director at Nylon magazine. This started a collaboration on projects lasting till now both with Nylon and with her at Gather Journal. I shot bands, portraits, and eventually still life. There's more here. I’ve been working as a photographer ever since.