Interview with The Firkster

It was 2am, I had drank too much tea, I was bored, and extremely tired. What better time to interview the Firk?

Lostinbabylon: Tell us a bit about yourself, Firky.

Firky: My name’s Dale, I hail from the north east of England – proud of that fact but hate the place which is a bit odd. I am a professional lay about, who listens to far too much music and fantasizes about a life less ordinary or so boring.

How’d you get into photography?

First got into photography, properly, only a few years ago. I picked up an old SLR and became fascinated with the alchemy of it, turning a box of tricks into something material, in the dark, with chemicals and all the different permiations that you can have. almost seems endless. Then the advent of digital photography started to kick off, I bought a shit compact camera and loved the way it allowed to improve my skills with no expense after the original purchase, since then I ditched the film for digital, and do all my work in digital but still miss the material side of film, there’s something about it that I love that isn’t there with digital. Digital is too immaculate where as film is more human, a bit like CD and vinyl. It’s the imperfections that make it so good.

Tell us about your influences?

I hate that question! To be honest I try and not be influenced by actual photographers for fear of just duplicating their style, I want to develop my own style, not quite sure what that is yet but I think that is perhaps is my style… the search of finding my style is my style as it were. Biggest influences probably come from a manifestation of me emotions at the time. If I feel sad I take photos, if I feel very happy I take photos that reflect that. So I guess my influences are my feelings at any one time. Much of my work is very personal to me and always has a hidden meaning to myself, some of them are very dark and overpowering and some of them are pretty and happy, but the devil or the beauty is always in the details, just below the surface. I love intricate shapes and patterns, textures and things, I love places where humans have left their mark but there are no humans, that is why I shy away from nature and landscape shots, I prefer urban and societal shots or shots of people in their enviroment and how they’ve shaped it.

What camera do you use, and what do you like about it?

Oh FFS next door is starting to play the fucking steel drums again, its fucking 2am!

LOL

I use a Nikon D50. I like it because it is not so expensive that it is irreplaceable but still takes excellent shots and is very fast and responsive. It is also built like a tank and hasn’t let me down yet.

I noticed you do quite a bit of street photography. Do you think you could get more shots if you had a less conspicuous camera?

Defintely, but with it being black and with me being small I can get away with it. Sometimes I’ll sit until people get used to me being there or shoot with out looking through the view finder and have my coat over it. I also take the neck strap off so you can’t see the yellow NIKON logo. I’d like a decent compact camera to get around that problem but I think I would become frustrated with it at the same time. So I’ll stick with my SLR for now.

How about your photography, what direction would you like it to go in?

I would love to be a war photographer but I don’t think I have the mental stability to put up with that, and I also never want a job I can’t get out of in a moments notice. I’d like to do photographs for the love of it rather than make money, I know that sounds poncey but I get more kicks from someone telling me they like a photo I have taken than I do of offers for money for it.

I honestly beleive that photographs have the power to change things… open the doors of perception and all that.

Lastly, wtf is someone playing steel drums at 2am for?

Because I live in a council block of flats surrounded by Jamaicans and Somalians who never seem to sleep! And they tease me with sweet smelling ganja. It’s cool though, I get dub and reggae 24/7 by opening my window.