Fifteen Minutes With You

Fifteen Minutes With You is a project that traces the development of my use of instant photography during a period of five years, from 2007 to 2012. It's a visual photographic diary of the people who came and went through my studio - figure studies and portraits of Eastern European male migrant workers, builders, boxers and MMA fighters. The project's title, taken from an early song by The Smiths is a take on Andy Warhol's fifteen minutes of fame expression and suggests a brief and intimate encounter. The images resemble profile pictures from a casting call or amateur porn screen-tests, their grungy rawness and insinuating edge explore my continued investigation into notions of identity, masculinity, sexuality and the world of maleness, nostalgia, desire and fetish. This body of work is not only paying homage to a photographic medium that is diminishing since Polaroid has stopped the manufacturing of instant film, but also questioning its relevance in an increasingly digital world.