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INTERVIEW: James Watkins of T-Squat

28 September 2011 | 5:07 pm | Staff Writer

We had a little chat with James Watkins, T-Squat's editor-in-chief who curates, edits, and contributes to their art and photo sections.

Last week we had a little look into T-Squat, that uber cool hub of online cultural curators. This week, we've had a little chat with James Watkins, their editor-in-chief who curates, edits, writes, and contributes to their art and photography sections.

You can find more James Watkins photography HERE

and check out what all the T-SQUAT fuss is about HERE

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Can you tell us a bit about yourself? Where you're from? What you do now and  what you did before T-Squat?

My name is James Watkins and I was born in Oxford, England but grew up in Auckland, New Zealand and definitely consider myself a kiwi! I am a photographer and a writer and I run an online magazine called T-SQUAT. Before I did that, I was living for six months in unadulterated paradise in NZ on a small island called Great Barrier...mostly just being massively irresponsible and loving every second of it. Before that I was living in the middle of nowhere in Golden Bay on the south island of NZ, in a house bus. Waking up to the sound of the ocean every day, watering vegetables, riding horses, staring at star filled galaxies every night,  hanging out on the beach, playing guitar, reading and taking photos... it was pretty nice to be honest. I used to joke with my friends that I'd been retired since I was 17. That life was totally awesome and there's so much to learn about yourself through geographic isolation, with no one to impress you can really develop a sense of self that is difficult amongst the demands of a metropolis. After a while I craved the culture, energy and challenges of a city though, so I came to Melbourne :D.

How did you first get into photography and all things creative?

I distinctly remember the first time I felt like I wanted to be a photographer. I was about 19 and working at an ANZAC dawn ceremony at the Auckland Museum in New Zealand, which is a really big, grand old building. There was a beautiful sunrise filled with reds, oranges and yellows and as the veterans marched into their ceremony, they became silhouetted against the fire lit dawn. Something clicked in my head and I just knew I really wanted to go buy a camera. So, I basically just saved up for a while and bought a pretty decent one. I started wandering around shooting whatever I thought looked interesting and subsequently started emailing them around to my mates to see what they thought. Everyone seemed to be digging them, and I soon become bored of emailing so much so I decided to learn how to build websites so I could share them more easily. I started getting pretty sweet feedback from all over the world, one thing lead to another and I decided to start taking photography a bit more seriously and basically taught myself about the whole shebang.

Writing is something I've always been pretty good at. My mum was a librarian and English teacher so there were always books around. She read to me and taught me to read by the time I'd got to school, I can remember other kids were working out what way to draw the letter J, I was trying to write stories. I never really developed my writing consciously, it always just came easily and English at school always seemed pretty self explanatory. I started mucking around with songwriting and poetry a few years ago, and writing slightly more detailed introductions to my own photography, all the while feeding my brain with as much classic literature and poetry as I could find.  This all set me up pretty well, and now I've been basically writing and editing full time about art and photography for a year and it's really, really fun.

The only other things I do that are creative are music and drawing. It's great because I have no real expectation of myself in these areas so it gives me a chance to just be playful and not really care if it's shit or great. I just love sitting down with a mate and making noises with guitars for hours on end, I think music is the most transcendental way to express yourself.  I've been trying to teach myself drawing for a few years and have been getting a few tips off my talented friends and have started mucking around with painting and go to life drawing classes once a week, which is a total blast! We just sit around talking shit, drinking beers and drawing naked woman.  Some people seem to dig the drawings so I'm gonna just keep on keeping on and try develop myself a style. Eventually I'd like to end up at a place where I feel like my music and art are at a level worth sharing on a larger scale.

I'm a big believer in stimulating the imagination in as many ways as possible, and think all the different avenues influence the others hugely.

From your various websites, it's clear you have quite an eclectic taste - why do you think that is?

Hmm, I guess that reflects the eclectic nature of the world as much as anything else. I like to shoot both natural and urban environments. Someone once told me to be a successful photographer you had to just choose one area of photography and focus on that. I thought that was the worst advice anyone could ever give. I figure the beauty of photography as an art-form is that you can do so much with it and shoot so many different things in so many different ways, why would you want to impose restrictions on yourself? Madness.

What type of scenario is your favourite to shoot? Impromptu/scenic or bands/photoshoots?

For the most part I find 'shoots' quite stressful and don't do that many. If they're with the right people and fun then they can awesome though. Like I said, there's a lot of different types of photography and I really just prefer being by myself, walking around, watching, contemplating and shooting in my own time. It's much more relaxing and there's no expectations except the ones I put on myself, I don't have to worry about what anyone else thinks, which is nice. Shooting live music is fun, because you get to see the bands right up close, and it's also quite a photographic challenge nailing the exposures, compositions and focus, it's a real skill and I have a lot of respect for photographers who are really good at it.

The contributor list for T-Squat is far and wide, and seems to be growing - how do you find these talented people?

Well, a lot of them are just my mates really. I've always gravitated towards creative people so when we started I just put my feelers out and got some crew onboard. As we got more popular and a bit more exposure people starting approaching us and wanting to get involved. We also do shout-outs out every so often trying to get more quality contributors onboard. We basically have an open door policy if anyone wants to contribute, as long as the content is strong we're not fussed about where or who it comes from. Perhaps you could start writing for us too ? :P

What advice would you give to an aspiring photographer?

Hmm.... learn to shoot on manual, it's important to tell the camera what to do because they are stupid machines. Light is everything and how your camera responds to it is really the only thing you need to know, so try and study light and the feels different light generates. Shoot as much as you can. Shoot all the time. Don't rely on Photoshop. Experiment as much as you can. Get a website and start sharing your content and if you know any really good looking women, point your camera at them.

How do you get time to eat, sleep and breathe through running 3 websites, curating, shooting gigs & venues, and the website design and management?

T-SQUAT takes up most of my 'work' hours between Monday and Thursday. I used to be a massive late night insomniac working away into the wee hours of the morning, but I've tried to chill out on that a bit and explore my other interests away from computer screens. I basically update the blog any time I think of a silly poem I feel like adding to the cosmos, and my photography website gets updated when I have enough of a backlog of work to justify the time on it... Which to be perfectly honest should be updated really, really soon.

What is your ultimate goal with your photography and T-Squat?

With my own photography, I'd just like to keep gearing up until I have basically everything I need; then travel the world shooting and writing is the plan. For the moment I'm really enjoying T-Squat and all the opportunities it allows me. I just want to see the site grow, develop my journalistic skills and  I want to get a bunch more interviews with the best artists in the world under my belt whilst helping everyone involved get the exposure they deserve.

Who inspires you?

I'm not a huge fan of the word 'inspiration'. Everything is equally inspiring in it's own way, even people I can't stand inspire me in way that reminds me I never want to be like them. My friends are an endless source of inspiration or influence. I have so many talented mates that blow my mind every day, it's really very humbling. All the artists I feature inspire me, to see what some people are capable of is just incredible. People who don't give a fuck, men that walk down the road dressed as women, homeless people with dirty hands, buskers, poets, writers, musicians, artists essentially I guess.... bohemians, old men who live in the bush in houses they made themselves who sit in their tiny shack and smoke joints and drink red wine whilst listening to the radio .......... the list goes on.

What makes you happy?

A great deal of things. Happiness comes and goes and I haven't worked out a way to install permanent happiness at all times as of yet. I can try make a list of things that make me happy though: reading, writing, guitar, drawing, photography, talking, laughing, beer, going out to eat, expressing myself, jokes, intelligent people, funny people,  beautiful women, eyes, sex, work, interviews, partying, riding bikes, being free, swimming, thinking, thunderstorms, my family, music, The Beatles, Bob Dylan, the doors, lyrics, poetry, my friends, travelling, candles, being irresponsible, living in a warehouse, having a job that allows me creative satisfaction, sharing my work, occasional vindication, people saying nice things about my work, artists emailing me and thanking me for my time and effort, avocados, strawberries, salmon, life drawing, joints, trips, dancing, smoke off the end of incense, classical music radio stations... I probably repeated myself then... Oh and fire, I really love fire.