Glaswegian Director and photographer, Aidan predominantly works in the fashion and music industry, creating distinctive art that seamlessly blends a feeling of nostalgia while displaying his own creative style. Named as one of British Fashion Council's New Wave Creatives, Aidan's worked with clients like PinkPantheress, Vivienne Westwood, FKA twigs, Off White and Shygirl.
We speak to him about what inspires him and the use of light and dark in this work.
Q: Aidan, we’ve been fans of yours for a while now and love your exceptional creative style and voice, what’s your biggest source of inspiration — if you had to pick one?
Aidan: Thank you! This is tough question — my answer changes all the time. I always seem to return to the suburbs as a point of inspiration. Growing up in suburbia has a strange mix of loneliness and hopefulness — you spend a lot of time being bored and a lot of time dreaming so it can feel both stifling and yet really provocative for your imagination and creativity. I think for a lot of teenagers it’s a kind of liminal existence — you live in an outlying residential neighbourhood. It’s quiet and sometimes isolating, sometimes uncanny and sometimes it feels like you’re waiting for your life to start. There’s something really magical about that to me.
Q: Looking through your work, your use of lighting and shadows is really impactful, how would you say light and dark influences your work and how important is it?
Aidan: I’m never really aiming for realism in any of my work — extreme use of light and shadow lends itself to making things more theatrical. When I shoot in the “real world”, I like to use more surreal light to bring some impossibility to it.
I think about what Andrew Lesnie (the cinematographer for Lord of the Rings) said when he was filming a scene that didn’t seem to have a realistic light source — he was asked “where is the light supposed to be coming from?” So he replied “same place as the music".
Q: Photography is a notoriously difficult industry to make it in, do you have any advice or words of wisdom for anyone reading, who may be starting out?
Aidan: I think I’m really under qualified to give anyone advice, but I think it’s cool to be funny. If you have a sense of humour, I think it makes your work cleverer.
Q: And lastly, if there’s one thing that’s unseen to you that you’d like to see, what would it be?
Aidan: It’d be cool to see my memories more clearly — I catch myself accidentally rewriting things in my mind a lot, or realising that things I used to see clearly are now vague.
