© JJ-Waller

JJ Waller is back in
St Leonards

Some photographers decide early on that that is their passion, others evolve and develop over time. JJ Waller tried out a variety of things before picking up a camera seriously and taking to the streets. HOT’s Lauris Morgan-Griffiths was delighted to learn that he is just publishing another book of his St Leonards and Hastings photographs: the characters, the Festivals, the town all with a kind eye and sense of fun.

From his first visit back in 2009, just starting as a professional photographer, JJ Waller simply ‘got’ what the place was about. “Arriving here was like stumbling across a photographer’s treasure trove. I found a flaking-plaster, super-lager-soaked town that awoke in me undertones of my days exploring the dowdy but exciting streets of nineteen eighties London.”

© JJ Waller

Entranced by the people, the festivals and the architecture, he has been back and forth from his home town Brighton ever since. Although he has seen, as any one who lives here knows, substantial changes in the last decade or so.

JJ Waller began his career as a drama teacher, then developed a street comedy performance, as well as an escapology routine. In the 1980s he worked in comedy clubs and then joined French anarchic, alternative circus group Archaos as front of House Manager.

Then in the 1990s it was time for another transformation;  he went back to College to study photography, To become a professional photographer is not an easy career move, yet his talent, and his quirky eye and particular take on his subjects evidently shone out, and certainly got him noticed. Even by renowned photographer Martin Parr who edited his book of lockdown portraits – photographs of people taken through glass windows and doors.

© JJ Waller

He is evidently happy in the streets, although he does not see himself as a street photographer. JJ does not normally ask people if he can take their photograph – he probably sees the image he wants before the person has registered he has taken it – but neither does he  bang off a photograph and leave. “I enjoy talking with people too much to take pictures and just walk away.”

JJ genuinely likes people; he does not poke fun at the locals in any of their guises, there is a heartfelt empathy and respect. If his camera is turned on someone it is because he sees an individual or a quirky shot. He is smiling with, not at, them; he seems to see the character within who wants to be noticed, their individuality, their sense of fun. “In St Leonards and Hastings I have been fortunate to have experienced a wonderfully positive sense of people and place. I can only hope in return my photographs offer an insightful glimpse for people both now and in the future of the very special qualities of this astonishing resort.“

He has certainly captured some extraordinary moments, He does not ‘stunt up’ his images, that is something that really upsets me when people do it in the name of reportage. “Virtually 95% of the pictures in the book are impromptu and unplanned  It is the spontaneity that gives the images their vitality and fun. I worked as an advertising producer for a few years so I am pretty focussed on details that may distract or conversely add to a picture.”

© JJ Waller

My feeling is that if you are creative, keep your ears, eyes and senses stretched, then you will bump into something or someone extraordinary – they kind of pop up out of the ether. “I always have a great day even when I am walking for eight or nine hours. No day is the same even if I have walked the same places dozens and dozens of times. I’m guessing I capture a sense of place through seeing and looking in a way a local often doesn’t view the everyday”.

JJ Waller’s St Leonards on Sea and Hastings is published this Sunday – 6 November. The book will be available on that date exclusively from the Bookkeeper, Kings Road. Between 2–4pm you can buy a signed copy with a free print. And soon after at Waterstones. The first volume of JJ Waller’s St Leonards and Hastings is now sold out, but a mint copy is being raffled at the Bookkeeper to raise funds for a local foodbank.

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