Hayley Louisa Brown is a beatnik babe who loves to snap pretty people in nice clothes.
After graduating from London College of Fashion, Hayley’s work has been published in loads of bleeding-edge fashion magazines including Pigeons and Peacocks, Notion, Clash, Vice, Rollacoaster and Hysteria. Inspired by pictures of her Teddy Boy Granddad in the olden days, Hayley loves to shoot music and history inspired tableaus using vintage techniques. Here, in a story created especially for i-D online, we took Hayley’s love of 60s girl bands as a starting point and dressed models in brand-spanking new AW11 to bring it up to the here and now. Stop in the name of analogue!
When did you graduate? I graduated a year ago from the Fashion Photography course at LCF.
It’s relatively new course isn’t it? Yeah like nine years.
So not that new then… Newer than English at Oxford.
…or Maths. So what have you been doing since you graduated? Taking pictures mainly… and cross-stitching.
What?! Yeah, I do cross stitches of David Bowie album covers. I should sell them, but I’m just doing it for the lols. My plan is to do all of them and have an exhibition.
You should cross-stitch your own photography… Yeah that would be quite funny. Or I could do a life-size one. Yep. I think I’ll do that. It can be my next project. We should do a cross-stitch editorial!
How have you been going about getting your work published? I was asked to shoot for Pigeons and Peacocks after I graduated by a mate and I said yes. People just ask me and I say yes. What a boring answer.
Well here’s a boring question: What are your influences? Mostly old pictures of my Grandparents. My Granddad was a Teddy boy so I’m obsessed with all that stuff. I really love those family portraits from the 20s too. Photography back then was so new that having your photo taken was a massive deal. I love how put-together and posed they are. It makes me a bit sad that now our portraits just end up on Facebook and there’s nothing of an occasion about them.
Is that why you like to shoot on film? Yeah because when you shoot on digital you end up taking 500 photos. With film you have to try harder.
Why did you choose to study Fashion Photography? Documentary seems more up your alley. There are a few fashion photographers that I like, but Alasdair McLellan is my favourite. I love shooting fashion because I love clothes and people. I like that you can evoke bygone eras in a contemporary way with photography. Like this girl band shoot.
So do you have a goal? Yes. My main goal in life is to shoot Kanye West and Pharell Williams. That would be my jam. I just want to take pictures of rappers.
Male rappers in particular? Yes. I think they’re all shot in the same way and I want to shake it up a bit. Whenever I see pictures of rappers (or musicians in general) it’s always really shiny and digital. I like my photos to be softer and about the person’s face.
So I suppose asking what music you like is pointless. I like hip-hop, 50s rock’n’roll and blues.
Are you pro the Jay-Z/Kanye superband? I purchased it the day it came out and haven’t listened to anything else since. It’s really good.
Text and Styling: Aaron Walker
Photography: Hayley Louisa Brown
Hair: Noriko Takayama using Bumble and Bumble
Makeup: Ken Nakano using MAC
Models: Phoebe @ Storm, Frida @ Select, Sumin @ M and P
Fashion Assistant: Sophia Probett
Photography Assistant: Jorge Luis Dieguez
