PHOTOGRAPHY

Discover the dramatic imagery of Bajan photographer Jaryd Niles-Morris and find out about the man behind the lens

Q When did you discover you have a talent for photography?

I started to dabble in photography while at The Barbados Community College from 2003 until 2007. I wasn’t a great student and never actually completed the course. But when I started shooting film, I fell in love with the process and the technical aspects. I was very good at darkroom work. I was inspired by how you could manipulate an image to make it something more than what was captured. We also made photograms – atechnique used to create photographic prints without involving a camera. This opened my mind to photography as an abstract process, rather than simply a representational one.

Q Whose work originally inspired you to take up photography?

I was very into contemporary magazines, which is where I drew my initial inspiration. There were so many photographers that I admired, but a few that stand out are Nick Knight, David LaChapelle, Sølve Sundsbø and Joel Brooks. To begin with, I sought out photographers whose work really blew my mind and made me want to be on the same level. The work they create is still ground-breaking to this day. It has informed and created the foundation for a lot of the image-making that exists today.