NEWSLETTER

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WORDS BY JAMES KNIGHT
PHOTOS BY JAMIE LEE CURTIS TAETE



Have you noticed how everyone is a photographer these days? Boring, isn’t it? Thanks a lot, digital technology, for convincing millions of idiots that they’re the next Wolfgang Tillmans or Terry Richardson. In reality, a tiny percentage of wannabe snappers will ever make it. The industry is near impossible to break into and the sheer number of people who want in has made it crazily difficult to get your images seen anywhere other than Facebook or Flickr. Having just come back from showing in LA, and with two solo shows in the works, it’s safe to say that 23-year-old Vice photograper Jamie Lee Curtis Taete’s pictures are being seen in lots of places. So we asked him how that happened and what advice he has to make it happen for you too. 

Vice: Hi Jamie. Where did you grow up?
Jamie Lee Curtis Taete: In a village called Burbage in the Midlands that no one has heard of. It’s in the dead centre of the country.

When did you start taking photos?
When I was about 12 my dad got a digital camera and I kept stealing it. Before that I shot on film cameras. I don’t really remember what I was shooting, my memory is awful and I have a real habit of losing stuff or stuff being stolen so I can’t go back and remind myself of whatever it was I might or might not have been taking photos of. I think I may actually have the worst memory in the world. I am great at useless trivia, but anything to do with my past or feelings I can’t do.

What were you shooting once you had your hands on your dad’s digital camera?
I used to go to a lot of gigs in Birmingham. I used to be really into this band called King Adora. They’d attract a lot of Manic Street Preachers fans – lots of feather boas and tiaras and boys in nail polish.

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