Q&A: Fighting Back in Creative Ways, Oliver Cable’s Photographs Deliver A Timeless Feel
CREATING ART BY HAND — Oliver Cable fights back against algorithms and apps through the “ritual of doing.” The poet, author, and founder of Nowhere Nights, a jazz and spoken word poetry event series based in London, recently released a collection of double-exposed photographs with a timeless, tangible feel. Looking for ways to slow down “the rush of time and technology,” Cable carried disposable cameras during the initial 2020 lockdown in order to document small, random moments with his partner but turned to the more professional Voigtlander camera to better capture his experiences.
Cable’s photographs of people and places are overlaid with fragments and shadows of a second image, blending Cable’s vision with chimneys, windows, brick, and trees in a surreal way. Faces are obscured and combined on the half-used roll, combining with the black and white film to foster a sense that the photos are ageless. “I’ve tried to divine details of date or location from the photos, but nothing gives it away: no names, no landmarks,” Cable says. “It gives them a timeless feel but also gives them something sinister.”
Read below to learn more about Cable’s photographs, his creative process, and what advice he would give artists venturing outside their usual mediums.
LUNA: Hey, Oliver! It’s great to be chatting about your collection of photos. I can’t think of a better, chillier time of year to be enjoying a photo series such as this one. Where were you, what season was it, and what sort of mindset were you in when you put this collection of photographs together?
OLIVER: Strangely enough, the collection was shot during spring and summer of 2020, when the weather was glorious. They were taken in Devon, having escaped London a few days before the first national lockdown was called. It was an odd time, and whenever I think back on it now, I’m struck by its strangeness: simultaneously fast and slow, as if it were a dream we’re now collectively awakening from. I feel like some of that strangeness has made its way into the photographs.
LUNA: Did you plan for these specifically to be on black and white film or was it a perfect accident? I loved the obsolescent feeling it gave the photos.
OLIVER: My partner and I were haggling with a street seller on Brick Lane to sell us the beautiful Voigtlander camera when he offered to throw in two rolls of film. This was the one he put in the camera for us (from a “new” box), so it was very much a perfect accident.
LUNA: As a viewer, I felt like I had stumbled across a box full of old photographs, as if I was looking through the eyes and memories of someone far removed from me and my sense of time. Did you have a specific tone you were trying to set as the photographer?
OLIVER: Lockdown was so alien [of] a time. We are all removed from the identities we carried during that time just as the people we were in lockdown were removed from who we had been pre-March 2020.
LUNA: What were your inspirations or perhaps the purpose of the subjects of these photos?
OLIVER: The woman in most of the photos is my partner Lily, whose family we spent a lot of time with during lockdown. She and I had been playing with cheap disposable cameras to document random moments but were always frustrated as at least a third of the photos just weren’t exposing onto the film. When we bought the Voigtlander, we continued to take it around with us to photograph various moments of lockdown.
LUNA: How did the overlain nature of the photos come to happen? Was it a purposeful artistic choice, and how did you create that effect?
OLIVER: That all appeared when the photos were developed. The story we’ll never know is how the seller on Brick Lane came to have a half-used roll that ended up in our camera. I’ve tried to divine details of date or location from the photos, but nothing gives it away: no names, no landmarks. It gives them a timeless feel but also gives them something sinister.
LUNA: I kept coming back to the snow-laden old building and cemetery — it is absolutely stunning. What is your favorite photo in the collection?
OLIVER: I love that one too, but I can only claim ownership of the windows overlaid over it. My favorite one is probably [the one of] Lily in bed with a chimney over her right eye. There’s so many interesting coincidences throughout the series, like the placement of the chimney, the window in the sea, the skyline and the man in the kitchen, [and] the ghostly trees, which are a recurring theme.
LUNA: How would you say these photos came to be? Seeing as you are first and foremost a poet and writer, what inspired you to try your hand at photography?
OLIVER: We look for ways to slow down the rush of time and technology. For all that smartphones and apps are supposed to free up your time, they demand and fragment your attention and make you feel like you should be doing a thousand things at once.
I write by hand, I make home-made jam, we grow herbs, we listen to vinyl, Lily knits. Analogue photography fits nicely in that box. When you’re doing something efficiently through automation or algorithms, you lose the serendipity, the working with your hands, the ritual of doing. A lot of the time we don’t examine at what cost this convenience comes. I enjoy fighting back in little creative ways, like through photography.
LUNA: You created an art event series centered around live jazz and spoken word [poetry] in the UK called Nowhere Nights. How has that journey and process been for you? What has been the most rewarding part?
OLIVER: The journey has been long but fulfilling and still isn’t close to being finished. I started Nowhere Nights in 2017, and only in 2021 did it reach the place I wanted it to be creatively. The time in between has been figuring out what works in terms of performers, venue, vibe, structure of the night, audience, and price. It’s now built the momentum that means I can rely on it to sell out up to a week in advance. The most rewarding part is bringing an idea and an intangible energy to life and seeing people — real life people! — enjoy it and come back month [to] month.
LUNA: Do you have any advice for other creatives wanting to start something in the same vein?
OLIVER: Keep the belief and keep working on it. When I started, I had nights where only a handful of people showed up but which resulted in interesting connections, so don’t lose hope. Having a monthly night has really helped, too and showed me the importance of building up momentum and rhythm in people’s busy schedules.
LUNA: In a broad sense, how would you describe your creative process? Whether it be for writing, photography, planning live art events, etc.
OLIVER: I like surrealism. I like absurdity. I like it when something leaves you with questions that you can’t quite figure out. I like experiencing new things and channeling new parts of myself into my work. I like mashing things together in unusual ways to create something new. I channel all of this in my writing, photography, and live events, and it results in writing about improbable fridges in the desert, characters turning into trees, unrehearsed jazz and poetry nights, and now — apparently — accidentally double-exposed photographs!
LUNA: Lastly, any words of encouragement or wisdom for anyone wanting to try their hand at an art medium that is possibly new to them or different from their main creative medium?
OLIVER: I’m trying to forgive myself when I don’t quite know how to do something physically or haven’t yet built up the muscle memory required by telling myself that all of that will come in time. There’s also the pervasive idea of “hustle” and constant growth, which can creep into my thinking about my practice, so I’m trying to let go of the expectation of being “good” at something and just aiming to have fun doing it. All of this is easier said than done.
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