Joshua Onabowu is the photographer exploring the ‘intangible’ aspects of life
This is A HOT MINUTE WITH, a quick-fire interview series championing all the rising talent catapulting into fashion, art and music’s fickle stratosphere. From pinch-me moments to bad dates and even worse chat-up lines, think of it as an overindulgent conversation – like the ones you have in sticky club toilets at 4.A.M. Except these guests don’t regret the overshare…
Courtesy of @joshuaheavensonabowu
NAME JOSHUA HEAVENS ONABOWU
AGE 24
LOCATION London, England
STAR SIGN Gemini
BEST PIECE OF ADVICE Keep creating. The most important part is showing up, even if nothing comes out of it.
What does Tumblr look like now? Maybe it’s just eerie streets, littered by the remnants of pioneering imagination, that were once bustling with like-minded creatives all window shopping for the next exciting thing. Maybe now it’s just thousands of empty billboards where unrivalled NSFW content once stood, and crumbling accounts where hours of coding and aesthetic initiative are locked inside for eternity, left vacant as more and more people forget their passwords. But in this Tumblr ghost town, the die-hard users who still appreciate its capabilities of offering gems of inspiration are, to this day, walking its desolate streets. Photographer Joshua Onabowu is one of those people. “I think it’s great,” he says. “The people who are still there are the people who want to share and find other work.”
It isn’t just Tumblr that Joshua Onabowu praises as an integral source of inspiration and an opportunity for creative growth. For the 24-year-old, YouTube was his go-to when learning the basics about photography at the age of 16, before he even had a camera. As he started to find his feet with work, Onabowu began to navigate Flickr and Tumblr, where he learnt to play around with different styles of photography without diving too deeply into the more profound themes that he would later want to convey. “At the time, it was just a way of expressing. I just enjoyed playing about. I tried the ‘365 challenge’ on Flickr. You had to take a self-portrait everyday. I think I did that like four times and then stopped.”
As someone with ADHD, Joshua Onabowu’s creative process reflects his natural approach to making work. “It allows me to be very impulsive with an idea, but it also doesn’t let that idea have a lot of time to grow,” he explains. “It’s always the beginning of something and never really something whole. I love seeing someone’s body of work and there’s depth to it and you can see how they explore it and how they develop an idea.”
The photographer says he is “intrigued by the intangible things that we all experience that we cannot easily depict.” In Onabowu’s mind, this relates to themes like time, growth, human dependency, memory, and truth. He is blessed by his scope of inquisitiveness and capability to dive into different styles and methods, and test out what works best for him. Joshua Onabowu is an ever-developing photographer with multiple creative styles under his belt and the hope of working on a much-anticipated post-lockdown project in his reach.
Ry Gavin: Name one person you would like to photograph most.
Joshua Onabowu: Probably one of one my favourite musicians: ERYKAH BADU.
RG: What’s happened so far in your career that you’re most proud of?
JO: I think just me still creating. I definitely have phases of not being able to make work. Getting out of those is what I'm most proud of.
RG: What does the future of photography look like?
JO: Hopefully the lines between the arts will continue to blend.
RG: What’s the first drink you’re ordering at the bar when the pubs reopen?
JO: A Guinness, for sure.
RG: What is your first big project for when lockdown is over?
JO: There’s a project that I’ve wanted to do for some years now but I like to keep those things to myself, I’m pretty quiet about my work so I don’t bite off more than I can chew... But after lockdown I’ll be ready to start producing work for it. Just figuring out logistics and resources at the moment!
RG: What is your approach to photography and how has it changed over the past year?
JO: Lockdown definitely caused some limitations with photography. I was excessively shooting on film, but I’ve found myself shooting on digital cameras and taking self portraits. I think this helped my creativity a lot, I got to experiment and figure out what kind of work I want to be making and have been having more fun with it.
RG: Who is one photographer that has inspired you from the start?
JO: Definitely Duane Michals. His approach to photography inspires me constantly, he’s such a faithful and creative storyteller. I love that.
RG: Which musician/band is your biggest guilty pleasure?
JO: MEGAN THEE STALLION, love me some hot girl shit.
RG: How would you define beauty?
JO: The ugly truth. I guess the human condition... that shared experience.
RG: First place you’re getting drunk after lockdown?
JO: A friend’s.
RG: The most embarrassing things that’s happened to you this year?
JO: I don’t know if I should… There’s a lot.
RG: What’s one thing you hate but everyone else seems to love?
JO: Coffee.
RG: You’re made the King of England tomorrow, who are we throwing into the London dungeons first?
JO: Hmm, I don’t know. Who would you throw in?
RG: At the moment, probably either Piers Morgan or J.K. Rowling.
JO: Yeah. That’s good.