Roll up, roll up: photographer Conor Clinch’s surrealistic ode to the circus
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 @rosieviva
NAME CONOR CLINCH
AGE 25
STAR SIGN Capricorn
LOCKDOWN LOCATION London, England
LIFE MANTRA Be nice to people on your way up, because you’ll meet them on your way down.
Photographer Conor Clinch hasn’t let lockdown stifle his creative practice. Hailing from Dublin, Clinch first picked up a camera at the tender age of 14: “I got a camera to take pictures of my mini reef aquarium I kept in my bedroom. I got obsessed with photography and started making friends online by posting my photographs on Flickr.” Promptly after snapping the holographic scales of his own fish, he swiftly became part of Dublin’s own creative community. His subjects lost their fins and became real-life models, flinging him into an equally enclosed world: the fashion industry. Now, he is prying the industry’s exclusive gates open for an-everyone-can enter buffet.
Clinch met his boyfriend, model and disability-advocate RYAN ZAMAN, a couple of years ago on popular dating app Hinge. After their first date, Clinch hopped on a plane to continental Europe for an extended vacation. Luckily, the star-crossed lovers stayed in touch. “I texted Ryan throughout the trip and the day I returned he collected me from the airport,” he recalls. Two years later and barely a day has been spent apart from one another. And thank god for that, because the hypnotic couple’s explosive creativity is unrivalled when they knock their heads together.
Clinch’s latest piece of work, shot in lockdown 3.0 (is that where we’re up to?), captures Zaman in a series of surrealistic images that blur preconceived gender norms through a multi-colour prism. With the assistance of make-up artist and best friend, Hakan Demiray, the trio conjure a series of beautifully intimate portraits that make a case for a falling-into-your-dressing-up-box aesthetic.
Jeffrey Thomson: What was the inspiration behind these images?
Conor Clinch: Ryan is my boyfriend and Hakan is one of my best friends, so it was a natural collaboration. We took inspiration from different types of circus performers and Gui and Ed's designs really complimented the idea.
JT: Define lockdown 3.0 in 3 words?
CC: GET. THE. VACCINE.
JT: What app are you addicted to at the moment?
CC: It pains me to say it but.... TikTok.
JT: Worst fashion or beauty trend you participated in?
CC: I dyed my tips a really bad shade of blonde when I was 15. Everyone at school called me ‘crunchie’, as the colour resembled the inside of a Crunchie bar.
JT: First thing you do in the morning?
CC: I'm usually woken up by my neighbours above flushing their toilet. It sounds like there's a Sunami in the bedroom.
JT: Last thing you do at night?
CC: I usually set 45 million alarms in the hopes that one day during this lockdown I'll wake up before 10am and go for a run.
JT: What are you looking forward to in 2021?
CC: Everything! Leaving the house, sitting inside a coffee shop, having a pint of Guinness, going to the gym, face to face meetings and hugging friends.
JT: What’s next for Conor Clinch?
CC: I'm working on some really exciting films at the moment which I can't wait to release!
Photographed by CONOR CLINCH
Featuring RYAN ZAMAN at TESS MANAGEMENT
Make-up by HAKAN DEMIRAY
Fashion by GUI ROSA, ED CURTIS