Lets Go Make a Photograph: Charlie Tallott
Untitled © Charlie Tallott
February 14th, 2025
By Calum Watson @calumwatson_
Interviews aren’t easy. I go in knowing I’m going to ask probing questions about someone’s lived experiences, it’s all a bit impersonal. So when it came to speaking with Charlie Tallott, I knew I wanted to play it a bit differently. In the cold of a London winter I managed to sit down with one of my absolute favourite young photographers for a pint and a chat.
Charlie’s work is marked by a raw intensity and an unapologetic vibrancy. Known for his saturated, distorted imagery, Charlie's photos create a really tactile sense of presence, capturing moments that feel intimate yet larger than life. With his recent book At Least Until The World Stops Going Round, he gives a window into a world of personal reflection, where he can transform the ordinary into something much more complex and profound.
In our conversation, we dive into his creative process, music, the balance between documentary and art in his work, and what it means to share deeply personal moments with the world. Charlie’s photography pushes boundaries without trying too hard. It makes you feel something, and tells stories that are both universal and uniquely his own. It feels like seeing old friends for the first time in a long time, but everything’s changed.
“The Only Mistake” © Charlie Tallott
Untitled © Charlie Tallott
Calum Watson: Hey Charlie, first up do you mind introducing yourself and telling me a little bit about your work?
Charlie Tallott: Hello, I’m Charlie, a photographer and artist from Leeds, living in London.
CW: I had a real sense when looking through your work that it was always straddling a line between documentary and art. The subject matter feels intimate, documenting a time and place, your mates, and never staged. But there is also a sense that you have shaped the still images with some higher intent. I guess I’m asking how you would describe the line between documentary and art in your work? Is that something ever thought about?
It's not something I really think about so much. Sometimes it will be a case of me saying “lets go make a photograph” to someone I’m close with and we’d spend a weekend or day together. There's no specific shot planned, but I sense that there’ll be something there. I can’t tell if that's staged or not to be honest, up to you.
CW: I’ve read past interviews you’ve done where you talk about the intended feeling you want people to take from your work. When looking at a larger body of work like At Least Until The World Stops Going Round is there anything you really wanted the people to take away?
CT: There was no particular feeling I had planned to leave people with. Photography became this escapist window into something else, so if it can take someone from where they are to somewhere else, like it did me, then everyone's a winner.
“There's no specific shot planned, but I sense that there’ll be something there.”
CW: You are open about the fact a lot of the work came from a really dark place in your life. Often a lot of great work does, and you talk about using photography as a personal escapism. But I wanted to ask you as an artist what it feels like to share these moments with others? Is it strange looking back on them? Has it been difficult to relive any of it when having to talk about it?
CT: I can't find the right word for it to be honest, but there's an embarrassment to it. You’d never think of telling someone you just met in a boozer half of it. It's the worst bits of your life there for everyone to see. In another sense, it's been really freeing to get it out. It's like there's nothing left to hide, it's all there.
CW: Looking at your photography it feels like it is almost defying the medium. The photos are distorted, almost like you painted with grain, or manipulated in the dark room for sculptural textures - as though photography is the jumping off point, but something larger is achieved. This experimentation is visceral, but did it ever make photography feel restrictive? Did it come out of feeling limited?
CT: I think the photo is always a starting point with me, and then it can evolve from that point. It has never felt restrictive, more an excuse to get started. When I’m taking images into the darkroom I’m always trying to be expressive with my use of light. It feels painterly.
CW: There’s something punk and defiant about the subject, use of saturation, and medium in your work. There’s a real loudness it. If you had to pick a few songs or artists to soundtrack the recent book, At Least Until The World Stops Going Round, and any upcoming work you have, what would that be?
CT: I’d say something like Durutti Column probably. I definitely can ‘hear’ some of my images: I think that grain, texture and noise (in the photographic meaning) match up well with something recorded on a Tascam 4 track. For a lot of the images I have of social settings there's normally something like The Bridewell Taxis on when I’m with my mates.
Untitled © Charlie Tallott
“Marseille” © Charlie Tallott
CW: There’s a real timelessness, and nostalgia to a lot of your portraits. No indicators of modern life, no phones, no props, and often exclude people’s faces. Yet intimacy really comes through, and I feel like I’m observing your mates as real people. Do you ever feel a responsibility to make sure you’re presenting the real subject, and portraying who they are? Or is there more of you in these photos, aiming to tell your story?
CT: I definitely feel a lot more present in my images than I think some other photographers do. Im not sure why, I reckon the harsh flash is some sort of a reminder of me though. The pictures I take aren’t planned shots, it can be “lets go make a photograph” where I spend a weekend with someone, lets say going swimming in the Yorkshire dales and then a photo comes from that. But it’s “two minutes of taking pictures over two days” sort of thing, with the camera secondary to the moment.
CW: Some of your photos feel like once in a lifetime shots. I was wondering whether you have an image in your head of what the final shot is going to look like?
CT: I know the sort of feeling I was to put through my lens. I’ll go out looking for something that reflects a certain emotion rather than ideas of specific shots I want to get. It's just about finding the emotion or surreality in sometimes everyday objects.
“I definitely feel a lot more present in my images than I think some other photographers do.”
CW: Although the recent project At Least Until The World Stops Going Round is so cohesive, you mentioned that some of the photos were taken years ago. You must have learnt a lot about yourself and what making art means to you over this period. Anything you would want to tell younger Charlie if you could?
CT: The name of the book itself comes from aphorisms my mum would tell me at that time (whilst also being a lyric in a Leeds united song). I sometimes refer to them as “foreverisms”. The stuff you see written down repeatedly in the book, they are commitments to eternality, eternal love, eternal insignificance and eternality itself “at least until the world stops going”.
I think the only thing I’d tell myself was everything my mum was. The sun is always going to come up tomorrow, the wind always changes, the tide always goes in and out. I guess it's just reminders, everything changes and nothing is forever. Photography’s a nice tool for permanence in a temporary world, I think that's what keeps me going to be honest.
CW: Lastly, what are you working on now? What feels next for you?
CT: At the moment I’ve been photographing my friend Cole who recently turned 18, as kind of a coming of age ode to him. I was interested in that transition from boy to man, the loss of innocence and gaining of responsibility that comes with it. Working with him is something I’m enjoying.
I think after that, I’m interested in pushing my work towards fashion, or at least how they work together with stylists etc. I don’t know if I’ll take to a more pre-planned approach but I can see a place for my work in fashion. Lastly, I’ve been enjoying giving talks at places like Paris Photo and Unseen Amsterdam, it’s something I’d like to develop.
That’s where we left it, talking about change and whatever comes next.
Charlie’s work feels like a conversation in itself, something that stays with you after you’ve looked away. Going through his process, the balance of intention and instinct, and the space between documenting and creating was a real insight into how he makes photographs and art. In the end, that’s the great thing about interviews: you actually get to meet the person behind the art. It actually makes you excited to see where it all goes from there.
“How I Wish You Were Here With Me Now” © Charlie Tallott
About Charlie Tallott
Charlie Tallott is a London-based photographer. Originally from Yorkshire, Tallott began taking photos in and around his grandparent’s house in Cross Gates, East Leeds.
Tallott is the winner of the 2024 Photo London x Nikon Emerging Photographer Award. His latest publication, At Least Until The World Stops Going Round, was released by New Dimension in 2024.