Inside the Photographer’s Studio - Tami Aftab: Advocating for Fun
September 10th, 2022
By Anna Prudhomme @annaprudhomme
On the top floor of an enormous white brick building in Peckham Tami Aftab’s photography studio resides. The 24-year-old photographer found the space a few months ago and has been sharing it with four other young people who have the same passion for capturing plants and human visages. That’s actually how the cheerful band of creatives chose to name their workspace : the Plant Face Studio.
On 120 mm colour film, Tami Aftab captures delicate moments of happiness. Playing hopscotch, dancing in a wheat field or hopping on logs, Tami’s subjects all seem to have kept the spirit of their inner child. If it’s not a broad grin filling her model’s faces, then it’s their laughing eyes that are showing her love of joyful expression.
Shot for Riposte, 2021
It is in this 400 metres-square space, cut in half by a mezzanine that Tami Aftab shot and edited her latest campaign for the biannual British magazine Lula. Equipped with colour backdrops, poly boards, and more photography books that you could count - one of the mates is a talented book designer - this location seems to be the perfect first studio.
“What I find most helpful at the studio is having other people to bounce off my ideas, my stress or my worries,” explains Tami. They - Tami Aftab, Tom Booth Woodger, Poppy Thorpe, Serena Brown, and Phoebe Somerfield - have quickly become really good friends and help each other in a lot of ways. Together they built confidence in their independent practices, drawing from each other's experiences and knowledge… and work time is always nicer when surrounded by people talking about common passions.
Having outside perspectives is also very helpful, and even more when it comes to visuals which require hindsight, highlighted the young photographer. For instance, to go through Poppy’s portfolio, they all took one afternoon, giving their viewpoints on what the strongest images were. And when dealing with tricky emails, Tami often asks her studio mates about their similar experiences and together they find the best way to respond.
“It's quite hard to pinpoint what I do, because I feel some parts are more documentary, others more fashion or fine art…”
In Tami’s perfect world, the sky is bright blue, the sun never stops shining and people have radiant smiles on their faces. Primary colour prevails and a feeling of tender amusement emanates from her work. “I like to keep things saturated, warm and I like to photograph people being happy,” quietly said the young woman who has been capturing her friends and family for more than a decade.
Tami started studying photography at 14, when she took the subject at GCSE, and her studies continued at university at London College of Communication. “I’m one of those lucky people that always knew what they were interested in,” said Tami timidly smiling before adding, “it never really changed”. She first got into photography through digital but it is one of her teachers that made her go to analogue. “I like that kind of preciousness, that limitedness… it means I put more effort into the process of taking pictures,” she explains.
Today, her aesthetic seems fully fledged even if she still declines any categorisation of her work. “It's quite hard to pinpoint what I do, because I feel some parts are more documentary, others more fashion or fine art…” But, one thing Tami is sure of, is that she loves capturing her family members. “I can skip out the whole process of getting to know them, I build on my ideas quicker and push them further,” said Tami, admitting her best work is when subjects are entirely trusting her. In Ireland, two years ago Tami shot her mum, auntie and cousin for a project with WeTransfer. “They were involved in all of the picture ideas and it ended up amazing !” recalls Tami.
Joy Crooks for Porter Magazine, 2022
Shot for Atmos, 2022
“I think intimacy comes from the vulnerability of photographing people in a way that shows how I perceive them,” she explains. It’s from photographing her dad, who has been suffering with short-term memory loss for the past 25 years, that she drew her process of getting to know the subject’s intimately before shooting. “How I interact with people is based on how I interact with my dad in the first place,” declared Tami. During a surgical operation to drain fluids out of his brain, the part managing memory was accidentally damaged. “So ever since I was born, I've had a dad with short-term memory loss. And I never really thought of it as anything unusual because it's all I've ever known.”
“I think intimacy comes from the vulnerability of photographing people in a way that shows how I perceive them.”
The project first began as an investigation aiming to show what living with an illness means. It was more of a documentary focused on the hardship of living with such conditions. But whilst shooting Tami soon realised that the most interesting aspect was how her dad is actually a playful and funny man - how as a family, they all use comedic relief to deal with his illness. “We don't take it too seriously because we live with it !” she exclaimed.
This project soon became her final project at university, and since then she’s been expanding it, doing numerous photoshoots and creating work in lots of different ways. Tami thinks of the project as a tree with several branches creating multiple different stories. “We just did a shoot for a magazine called Family Portrait, that’s about his long-term memory and what he remembers of growing up in Pakistan,” said Tami.
Focused on her dad's childhood ideas of play, the series pictures him outside clutching a kite in a beautiful purple ensemble, dropping water on his head from an iron bucket, or holding a cricket bat - cricket being Pakistan’s most popular sport. The picture ended up on one of the 6 covers of the magazine, and was the first cover to sell out.
“Lahore to London” for Family Portrait Magazine, 2022
Working out interacting with props and natural elements is also something Tami gained from shooting with her dad. “He obviously isn't a model by nature, so I got him to do things as a means of eliminating the anxiety… it got things going and stopped any awkwardness,” she said. Finding it easier to shoot him outside, “[it] stops the stillness and creates motions,” explains the young photographer who is now incorporating these techniques across more of her work. “I like this idea of movement, this idea of playing with things out there, like building on narratives,” she said.
A year and half ago, for the Welsh clothing brand Toast, Tami worked alongside a set designer aiming to bring the outdoors indoors. Choosing a dark green background, bringing in logs, flowers or leaves, and making the models interact with those elements. “Working with a set designer is, I think, the way forward for me in the studio,” she said, explaining that building up images with someone else is what gets her most excited.
“I like this idea of movement, this idea of playing with things out there, like building on narratives,”
Shooting fashion is thus something Tami would like to continue as it gives her the opportunity to collaborate with others. “I think I've fallen into the fashion route, because there are always lots of people on set and it’s something that I treasure.” But for her, it’s the artists, the musicians or the actors that she has the most fun capturing. She likes shooting people that interest her and that in turn are interested in photography.
Sigrid for Lula, 2022
Since then, she always makes sure her team is having fun throughout the process and feels comfortable. Before starting a shoot, she takes time to share a coffee with everybody in order to get to know each of the individuals she’ll be collaborating with. In her opinion it is also what helps make the images playful and somewhat carefree.
Having fun throughout the process of creating images is crucial for Tami’s practice and something she links back to her time assisting the photographer duo Luke Norman and Nik Adam. “They are so creative and out of the box. They cut up all their negatives, make collages and are not bothered about things being perfect or in trend,” said Tami before adding, “that's something that I've wanted to take into my own side as well.”
When asked if she would keep on photographing her father, Tami answered, all smiling, that as long as he feels happy about it she’ll keep doing it. “It's a really nice way to spend time together and build up his confidence,” she explains. Her father is actually very impressive in front of the camera, he’s strong and stoic and just started modelling on his own. In February, Tami and her dad will go on a trip to Pakistan, they’ll visit the city of Lahore where he was born and they’ll keep on shooting. “I haven't been since I was 12 years old, it’s been like forever, so I'm really excited!” explained Tami already planning the different shot she wants to take.
Travelling and having the opportunity to shoot people from all over the world is one of her biggest dreams and this trip does seem like the first step to achieve it. Meanwhile though, she’ll stay in her Peckham studio shooting and working alongside her joyful group of studio mates.
About Tami Aftab
Tami Aftab is a London based Photographer. Her work touches on subjects of intimacy, family, performance and play.
Her most recent clients include Toast, Net-a-Porter, Hunter Boots, Rapha, Atmos, WeTransfer, and NYT: T Magazine.