When life opened back up, Rob went back to the dancefloor and onto festival fields, and last year went along to Parklife in Manchester, and to the iconic rite-of-passage weekends at Reading and Leeds Festival. His brief was to take a series of images capturing the essence of these collective weekend celebrations.

The resulting artwork will be displayed as part of Your Space Or Mine, BUILDHOLLYWOOD’s long-term street-level art gallery where newly-commissioned photography, murals and installations take prime position across multiple city billboards. As Spring turns into early Summer, and the first festivals of the season come into view, so will Rob’s festival photographs – plastered across huge boards in Manchester, Leeds, and London. It’s a neat full circle, not least because he photographed artists previously featured on Your Space Or Mine, including choreographer Magnus Westwell. And as well as being emblazoned across the built environment, the images will be rolled out into Leeds, Reading and Parklife festivals themselves – a visual connecting-up of documentation and life being lived, in the moment. 

Festivals, as sites of collective joy and repair, are an essential part of UK culture. Rob Jones’ images are a timely reminder of what’s just around the corner. For him, they’re also part of a growing archive, of his own work and of the artists who capture and shape this important part of the musical world. “Going into this festival season, I’m thinking ahead. What are these photographs going to look like in 20 years’ time?’ he says. ‘I think images mature so well. They just get better with age. That’s led me into a more documentary style, focusing on the details that might sometimes be missed. I quite like to slow down and have a moment, take a look around. They’re the photos that stand the test of time.”

Congratulations. The photographs look incredible.

Thank you. I’ve never had my work shown on this scale. I’m nervous but excited. I think it’s going to be quite a surreal experience seeing my work on that scale. You’re so used to just seeing it on a screen, or smaller. At the moment, I’m going through my archive and I realised it’s almost ten years to the day that I took my first photo at a music festival. It’s a nice milestone or marker – that’s your first ten years. What’s coming next? I would never have imagined it ten years ago. It’s come at a nice time.

So where were you ten years ago, with your camera?

I’d just graduated from university. I was working full time at a coffee shop in Manchester city centre. I messaged a friend of my sister, Warren Cummings, who was running a blog on the Vice network, saying ‘could I do some event reviews for you?’ They took a chance on me, and sent me to the first edition of Lost Village (multi-arts festival in Lincolnshire) in 2015. I was already going to be working there, volunteering in the car park. After I finished the car park shift I collected my media pass.

I love it! Tabard off, camera on.

Yep. I’d been to Leeds Festival but this was the first time I was backstage, seeing the inner workings of these amazing places. I should mention that I was going to write a review and they asked if I’d take pictures as well. I didn’t own a camera, I borrowed it off my friend. I’d never picked up a DSLR before so I just put all the settings on auto and gave it my best shot.

How did the images turn out?

One that stands out is a silhouette I got of Four Tet, who was playing in the forest. It was purely by chance, but from that moment on it gave me the confidence to believe ‘I can do this’. I didn’t understand the technical side, but I could understand composition. I had an eye for it, basically. And importantly, I’m a music fan. If you’re not, you’re not going to get the images. I’m a fan with a camera in my hand.

I think it’s extremely hard to get good images of the dancefloor, whether that’s at a festival or a club. Which dancefloor photographers that you rate?

Dave Swindells. Seana Gavin. James Marcus Haney. He’s a Los Angeles man who released a book, Fanatics, and it’s a series of photographs 2010-2020, all shot on film. He really goes in on the details, particularly at festivals. It made me realise that music photography didn’t have to be this perfectly symmetrical image where the DJs in the middle with their hands in the air. Dave Swindells, his Ibiza book is one of my prized possessions. These photographers ignored the artist to be honest, focussing their lens on the fans. Without the fans there is no artist, or festival.

Between the three you mentioned, you’ve got club culture, free parties and festivals. What’s your relationship to free parties?

I don’t. I remember seeing some of the photos at the Sweet Harmony exhibition at the Saachi Gallery. I’ve not really shot those kinds of parties but it really resonated with me from a documentary perspective, showing off a world that not many people get to experience. Also Ewen Spencer. It took me a while to figure out how he had such a distinctive style – then I realised he used flash, a lot, a hard flash, almost quite startling. He’s awesome.

What do you think is your role in the culture, as a photographer?

I see it as being like a historian. I started shooting black and white film at Warehouse Project in 2018. Some people would take the piss out of me: why are you doing that here? I did it because of Dave Swindells and Bill Bernstein’s black and white photographs. They really inspired me. I did two seasons and they’re still some of my favourite images to date. They’re messy, they’re sweaty, blurry, underexposed, overexposed. Black and white photography of the dancefloor – I love it.

Have you exhibited the Warehouse Project photographs?

Yes. In 2019 I raised some money for a Manchester homeless charity called Coffee4Craig by selling them off as prints. It made people appreciate them, and accept them, I guess.

You mentioned giving upcoming visual artists a chance by hiring them through your Khroma collective. Why is that important to you?

I’ve just turned 32 and I’m grateful to be in a position to give other people opportunities. I was putting in some of our team’s passport details the other day and some of them were born after 2000. It felt quite surreal. I really want to champion this next wave of photographers and videographers. Younger photographers come in with new ideas, editing techniques I’m not even aware of. You learn a lot. They keep you on your toes. It’s really important to work with younger, less experienced people. Sienna [Lorraine Grey], we’ve worked with her for four or five years, and now she’s smashing it.

Who did that for you?

A guy called Matt Eachus, aka The Manc Photographer. It was back in the day when people watermarked their photos. When I was starting, I dropped him a few messages and 2018 we shot a festival together in Malta. That was a real full circle moment, admiring this guy then working alongside him. He was a real helping hand. Even just the odd acknowledgement of messages meant a lot, from people like Dan Medhurst who was on the road with Bonobo for a few years and Marc Sethi who I met shooting festivals. Lou Jasmine is a brilliant person – and friend – who offered me a lot of advice and direction when I first began shooting.

The billboards are a mix of single landscape images and a series of shots, lined up next to each other. How did you select the images?

Oh man, it took me a while to be happy with the final selection. As a series I’m proud of it, for sure. I’m rubbish about shouting about what I do. I post online, people share my work, but personally, it’ll be nice for me to have this, to look back on, in years to come. Also, it’s a difficult time to be trying to put on a festival. So hopefully these photos do inspire people to buy a ticket and keep supporting them as much as they can.

Could you talk through some of the festival detail that appear in the shots on the billboards?

The ones from Leeds festival have got a sea of tents with the main stage in the background. Guys in pink cowboy hats. A pile of rubbish. One I took this from the TV broadcast tower, I think Liam Gallagher might have been playing. There was this swirl of people, enjoying themselves. I put on a longer lens, focused on this segment of people, quite a slow shutter speed. I loved the results, the chaos. I hadn’t been to Leeds festival since 2011, which was my first festival experience when I was 17.

Will you talk to me about consent? I noticed that you’ve no recognisable faces in there…

That was a conscious decision. At one festival, I printed out cards, gave them to people I took photos of – and I didn’t really hear back from anyone, which didn’t surprise me! The last thing people want to do is sign a consent form. So I had to make sure they weren’t distinguishable. It was a challenge, and it took the project down a slightly different route. It feels more fly on the wall than having a relationship with someone. It also led me to focus on the details. Most people aren’t going to be publishing photos of the bins at Leeds Festival.

Is there one festival moment you’re especially looking forward to this year?

In recent years We Out Here has become one of my favourite festivals. The demographic, the artists, the music. It’s so good. It’s special. Glastonbury will be a highlight with it being fallow next year. Silver Hayes, they’ve really got some momentum going this year. And the unexpected moments, which is what festivals are all about.