Finding peace through suffering

You know those moments that it almost feels like it was meant to be? Years ago, while shopping for new sneakers in London, I met Jay (29) as a store employee. Having an outgoing and curious nature myself, we started chatting and goofing around about shoes. Two years later we were looking for people in London with an interest in sneakers, and somehow I was put in touch with this guy through my network. Shortly after we started chatting we realised we’ve met before and that I had bought sneakers (of course) from him - Jay. 

We stayed in contact, following each other on Instagram, until suddenly we had a project that we knew he’d be the perfect fit for. We (finally!) met up with him in January during our research for LVMH and FENTY, and Jay’s experiences as a Filmmaker, Photographer, Actor / Model and as a Creative Director gave us valuable and perceptive input on the future tenets of luxury fashion.

In one of the lowest moments of Jay’s life he found and developed his greatest passion  -- photography. Learning to communicate through images rather than words changed him.

“I reset at this moment because I really had to slow down, and let go of all the things I thought I needed to do and achieve in the world. I had to let go of everything and think of ME. I was very stressed and anxious and felt extremely low moods, to the point of having aches and pains. I understood how powerful our minds are, so I looked elsewhere for a stress free creativity and loved the poetic and nostalgic feel of analogue photography.”

In Jay’s opinion, forming your identity and finding what you love is a long process of connecting with the things and people you meet along the way. People are pushed to choose their careers so early that they rarely pick the right one. That pressure of the system, of making money and having a stable income is heavier than finding your passion and figuring out who you truly are.

“We are cluttered in our minds with “needs” and “musts” and cover ourselves from being truly connected with ourselves. Because of this, it is also rare that we acknowledge other expressions or people that we are truly and completely connected to. So when we do, it changes and forms our world. We see something we connect with, and we have a subconscious pull to go further to it. This can happen with art, music, human connection, fashion, a job role, having a family, gardening, a book… anything.”

Being so aware of the ongoing process in life of learning and growing, finding a way to express himself through his art has helped him a lot. Photography has been his outlet since he has been dealing with depression. Quite recently Jay was even published in Tmrw magazine about his journey coping with it. 

“It was a story I call “The Clown”. The title of the magazine issue was “Mischief” and it was at a time where I wanted to express and let go of weight with my connection with depression. My concept and relation to the issue’s title was very much influenced with the recent release of Todd Phillips “The Joker”. However I wanted to show a strong and well “put together” man with an extremely stark internal battle.”

JAY’S RESET TIPS: 

Books:

• IKIGAI by Albert Liebermann and Hector Garcia

• EARTH by Eckhart Tolle

• THE ROAD LESS TRAVELLED by Scott Peck

  Movies:

• GATTACA  Directed by Andrew Niccol (1998) 

• LABYRINTH Directed by Jim Henson (1986)

• THE GOONIES Directed by Richard Donner (1985)

• THE MATRIX trilogy Directed by The Wachowski Brothers (1999 - 2003)

• GLADIATOR Directed by Ridley Scott (2000)

• HERO Directed by Zhang Yimou (2002)

• CROUCHING TIGER HIDDEN DRAGON Directed by Ang Lee (2000)

• AKIRA Directed by Katsuhiro Otomo (1988)

• OLDBOY Directed by Park Chan-Work (2003) - whatever you do, do not watch the American remake.

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