Image via Elliot Simpson
Vicky Grout might not be a name known to you if you're someone who isn't paying close attention to today's grime scene, but if you are in any way interested, you've most definitely seen her photos. She took THAT photo of Skepta at a party, and she's proceeded to make waves with her signature style, her dedication to analogue photography, and her love for everything surrounding grime. It's impossible to have a conversation with her without noticing just how passionate she is about what she does, and how much fun she's having.
Still ridiculously young for someone who's enjoying her level of notoriety, Vicky is still experimenting, and still studying; she's just finished a foundation course, and is starting university in the extremely near future. As you can probably guess, this means that her schedule is pretty damn hectic, and as part of SUPRA's #AlwaysOnTheRun campaign which shines a light on young creatives around Europe, we thought now might be a good time to sit down with her to talk about her work, how she fell in love with photography, and how she manages being so busy.
So, how did you get into photography?
I think I started doing it when I was about 14. I can’t remember what made me want to do it in the first place but I remember just going to the park and trying to take really ‘artsy’ photos of swans and trees and stuff, but that was in like year seven or something. I think I started properly taking photos when I picked up our old family camera—an Olympus Stylus Epic—and I was just taking pictures of stuff while I was out, and of mates, but actually putting thought into the image. It’s always been film; I’ve always been shooting on film.
I think the first thing that made me want to do it properly, especially on film, was Viktor Vauthier. I saw his work, and I must have been about 13 or something, and at the time I wasn’t aware of analogue photography but I looked at his work and I knew there was something different about it. Then I found out it was film, and I just thought ‘sick, okay’, and then I got our film camera and just started shooting. Up until last October I’d taken a year’s break—since it was just a hobby, shooting on film is a bit of an expensive hobby—so I took a bit of a break and focused more on my graphics work at college. I picked it up again last October, just for fun, and I took my camera to that Skepta and A$AP Bari things at Shapes—that was the first grime thing I took my camera to—and it just started out as a bit of fun but then obviously progressed into something a lot more than that.
Why do you work exclusively on film?
It’s funny, I actually got a digital camera last week [Laughs] for the first time ever, I’ve never shot digital before. Obviously, I’ve used a digital camera but more for A-Level work or whatever, never for my own personal work. I think I’ve realised that the more shoots I do and the more opportunities I get in terms of photography, I’ve realised that film isn’t appropriate for every situation. Like when I had to get LC:M photos developed, and I took them to Boots and they just got fucked, you know? I think when you need pictures quickly, it’s better. I’m not going to give up on film, in fact I’ve got five rolls to get developed today.
I’ve always preferred film because I think it seems more personal when you have to go and develop it yourself, and also you’re a lot more selective with your shots. I mean, now I’m getting a bit braver and going through a few too many rolls and I like to, but say for a grime event, I’ll probably use one or two rolls, whereas if I was shooting digital there would probably be about five hundred pictures. Again though, with film, there’s a character that you can’t fully replicate—obviously you can make it look a bit like film when you shoot digital but nine times out of ten you can tell that it’s not film. Also, when you get a photo developed you don’t need to edit it, you don’t have to put filters over it. Occasionally I’ll edit the lighting if it’s overexposed, but most of the time the way the picture comes out, that’s it.
You mentioned grime; you’re pretty well known for documenting grime. What made you want to document the grime scene?
Again, it wasn’t like one day I thought ‘right, I’m going to document this’. I think that especially since last summer when I just started going out all the time, and grime raves were where I was going—and because I was starting to use my camera more and getting back into photography—because it was a hobby and because I enjoyed going to those raves, I enjoyed taking pictures of it, you know? It was just a chance thing really, and then because I was doing it so much people just started recognising me for doing that, but I never actively thought that would be a thing. But I’m glad that it is now. [Laughs]
You do fashion work, and you do a bit of event photography as well, how is it jumping between them?
Yeah, I mean, they are completely separate things. But even when I was just shooting for fun when I was a lot younger I used to take my compact film camera to gigs and stuff. I’d always be front row at Brixton O2, taking pictures of whoever, Odd Future or the Maccabees.
What a weird two acts to pick.
I was 14 okay? [Laughs]
But at the same time I’d always want to go take nice pictures of my friends, so I guess that I wouldn’t want to try and narrow myself down to just one area, because I just like taking pictures of what I enjoy, what I think looks nice. And I like to think that I’ve got quite a broad area of interests; I am interested in music, and I am interested in fashion, so I just like documenting them and photographing everything that I like, really.
You work loads, and you’re at uni. How do you juggle both things?
Well, I’ve just finished my foundation course, and I kind of started getting back into the whole photography thing halfway through that course, so the first half was calm, I was just focusing on uni, and then the second half started to get a bit mad. It got to the point where I wasn’t going in because I was at the SHOWstudio afterparty or whatever, and to be honest I was surprised that I passed. I’m so happy that I did but I wasn’t expecting it at all, I was fully prepared to say ‘right, I’m not going to go to uni, I’m going to do my own thing’.
When I passed, I thought ‘okay, shit, I’m gonna have to go to uni’. This summer, already I’m doing so much, so come September when I’m fully starting my degree, I don’t know what I’m going to do really. Obviously I don’t want to flop uni, but then I don’t want to be passing up opportunities as well. I don’t know, we’ll see how it goes. Maybe I’ll drop out, maybe I won’t. We’ll see. [Laughs]
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