Hassan Hajjaj Wants You to Meet His London Rockstars | Sotheby's

[00:00:01]When I started taking pictures, I think one of the attraction was I was so lucky to have so many different types of people I was growing up with from [music] all over the world. All different characters. I just wanted to kind of take pictures of friends, people around me.

[00:00:19]My name's Hassan Haj. I have a solo show opening at Sudden Rock Stars. It's a new body of work of some of the new generation of London doers and makers, creative people. This is exactly what's going into Sabis. So, it starts with editing the images. So, normally each person I might choose a few and then I end up choosing the one I want in the show, which is which is the ones on the top. So, this is really uh the way I've been working old school.

[00:00:48][laughter] I'm not a technical photographer. So it started just taking pictures on the street because I was I can understand the lighting outdoors and uh it was something that happened naturally. I wasn't thinking about it. My London rock stars is really dedicated to a new generation. I saw something in them that I saw in myself when I was younger. So I thought it'd be great to capture this to discover people when they have that that spark in them at that moment and with that energy. The idea is to break the doors for the establishments. And this is one of the reasons I'm doing the show in Series. I don't see them as celebrities. I see them as more as artists. Some that have made it and some still grinding. I'm documenting this time of these people. I look at these young generation. If I was their their age, I would hope I'd be in their mix because I was that generation back in the 80s. I think most people know my bright colors uh in your face. Growing up in Morocco, we're definitely not scared from color. So, I think that was in the blood. I think coming in here to England when I started [music] shooting, especially the studio shoot. I think that's partly creating an escapism for myself when I'm shooting into that frame. [music] I'm inside that colored box as well. Normally, my brother's doing this. He's downstairs. I'm just finishing the last three frames.

[00:02:05]Suddies. This is one of them. Just kind of putting the work together. So, now we're doing the cans. cans really communicates with the public. People see a [music] brand they're familiar with and they immediately don't feel threatened and they can then look at the picture. This one here is uh I just love the color. So I always use the Arabic for my work. This one here has a meaning to me. This one I remember when I was a [music] child it was still around. It's a very famous tomato company. I love this font. This is one of my favorite fonts. I look at these as my oil paints, let's say. So this would be my last pro stroke when I'm putting the last part of the frame basically. my brother M stuff up. Must been working with me since a kid. I know forever. The frame is done.

[00:02:48]The cans are stuck in and the next thing would be [music] the the print would go on. So this is like the final stroke of the brush for for us.

[00:02:58][music] This one is actually a friend of my son, but he became a friend. I wanted this one to be very much in your face with the clothes [music] I've designed.

[00:03:07]Definitely one of my favorite prints.

[00:03:09]And then to have these cans [music] having similar colors with the green stuff. This one I'm very very happy with. I'm taking pictures of people uh that inspire me, some that I grew up with and meeting some new people from the shoot. I might have like 60 images and then I would bring them down to this one, that [music] one. So I decided to use this one. I just like the composition, the way Zad's looking there. I do the shoots outdoors. This is where if you see the tape there, that's where we hang all the backdrops. The sun comes here normally in the summer around 6:00, 7:00. So, it means I have all day to shoot. It's a different high [laughter] because you're one reacting to the weather because you don't know what the weather is going to be like. Having the person getting shot outdoors, there's people walking by, there's cars driving by, sometimes people shout something.

[00:04:03]So, it's quite good to see how the city reacts to to the public as well. When I'm at the space, I'm packing ready to put up. That's a golden moment for me cuz you're just trying to get through to get to that point. And then when you're getting to hang the show, that's when something that happens special because that's when you realize all the hard work, myself and my team [music] to reach that point and to see that room or that space coming alive. I'm the person behind the camera, so obviously it's not about me. All I'm doing is trying to highlight this new generation and I'm attached to it because I have my journey to it and I think I understand their journey and where they're at.