Maxim Adejumo

Photographer

“YOU ARE THE ONLY PERSON WHO KNOWS WHAT'S RIGHT FOR YOU."

Maxim, what's up? How is life?

Life is going rather well at the moment, I can’t lie. I just moved out to a new city (London) and am looking to get settled out here. It has been a busy past couple of months but now it seems to be calming down a little so I'll be able to get my things in order. Ready and excited for this fresh start.

For the people that don't know you, tell them about yoursefl?

Well I am a 25 year old multicultural artist whose primary medium of work is Photography. That body of work mainly revolves around portraits of musicians, concerts and fashion. I enjoy dabbling in other mediums such as music, painting and a little graphic design. I love what I do and I do what I love, make stuff with amazing people.

How did you get into photography?

Honestly a good question, I wouldn’t be able to tell you specifically one moment when I realised this was what I wanted my career to be but I think there were definitely some factors that lead to my picking up a camera and using it to express what I see around me. Firstly my grandfather. He was a sound engineer for the RTBF back in the day, he worked primarily on documentaries but being around the world of sound and images naturally he used to shoot while on set. Over his career and even after he collected and shot with a bunch of different cameras. As a kid, my room at my grandparents place was decorated with like 15 different cameras on a shelf up high. I always remember looking up at them, curious to see how they all worked. He actually gave me them, they still work and I use a lot of those same cameras now to shoot my work. A large part of my equipment was given to me by my grandfather and I have to say I am lucky, this profession is not cheap.

Aside from always having cameras around me growing up, I bought my first camera when I was 12 or 13 off eBay for like 35 euros. A friend and I started getting interested in shooting and developing film after we watched some video on YouTube. We had no idea what we where doing… safe to say I don’t think I shot one usable picture on that camera for the first 3 years of me having it. Along the years it was something I used from time to time slowly figuring out the settings and understanding the concepts of framing and and composition. It was only when I dropped out of business school to peruse studies in Cinema that I picked up my camera and started shooting seriously. I started shooting my first concerts on black and white film at that time and I think that is when it really clicked for me.

Biggest artist you've ever worked with?

The camera has given me access to so many festivals and concerts that it would be hard to tell you one specific artist, but I have been blessed to shoot some big names from the U.S. like Trippy Red, Rico Nasty and Bas, as well as big local artists like Romeo Elvis and Zwangere guy. I've also had the luck to shoot some old legends like Lee Scratch Perry (rest in peace). That being said I have the opportunity to see new artists that I am really excited to see grow, new artists like Reinel Bakole, Tamaraebi, Devantier Rain and Williams Kazari. If you don’t know them I suggest you check them out.

Tell us a bit about your unique style and way of creating a story with pictures?

I think many people don’t realise this but what a camera does is capture light. Fundamentally, to its core, photography is all about capturing light and how different lights create and affect different moods. I think that is the first place where a story starts to form when creating a picture, secondly is your subject, what they wear, how they stand, what they are looking at and how they interact with the camera and me, the photographer. While I do work with mood boards to help inspire a certain mood I may want to create, I rarely come to a shoot with a fixed image I want to create in mind. For me much of the art comes with interacting with my subject and in turn how they interact with me. I often take time before shooting with someone to get to know them and make sure they feel comfortable with me. While I am an energetic photographer, always putting myself in weird places or positions to get the image I want, I tend not to give too many directions to my subjects and rather watch my subjects do their thing. Which now that I think about probably stems from my background as a concert photographer.

What inspires you? How do you get those particular ideas?

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/kBVBZXbVtng ….but jokes aside!
Music, Fashion and my instagram feed. Music is for sure one of the biggest influences, the fashion, culture and energy that follows music, musicians and their fans is a huge inspiration in my day to day life. Fashion is another big influence that grew from my love for music, and has brought me into this other aspect of photography I love so much. I think a big thing that I look for in both of these artistic practices is high quality work. In terms of music or photography, I greatly value and get inspired by high quality production where each element in the piece is really thought out. Now I’m not saying that it has to be a high budget project, it can look and sound low budget but the importance for me is the meaning behind the processes that make up that project. As an artist I am always looking to better my work, for me the only way to do that is to understand what and why I am doing the things I am doing during my  creative process. Seeing others and understanding how highly talented artists go about creating their works helps me to do just that.

Take us to your biggest dream! What does it look like?

There are so many ways to answer this question, I don’t know where to start. I think, short term, within the next couple of years I would like to be able to start touring with artists for a bit, documenting not only concerts but the backstage and travel life as well. I feel like we often only see artists in two lights when they are in a controlled setting like on stage performing  and interviews or placed in uncompromising positions by paparazzi. I would like to bring a more intimate, more editorial approach to artists. I hope that one day I can do that with artists such as J. Cole or Isaiah Rashad. 
Long term, I hope to one day open a one-stop shop production house, where artists can come in to produce tracks, shoot videos, have photoshoots and have a space where they can get inspired.

Tell us something to inspire the culture!

You are the only person who knows what’s right for you, follow your gut and do you. Build something that speaks to you and that you’re proud to show the world. Fly high but stay grounded.