Jess Maddock

Beautifully composed portrait and lifestyle photography from the UCA Maidstone Visual Communication graduate

A purveyor of tales, places, and most importantly people, Jess Maddock is a photographer hell-bent on conveying the full story through the lens.

Constantly surrounded by inspiring, creative minds, the UCA Maidstone graduate’s start in the photographic arts was based in a desire to capture not only people, but personalities. Turning an idea into a reality, then, became Jess’s sole aim. She sought to encapsulate the interests and characters of her subjects in their natural environments, and this conscientiously organic process has paid dividends, with each person’s individuality skilfully communicated.

With an educational background in Visual Communication, the variety of working processes, methods and techniques has evidently afforded Jess a consideration of each frame that goes far beyond a mere ‘point-and-click’. Even the briefest of looks through her portrait work demonstrates an uncanny knack of drawing out the best in her subjects, a process suitably matched with an adroit use of light.

While undoubtedly charming, portraits are merely one string to her bow, with internship work for Ode to A offering up the opportunity to develop her skill set even further, particularly within lifestyle photography. In keeping with Jess’s interest in people and their professions, this placement work has prioritised “giving the viewer an insight into the personalities” of the label and its founders. In doing so, the project underlines that to be in line with a given photographic aesthetic, people skills can be as important as photographic ones, in order to ensure that stories are conveyed without loss of meaning. Most notably, working in lifestyle has lead to the opportunity to shoot at the likes of London Design Week, an invaluable experience for anyone establishing their profession.

Naturally, Jess hasn’t stopped there, with a keen ardour for travel fuelling yet another brand of photography. We can’t get enough of her beautiful collection of travel photos, and with a potential foray into print on the horizon, it won’t be long Jess has conquered every format out there.

jessmaddock.4ormat.com