In an Age where everything is constantly documented, and we are overwhelmed with content, Sage's artistry is easy to decipher from others. An artist curated in East London and South through his photography, visuals and exhibitions manages to alleviate us from the façade, his work is a pause within truth. He encapsulates moments of rawness and grit, transcending his community in their everyday lives. His art is submerged in his and the people he captures 'lived universal experiences', aiding in the truthfulness of his photography. Sage doesn’t separate himself from truth for aesthetic reasons, but rather uses aesthetics to ‘iconify’ reality, highlighting the beauty in the grit and the polarities that life has to offer and how that brings community together, similar to his exhibitions bringing creatives together.

We had the pleasure of attending Sages ‘search for self’ exhibition on a complete whim in the treacherous November weather and left feeling inspired and connected. In ‘The search for self’, the photos were ordered meticulously, like a timeline outlining the trajectory of his craft and development as an Artistic director. As he searches for himself, he discovers and gains agency over his own craft. The exhibition blended his earlier works of concert photography, highlighting his relentless efforts to capture the passion, grit and energy of a performance with artists such as Skepta, Drake and Tyla. He transported us to these moments, evoking a strong sense of nostalgia. The timeline then led us to his later works, where his shoots became curated, intentional, and he had agency on the themes . He placed his energy on ‘iconifying people in their everyday rights’, capturing the relationship between them and the places they’ve called home. Documenting real relationships. The exhibition truly brought people together and exemplified the frequency of love.

We had the pleasure to talk more with Sage about his journey and advice for any young photographers looking to put on their own exhibitions and artists who may be feeling stuck.

How has the place you’ve grown up shaped you as a person and artist? 

I think growing up in the South and originally in the East has shaped me as an artist and a person in so many different ways. It taught me a crazy level of independence, and it heightened the confidence I have in my art and myself. Moving schools and moving areas at such an early age, you have to understand how to walk within your own right, with confidence, and I’ve taken that same level of confidence within my art, in each and every step I take, in everything I do. It’s given me two different sets of lived experiences and perspectives that have informed a lot of the artwork that I create. If you take my Made in the manner series, for example, I’ve iconified London moments and have shot them in such normal ways, but still elevating that experience. A lot of these stories I shoot are things I’ve seen growing up in both the East and South.

What first piqued your early interest in photography?

The main thing that piques my interest in photography or just visuals as a whole was watching Kanye’s genius documentary. As soon as I came out, not only was it a source of creative inspiration just in general to be the best version of yourself and strive for whatever you want to do but I think seeing Clarence Coodie’s grit and relentlessness capturing Kayne, even when he had no reason to, with no guarantee that he was going to make it, it kind of inspired me to capture the undiscovered Kanye’s within London. I actually originally wanted to do videography or vlog different artists within London, quickly found out that video editing is kind of long, and I really wanted to output a lot of my documentary work really quickly. I didn’t want to rush, but also wanted to see the fruits of my labour faster than I could with videography, so I just started doing photography.

How did that manifest in curating intentional shoots and then leading to creating exhibitions?

To begin, I started shooting at concerts, so I just started going to my favourite artists like Knuck's, Unknown T, Skepta, and I started going to Boiler Room psychers. With each concert that I shot, I kind of became more intentional with each image and still that I had. One thing I quickly learnt was that I love capturing that raw energy within the moment, that aggression within the flames, the pyrotechnics, the stage design, even the performance of the artist. There are so many things you see an artist do that you take for granted in the moment and forget when you leave the concert, that I just had to capture a still frame that could just be timeless forever.

As I went on, I kind of learnt how creative I was and started to learn that what was given to me on stage wasn’t all I wanted to work with; I wanted to direct the image. This led me to begin doing studio shoots and personal shoots and as I started to do that I think it kind of wasn't enough for my work to exist only digitally, the most rewarding part of being an artist is probably being able to your work in some sort of physical manifestation, being able to hold what you’ve created and be transported back to that experience, painting it or sculpting it, whatever your medium is, I think that’s one of the most rewarding parts.

The first exhibition was made from thirteen pieces, and maybe ten of them were all music, and three were studio shoots. I think that I wanted to make a body of work that was an amalgamation of who I was as an artist. Within that previous year of shooting, I felt like there were so many different types of photographers, and I wanted to go down the route of exhibiting my work and creating intentional bodies of work instead of only responding to what was given to me.

How, in one sentence or 3 words, would you describe your style of photography, and how has it evolved?

My work evolved from simply documenting moments to building narratives. It originally started as raw, gritty and energetic, while still keeping that same form within my music photography, but within my made in the manner series and my fashion shoots, it sits at the intersection of documentary work and editorial work. For example, if you see my ‘made in the manner’ series and the fashion work, I’m still editorially capturing you, but it feels like I’m capturing a lived experience.

What was the overall message you wanted to convey with one of my personal favourites, the ‘made in the manner’ series?

The overall message of the ‘made in the manner’ Series was to iconify people in their everyday lives. It is a series that draws inspiration from the early 2000s but replaces the characters with modern-day people. I feel I’ve shot a body of work that is reminiscent of the past but is shot with a modern eye. Everything I do is an extension of who I am, and I feel like I’m on a mission of self-discovery, not just an artist but also a person. Shooting each character, there are so many lessons that I want people to understand within themselves and the emotions they feel within the images, to really ground themselves in the moment and understand who they are in the moments I capture them. 

For example, whether the theme is love, friendship, whether it's family, whether it's loss, struggle, I want you to understand that you are who you are because you’ve gone through these experiences. 

That’s why capturing them is so important to me because years from now when people do look onto these photographs not only do they understand how we lived 2020’s but people in the current day and years from now will understand a lot of these concepts cause their perennial concepts, their timeless just like the theme of love, the theme of friendship weather its shot in the 1900’s or 2000’s you would always understand them.

You’ve described this series as an “homage to the women who shaped your understanding of home” Who are those women, and how did they shape your understanding of home?

There are a lot of women that I pay homage to within my work who have shaped my understanding of home. Most importantly, I'd say my mother, my two sisters, my aunties and cousins and even all the women that I’ve met throughout my life, in every in between of every experience that I've had. The experiences I've had growing up and even now, today tomorrow and last week even, I feel like there's so many unspoken nuances that people take for granted whether it's the love you feel from the women in your life or even the unspoken overprotectiveness, it’s the warmth that you feel and in a lot of the images there are characters that are shot in isolation but there’s still warmth in their eyes. With the theme of love I’ve explored in my ‘love in ruins’ piece and another unreleased piece that I’m actually going to post soon, there’s a warmth that I feel that I've always had growing up from the women that have shaped my understanding of home and that's the same level of warmth I want to display when I’m shooting. That’s why I'm very selective with the models I pick, only because when I am shooting, there's a very intimate exchange that's going on, me capturing your likeness to tell my story, but also yours. I still have to maintain that same warmth with my family of models if that makes sense. I feel like with every person I've worked with for personal shoots, our relationship has grown to a deeper level.

What inspired the concept for the photo ‘London love story’?

The inspiration behind Love in Ruins was my obsession with capturing love; it’s a concept I’ve always wanted to explore, and I thought what better way to explore the concept of love than actually documenting and shooting the way I saw it growing up. From the relationships I witnessed in ends growing up, to my brother, to different family dynamics that I’ve seen with relationships, in my friendships as well, I thought capturing such a beautiful concept in such a gritty and real way is probably the best way to display the concept of love, love is imperfect it looks perfect from the outside but there’s always ups and downs and it's always rocky but I think the most important thing is the journey you have with the person you love even if its platonic. I think the ‘love in ruins’ doesn’t just show the type of love you have between two lovers, but I think it shows the need you have to protect the person you love.

 I think Capturing Gaudi and Casey was such a real moment for me because one, they’re from ends, two, whenever I shoot my ‘made in the manner’ series, I always shoot them from where they’re from, so the stories are always so real. So even the abandoned car wash that I shot them in was actually a minute walk away from where Gaudí grew up, so that whole story was just always so real to me, and I just wanted to capture them in their own right. Even within my favourite image, I literally told them just do what feels natural to you, and Casey just hugged him, and he looks at the camera with the bat, and I just thought that’s the perfect display of love, your woman loving you, and you protecting whatever’s around you.

There’s actually this photograph I love where there’s so many subjects within the foreground and then there’s two lovers in the back against a fence kissing each other and I think that was a main reference that I kind of wanted to shoot later on but I really wanted to zoom in on that one moment within the image that I feel a lot of people kind of neglect.

Can you share the story behind one of your favourite photos within the exhibition?

I don’t think I have a favourite, I’m not going to lie to you I have so many favourites for so many different reasons but if I had to share a story of one of my funnier shoots it would probably be ‘Concreate Nomad’s'  the picture with Marmarie against the abandoned swing, that one bro….absolute madness, that shoot I'm not going to lie to you we had to climb over to get to the abandoned block, but we had no way to climb over it so we had to use a plinth of cement climb on it, then we had to get Marmarie to over the fence so my boy Matrix climbed over the fence first, it was a just a madness I’m not going to lie, its actually so mad even my favourite image actually came from the last twenty minutes from the shoot. In the two hours we shot, a lot of the images were cool, but didn't convey the feeling that I wanted people to feel. It was such a sporadic moment that I felt like it was destined for us to shoot.

So, your most recent exhibition was called ‘search for self’. I’m curious to know what inspired the name?

The most recent exhibition, ‘search for self’ is inspired by my searching for myself to be quite literal with you. A lot of my exhibition names describe the process that I’m going through whilst shooting the bodies of work. So, with shooting a lot of the ‘made in manner’ images, the music photography, and the fashion photography, I think I was inspired by my knowing myself to a deeper level and informing the art with that information. So even down to the experiences I want to capture. The reason why that is, because growing up, I feel like I didn't really take in a lot of my surroundings and didn’t really capture pivotal memories, and what’s actually mad is I actually don’t have a lot of baby photos either, so I feel like the lived experiences that I now experience, I want to capture those through other people. I'm kind of annoyed I haven't got any baby photos. I do, but they're limited, so I feel like now a lot of the things that I go through in life, I now want to experience through other people, if that makes sense.

Moving forward, what themes/subjects would you like to capture more of?

Essentially, the same as what I’ve always been capturing, which are the lived Universal experiences of human beings, I think I really want to take it to a deeper level. I’ve already mapped out the direction I want to go in this year and all the shoots I want to do. I really want to capture the unspoken experiences and feelings we have as a generation that often goes unspoken, these emotions and conversations bring us together and we all internally feel them as we look at each other but I think we're too scared to actually have those conversations and I want my work to also be a piece of that conversation that actually inspires you to not only speak about it but also reflect within yourself.

If you could give the audience three words that describe what they need to make it as a photographer in London, what would they be? 

I’d say one thing you’d definitely need a lot of patience, I'm not going to lie, as a photographer, it’s a very long journey to be honest. Two, you definitely need hunger, and three, faith. I'd say that's probably the most important thing. I think being a creative, in general, there are a lot of ups and downs, and there are so many opportunities for you to doubt yourself and for you to have excuses to not do anything.

Even the fear of failure I think a lot of people fear failing or fear becoming a new version of themselves because the current version that they are at feels so comfortable but beyond that is what really gives you the gift of life , you know what I'm saying, even this new collection I'm shooting and the amount of work I want to do this year and the new systems I have implemented into my artwork and just my model as an artist, I'm even still a bit fearful of what I want to do but I know I have to do it 'cause I feel like I've been given a responsibility to do something.

If you could give your younger self advice, what would it be?

If I could give my younger self advice, I would tell him to do what I’ve always done, which is trust my instinct. Two trust my vision, and three trust God. Most importantly, not everything needs to be done at once, and comparison will always cloud your path. Just stay in tunnel vision, just do the work, the small ones will always compile into something. I feel like people try to always do twenty per cent as soon as possible. If you’ve only got ten per cent on the day, just give ten per cent, because that’s the best you can do in that moment, so just do that.

Is there a lesson you’ve learnt that you would want your future self to hold onto?

If I could give my future self advice, I would tell him that God wouldn't put you in a position that you weren't capable of achieving. I think that's been the main thing, and just follow your instinct. I feel like in everything I've done, my instincts have always led me. A lot of my best moments have come sporadically. You can try to plan as much as possible, but a lot of the time in the creative game, bro, things change, trends drop, week in week out, there’s always something, something rising, something waning, so just keep adapting.

That’s what I’d tell him, and stay hungry. I don’t wanna ever see that guy wake up and he’s not getting to the money, he’s not working, do you know what I’m saying, I promise you he’s got to keep his head straight bro, but I think he needs to find a balance, I feel like with this recent exhibition I went ham but it needed to be done. I give myself no room for excuses at all. If I wanna rest and a certain amount needs to be done, I’ll always do the full amount before I rest.

Do you have any advice for photographers who would like to put on their own exhibition but are intimidated by the idea?

Believe in yourself, the most important thing is to just take a step and do is always better than perfect. I think when I first started out, my bredrin Slumrox and Matrix- I would always tell them I can’t throw an exhibition because I wanted it to be perfect, I always wanted it to be some huge exhibitions in some big gallery but that's really not how it starts you always have to start from somewhere and however that is just do it you it, you will learn and you will live and the next one you do you will bring those lessons that you got from the first one and take that into the second one. Even if it's a small venue, 50-cap, even if you don't think your art is ready for where it’s at, just exhibit honestly, just take the step.

How does it feel to not only have sold out your second exhibition but to have successfully created an accessible space for people from different demographics to come together (free of charge) and indulge in art?

I think creating a space for people who are into art and fashion doesn't feel real, I'm not going to lie. To successfully do it and actually build a community that supports me and support themselves as well, I think the word is surreal, I think every day I wake up and I still don't believe that we've built a space or built a home even at the exhibitions there’s an energy in the room that you just can't describe, I feel like people unknowingly feel and it’s just beautiful too see and I'm super grateful to see everybody come together 'cause AYE, I’m not going to lie stepping out your crib just to actually come together and connect and see art is actually a very undervalued experience that a lot of people take for granted and seeing everybody come together is so beautiful.

In fact let me shout out my brothers as well Slumrox and 1kMatrix because I can’t lie exhibitions without them it wouldn’t be possible, and Slums leadership and his strategy when it comes to exhibitions, bro, top don the stuff he comes up with, the way he structures so many different elements combined with my creativity and art direction is so mad and then Matrix having him on the ground right next to me working with him, dream team bro honestly.

What are the FORE things you can’t live without?

1. God

2. Family and Friends

3. My camera

4. My whiteboard

You see, the ideas and plotting I do on that whiteboard is crazy its even turned black, the amount of ink on it- insane. 

What are the FORE favourite images that you’ve shot?

1. Skepta at Big Smoke

2. My sister’s keeper, a piece inspired by my sisters that is very personal to me

3. Sorrow Flower, it was my first studio shoot.

4. Love in Ruins

What are the FORE lessons you’ve learnt on your journey?

1. The first is always better than perfect. Don’t be a perfectionist, especially as a creative people always want it to look a certain way, but I promise you it will always go better than you think it will.

2. I’ve Learn to have confidence in my creative voice and vision. It’s very easy in an age where you hear so many voices socially to doubt yours against bigger powers, many creatives are in bigger places, but you have to understand you are where you are for a reason.

3. There's nobody better work with than people you love that's the best thing I'd say, don't try to work with someone just because you think it would really benefit you in whatever way, whether it's monetary whether it's socially I think there's a level of chemistry to memories you have with shooting and working with the people you love weather it’s your brothers, whether it’s your sisters whether it’s your family and friends I think there's so much energy that goes into shooting with people it even better doing it with people you love.

4. Patience, this game is a very long game of waiting, I’d say. You have to be very precise in what you do, you have to be technical, meticulous, although you have to still sometimes get things done on the fly, you still have to be very methodical in everything you do. I don’t think I can really make a solid move without thinking very deeply, but don’t overthink too much, yet still put a structure in place. A structure will always help, but don’t overbuild it and feel obliged to stick to it. It’s all about balance.