There is photography as a job and there is photography as an art. Josh Cole is somewhere in between, he’s a full time working photographer yet he’s able to retain a style that is unmistakably his.

Born in Rugby, then moving to Lewis near Brighton, Josh’s history is not that different from any young lad growing up in a small town with its small town mentality. He was interested in the usual music, parties, social circle, girls, fast cars and partial to the odd spliff or a line.

This led to him and his friends getting a little heavily involved than they would have liked.

‘Some heavy shit went down’ he describes.

The inevitable biting off more than can be handled happened, someone got raided and it was a wake up call for Josh. He knew he had to change things.

Josh had been interested in photography from a young age

‘I used to go down the park and shoot my mates all the time using those cubes of flash, I was dead chuffed with them’.

And with the eternal influence of his mum who has been supportive all his life, he took a decision to get out and study properly at university.

Thank God he did too, it’s resulted in a welcome addition to the Steal-Life photography team, where Josh shot some great work at the B-Boy Championships this year.

Ironically the people he left behind thought being a photographer was a bit nancy!? Seems an odd thing when you see some of his personal work which concentrates on young people and how theyre perceived.

Josh took his experiences from that time to work with young offenders for a community project based in Camden, London. Josh mentored selected kids, taught them the principals of photography and the value of what they could achieve if they just applied themselves. The resulting work went towards an exhibition attended and supported by David Bailey.

‘I just wanted to give something back’ he says.

The photos in our slideshow feature the young offenders that took part and were shot by Josh after the exhibition.

Josh has a passion for this subject.

‘I’m really interested in the criminal mind; quite often you find these people are really creative. It’s just that they channel that creativity into something illegal’.

Josh put his money where his mouth is with that statement and started Bulletin - a prison magazine that tries to get something positive from this untapped creativity.

‘We did the first one just in black and white, crap print and it was a huge success. The prisoners loved it! I was asked to do another and I went to town on it, did it full colour. I interviewed Skinny Man about his experiences inside it was great. Unfortunately we lost the funding but I’d love to resurrect the project and do it more long term, just need the cash’.

Josh has been concentrating on commercial work more recently and is making a name for himself with work for Carhartt and
G-shock. But the passion from his personal work is what keeps his work fresh, individual and employable. Just talk to him about it and you can hear that he really cares and it’s this reason that commercial work is now flooding his way, because that passion is a rare thing in any business.

I guess we can all learn a lesson from the criminal mind, like Josh has, but we can also learn that if you want to do work that you love you’ve got to first care about what you do no matter if it’s something commercial or a personal project.

‘I get hired to shoot as myself now so all my work is personal work’.

www.wideangle.org.uk