Jim Marsden

We first met Jim when working with Timothy Everest. We were drawn to him as soon as we saw his camera, instead of the usual DSLR, he was armed with a 1950's Rolleiflex. We thought this was incredibly brave and were interested to see how he would document the event. 

Jim is from Rawtenstall in East Lancashire. "I loved growing up there, I could walk out the door and be off the road and onto the hills in 10 minutes. I was never a city kid, a trip into Manchester 40 minutes away felt like a different world. I was always happier when I came home."

Jim got into photography when he was at secondary school he was an obsessive cyclist and classic car nut. It was the images printed in classic car and cycling magazines that first sparked an interest in photography. Although when he started taking photographs he was more drawn to people and the surroundings.

Jim is inspired by other photographers but he likes to take inspiration from books, films, music and art, this clearly helps him think outside the box.

The main aim for the Dawson Denim day was to try and catch some of that personality he says  "they've an amazing group of friends. I remember putting together the bunch of images from the 50's together and that would be a sort of guide for what I wanted us to do. Seeing this group of beat generation kids hanging out, just having fun. I figured if we could get just a bit of this natural feeling we'd get there.

"I use film because I hate sitting in front of a computer. I just love everything about it. The process, the waiting, the cameras. A digital camera leaves me so cold. My favourite kit is the Rolleiflex that I use for most work and the Leica's. They are both unbelievably well made, don't need any batteries, they just work really well. I'll keep shooting film until it dries up. Then I think I'll try my hand at either drawing or writing."

As with anything if it's going to be authentic it has to be done the right way, Jim shot all of the images that day on film on his Leica M3 and M2 and Rolleiflex 2.8F.