Have You Ever Kicked A Dandelion? by Hayley Jay
Interview by Esta Maffrett | 09.09.24
Have You Ever Kicked A Dandelion? launched at Peckham Levels as a collaborative photographic series from Hayley Jay whose practice is concerned with the aesthetics of youth and the spaces they occupy. During her residency at Millside School in Slough, Hayley captured the character and energy of the every day while also passing her camera onto the students. The exhibition blends students' imagery and artwork with Hayley’s in an uplifting showcase challenging the pervasive negative stigma and complex obstacles faced by special needs and provisional schools today.
Catching up on the exhibition and launch event, Hayley reflects on her motivation and inspirations as she took on her biggest project to date, as well as the takeaway lessons.
Where does your interest in photographing youth culture come from?
Mostly shooting nightlife, I am interested in spaces away from the home that young people congregate. There is a real lack of third spaces for teenagers. Around this time last year I proposed a photography project at my local provisional and special needs school. Across the UK, there’s been a drop in school funding and attainment with 85% of British teachers feeling that they’re severely underpaid. Overwhelmingly special needs teachers feel underfunded and undervalued. That has a ripple effect on youth culture.
Youth culture has opened up a whole new area of my practice that is itching to do something to change the state of public education in the UK - for the young people's sake and my own as a young creative with this new area of my practice that is concerned with youth work and teaching. But also, youth culture in all its forms makes me smile day to day. The changes we see in style and fashion are largely from young people. Whether it’s teenage couples sharing E Scooters or my teenage sisters decorating their room with Pandora gift bags and Victoria's Secret spray bottles - coming out of my teens and into my early twenties and seeing this endearing youthfulness makes me excited to be a photographer who can capture it as I grapple with growing up myself.
Can you tell us more about your recent project and exhibition?
I spent time at Millside School. It’s a small school of about seventy students who have special care and education plans. The cohort is looked after in a way that feels like family, the school is beautifully set around a garden, there are small classrooms and a shared canteen with big windows.
With an absence of photography in my own secondary school experience, I was passing my camera to the students and teaching them how to use it and in this way created a braided work of photos by me and them. I was learning how to share my love for image making whilst building this collaborative story of the school. Even with the most resistant kids, it was a refreshing way to grow a relationship and give them creative licence through photographing or posing for a photograph. The school has a loose uniform so tracksuits, chains and trainers made personal style a big bulk of the imagery.
The majority of the young people I worked with have faced things that young people should never be faced with. All of them have experienced challenges and need support beyond the capacity of mainstream schools making their stories so important to showcase as the government continues to cut funding.
As this project was on a much larger scale than anything you’d done before, did you go into it knowing what it was going to look like or did most of the progression come in the process? Also, were there any projects you looked to for inspiration?
It was a much longer project. I usually go out into spaces and document them for much shorter amounts of time, with my last big project ‘I <3 Benidorm’ I was in Spain for 4 days - similar for festivals that I have documented before. In Benidorm, I documented how British culture manifests abroad and the undercurrent of neo-colonialism with the sleazy energy of the spaces. I knew that I'd follow a formula of pairing portraits with interesting spaces like I had done in this series.
Whilst at Millside School for this project I was getting on the school minibus each day with the students, eating school lunches with them and I was in the rhythm of a secondary school student through the Winter term up until February. I didn’t know what images I was going to go home with but had a rough shot list purely to include all year groups, seven through to eleven. It was different taking the time to just absorb the ever changing day to day as students went through the motions of their lessons, friendships and vocational subjects like kitchencraft and construction. It was also a tentative process in an environment where many of the young people deeply distrusted the camera.
The project progressed within the structure of the school week but expanded and contracted like no other project I have done before because of the collaborative nature. I would have some of the kids demand I deleted photos from a week ago due to a new haircut or a relationship break up. Some of the girls were the most resistant to the photographs and I wanted to include them as much as possible because they represent a smaller amount of the school. That was a challenge but I learnt to be comfortable with not always having the full picture moreso a collage of moments.
Working with you guys at MOYC I was really inspired by the work of Michelle Sank that I discovered in the archive. Her approach to portraiture, that involvement with the subject, was something I wanted to emulate with my own work and the interesting colours and location.
You must have taken away a lot from the project. Handing over creative control is a really big one but were there any other lessons?
All the beliefs I have about youth culture and how it shouldn’t be governed by the preconceived notions of adults youth culture is, giving a camera to teenagers you’re working with and giving them free reign is at the centre of what this project is about. I find that there’s quite a hierarchical nature to documentary photography. Being closer to their age, I bridged that gap between student and staff and was able to be way more in tune with handing over the narrative. It’s allowed me to be way more in tune with how I exist in and document spaces.
Photography is my main vessel but it can sometimes be my downfall when collecting stories. Going through the photos brings back so many memories that might be lost to the viewer outside the context of the school. I collected voice notes and quotes and little moments in writings and drawings through spending a lot of time in the art room. Maybe in the future I can include these in the project.
On a photowalk with two of my year eight photographers Tenny and Ishaaq, Tenny asked Ish, ‘Have you ever kicked a dandelion?’ before putting his trainer through a lanky dandelion growing on the side of the school field. The seeds blew into the air as I rushed to open my notes app on my phone to type up the question that would become the name of the project. I am so happy Tenny was able to name this project for me.
How did the exhibition complete the project for you and how did it go having the kids there?
It was the best time and I’m so grateful that I had the space to do it. I love giving photographs a home and having people experience it, especially for the kids who almost all of them hadn’t interacted with art spaces before. We held the exhibition at Peckham Levels. The statistic is that 16% of all people working in the creative industries are working class and just to have them exposed to the possibilities their futures hold is making moves towards an art world where young people whether they are POC, have disabilities or experience hardships. It meant a lot having these young people in this space where their faces and stories are up on the walls, giving them space to see their own achievements.
I have been congratulated on my first solo exhibition but I am hesitant to take that because it wouldn’t have happened without them. Peckham Levels was the best space to do it, there was space to spread out and explore but also be together, teachers took the group up to the roof to see the London skyline. I was so happy people came and connected with the exhibition.
If you could put one object into the Museum of Youth Culture what would it be and why?
My school diaries. From year seven, eight and nine which were predominantly the year groups I worked with on ‘Have you ever kicked a dandelion?’. They were full of scribbles and my mates writing crushes names, song lyrics and fandom moments. Kind of cringey because being that age is so cringey.
Youth culture should be cringe, it shouldn’t be serious.
We should allow ourselves to have that cringe. Some people don’t get to have that, they have to put on a tough exterior to take on the world which I don’t think is fair.