Sheyi Bankale (SB): You have been taking photographs since the age of eleven, was it spontaneous for you?

Paul Smith (PS): My father championed photography and he was a founding member of the local camera club in Nottinghamshire. There was always a camera lying around somewhere in the house and then, at the age of eleven, he bought me a Kodak camera called a Retinette – it was this little, quite simple camera. I used to go to the camera club on a Wednesday evening to some of the lectures, and I actually saw a lecture by Henri Cartier-Bresson many years ago as well… [Taking photographs] was not spontaneous – it was just a part of what was in the house really. My father had his own darkroom up in the attic and would disappear for hours developing and printing his film, so I was sort of very immersed in all of that.

SB: How do you view your images in comparison to the work your father produced which encompassed composition, witty juxtapositions and experimentation. Is it in contrast or similar?

PS: My father was interested in all aspects of photography so, for him, the composition was really important. He was quite traditional in one way, he would look at perspective – maybe a scene of the countryside, with the mountain on the left and the path or the road disappearing into the sunset… it was rather formulaic in one way, but on the other hand, he would always throw a bit of wackiness in there probably because he was into creative photography. He used to do a lot of superimposing.

SB: He once had a figure of you flying on a carpet over the Brighton Pavilion?

PS: That’s right (He laughs). Although he was quite traditional, he also threw that sense of humour in. Whereas I am not a photographer: I take photographs. I don’t really know much about the use of exposure meters and printing methods, I use an instant camera and most of my work is caught moments, so it is very much a visual diary. My work is very much about unusual observation – perhaps graffiti on a wall written in a funny way, or a No Parking sign that has been moved around.

SB: You have worked alongside many protagonists such as David Bailey, Richard Wentworth, Hans-Ulrich Obrist, Mario Testino – the list goes on. How was that experience?

PS: I just enjoyed observing the way they work. With Bailey, the first time I met him, it was actually because he was going to take a portrait of me. I was quite nervous because he is renowned as being a tyrant and everything is a four-letter word. In fact, he really knew a lot about Paul Smith, which was quite fascinating for me. He was chatting on for an hour and I thought, “I hope he is going to take a picture soon, I have another appointment in a minute”. Then he said, “I suppose we should take a picture. OK – sit on that stool, Smith”. He sat on the windowsill, I sat on the stool, he picked up his 1958 Rolleiflex (similar to my father’s), took two frames and then said, “Alright, Fuck Off then!” If you work with Mario, it’s all the assistants, the glamour, the electricity. Or there’s somebody like Juergen Teller, who took three shots with an old Leica and was away in five minutes.

SB: And Hans-Ulrich?

PS: Hans-Ulrich I find fascinating. I can talk with him for hours at lunch, I really enjoy being with him. He is such an intellectual I can’t for a minute lose my train of thought.

SB: You are a renowned collector of artworks, how did that come about?

PS: Spontaneity. When I see things, I buy things (if I can afford it). I can afford it a bit more now, but in the early days, I bought the David Hockney print, Pretty Tulip – it was the limited edition print that came from the first David Hockney exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery in 1972. It was either buying the print or paying the gas bill. I bought the print. I never buy works as an investment, I buy them because I love them. Obviously, if it happens to be an investment as well, then that’s bloody brilliant!

SB: ‘You can find inspiration in everything and if you can’t look again’. Will you define this?

PS: I think that’s a true story, it’s harder to find nowadays because we are so informed by the internet, digital channels, radio and so many magazines. I think that unfortunately, a lot of people just follow and don’t really use their own brain. So I constantly promote the idea of finding inspiration through looking.

SB: What is your inspiration for ‘caught moments’?

PS: I enjoy the fact that they are often quite lateral: the way that someone has thought of something so ‘Parking’ would become ‘No Parking’, would become ‘Rap King’ because they have moved things around… You would hope, in the case of graffiti or vandalism, that they would put their active minds to an alternative canvas, but it is still quite amusing.

SB: Is this a reason why you always carry a camera and a notebook?

PS: I do, yes. If you were to forage in my bag now, you would find two cameras and definitely a notebook.

SB: Are you constantly inspired?

PS: If I were to put my hand into my jacket pocket you would find it full of bits of paper, and then all those orange notebooks over there (in the studio) which I have loads of.

SB: Richard Wentworth created an installation from your notebooks!

PS: That’s right. I have hundreds; I use them for words, something that has a meaning to me, because I can’t draw that well.

SB: What is your most memorable journey with a camera?

PS: Going up the Great Wall of China was fantastic… [especially when] talking about perspective, as we were with reference to my father earlier. You stand at the top of the wall and it goes on and on and on and on hugging the tops of the hills. It seems to go on forever, quite humbling really…

SB: Is there consistency in your photographs?

PS: Yes. There is a point of view now, where in the beginning I don’t think there was. Because of your character, there is always something you go to all the time so with me, it’s a love of tradition and craftsmanship mixed with love of colour (I suppose it comes through liking painting) and then a sense of humour. So it is always that same combination.

SB: Did this combination manifest the serial photo-realism idea for Paul Smith on Paul Smith?

PS: Well, with a name like Smith you constantly meet other people named Smith and then, you suddenly meet lots of people named Paul Smith. One of those is a photographer who said it would be great to do something, and through conversation we said, “What about ‘Paul Smith by Paul Smith on Paul Smith’?”

SB: Is Photography escapism for you, or does it correlate to your path in life?

PS: I think what it is, is what the French call ‘aide-memoiré’ – it’s a help to me to remember a moment because I don’t write a diary. My wife Pauline, for instance, writes a daily diary but I have thousands of images. It is very interesting because you don’t just talk about the visual but you can say the smell was amazing when you were in a field and it had just been raining; or I remember the images in Delhi – it was so crowded, the noise was so loud and it was forty degrees. It’s not only about the vision; it’s about the fact that you can actually remember smell, sound, atmosphere, and emotion.

SB: Do you look for recurring signs as inspiration for your images?

PS: One of my strengths (or weaknesses) is the fact that I don’t really over analyse anything. I just shoot from the hip, if you know what I mean.