Hometown
Hometown
Michael Young’s homage to his home city of Newcastle was liberating in more ways than one
by CATHERINE | PORTFOLIOS
Over a three-week period in early February 2025, photographer Michael Young took to the streets and bridges of Newcastle, shooting a series of images that captured his love for his home city. This was a personal project of Michael’s, undertaken purely for his own pleasure and without any of the commercial or time pressures he encounters in his usual photographic work. Instead, the shoot was scheduled around the availability of the models (all of them from Newcastle, all of them wearing their own clothes, with hair styled by Michael’s partner Gary Hooker) and, of course, the good old Northern weather.
The resulting images – free of any influence from industry trends or peers – reflect Michael’s authentic connection with what excites him and stirs him creatively. ‘Hometown’ is about what Michael loves and what comes from the heart.
“When you’re immersed in your professional photographic work it’s so hard not to be influenced by what the current buzz is about, how you feel your work ‘should’ look. It’s easy to forget what you personally find interesting when you’re producing work for other people’s consumption. This project allowed me to step away from these influences and develop my own creativity.
“Working without constraints, without any pressure, allows my creativity to flow in a truly organic way. It tends to happen best when I’m working alone. I let my thoughts start in quite a small space and then allow them to expand and unfold as the project evolves. Shooting the looks and seeing the ‘Hometown’ story start to build was exciting – it injected freshness into my art. The process is like an artist painting at an easel, stepping away and then returning time and again with fresh eyes to see what needs adding next.
“A personal project like this enables me to develop my creativity by providing new sources and channels of inspiration and opening up new and exciting approaches to explore. It forces me to think differently about how I approach my subjects and this, in turn, affects my professional work, making me see familiar scenarios through different eyes.”
HAIR Gary Hooker & Michael Young for Hooker & Young
MAKE-UP AND CLOTHES Models’ own
PHOTOGRAPHY Michael Young
Michael Young will be talking about reclaiming confidence and staying creatively relevant as a salon boss at Creative HEAD’s Salon Smart business networking event on Monday 7 April. More information here.
