If Sid Vicious and Nina Hagen had a love child, Jolijn Snijders would probably kick it in the head then take a picture of it, somehow still managing to capture the beauty of the blood dripping from the kid’s nose.

Kicking ass and not bothering about names, Snijders is at the top of the heap in an industry that’s a mass with vomit inducing mediocrity and visual pollution that tries way too hard. She is the real deal, an intense artist who actually lives it.

You’d be mistaken if you thought she was just another vapid photographer, concerned more about the industry lifestyle than her art. With a genuine interest in her subjects, she pulls inspiration from her vast palette of personal experience, exposing us to themes of lost childhood, heartbreak and down right dirty angst. Producing beautifully candid moments, from the soft, pink infused, romantic spread featuring elfin waif girls with a hard-edge for babybabybaby magazine, to the more ballsy, guerilla street style of NYLON magazine, shooting those lasciviously disheveled models that fuel wank-banks the world over.

Her CV includes names like Karl Lagerfeld, Vogue, Oyster and ELLE, it was only a matter of time before all her hard work and shit kicking would lead to her latest nascency- ilovefake magazine. Her head down and ass up, Snijders is in the final stages of creating the paper incarnation of her popular website. She was lovely enough to let me pick her brain, in the middle of what may be one of the most exciting and busy moments of her career.

     

 

SocietalVengeance: You’re crazy busy at the moment with the launch of ILOVEFAKE paper edition being released, how’s it panning out?

Jolijn Snijders: We are making 350 pages in a time span of 2 months, so this means gut wrenching hard core work for me and my team, I hope we can get everything we hope out of it and more and can finish everything in time. The issue will be coming out in June.

SV: Are you nervous about how it will be received?

JS: No not really, right now I’m more focussed on being nervous and losing sleep, thinking if everything will go as planned and hoping I can be happy when I’ve reached my deadlines. After that, I definitely am curious how the public is going to respond, but then it’s out of my hands…

SV: You’re the creator and Head-Bitch-In-Charge at ilovefake, Tell me about the team you have assembled behind you working on the paper edition.

JS: It’s actually me running the whole show, then there’s Jordy Huinder fashion director, we just started working with Harold Jonk who takes care of Art Direction together with me. We also have Tag Christof who’s an art editor and our Publisher Jurriaan bakker of Blend Studios. There’s also our intern Ebony who’s running the blog and keeping us up to date on all sorts of young swaggy shit that we don’t know about. Next to this core team we handpick contributors to shoot for us, and artists / creatives that we want to interview. 

SV: Where will be your distribution going and how much will an issue cost?

JS: The issue is now set for 14.95 euros and it will be distributed in all major fashion cities worldwide, by a number of 10.000 copies.

SV: Who would be your desired audience/readers?

JS: People who get excited about it.

SV: Are you living in london at the moment? Is that where you’re producing ilovefake?

JS: No, I’m just staying here for a bit doing some productions, I still live in Amsterdam. But after this issue is done I definitely need to venture out to London, it’s pretty much impossible doing all this in Amsterdam.

SV: What will the look and feel of your magazine be like? layouts, content and direction? 

JS: It’s gonna be the same as the online version, but this first issue will be about 70’s vs. 90’s fashion, with a super dose of young photographers and kids in it rockin out. We really want to make clear what we are about with this first issue, so there’s a lot of “celebrating the spirit of youth” !!

SV: You’ve said that you were “addicted to indie cut-n-paste magazines” in the past. I used to collect handmade zines before blogs were around, did you ever make or collect stuff like that?

JS: Yeah when i was young i always was making fanzines, newspapers, even books that i tried to write and never finished. I guess now I know why I had such a peculiar hobby.

SV: A lot of your shoots are clearly influenced by nineties, what is it that you like about that time? 

JS: It’s because I grew up in the nineties and I’m all about shooting what you know.

SV: What’s your fascination with youth? Did you feel you missed out when you were a kitten?

JS: Definitely. I was locked up put away in a boarding school from 12 to 19 years old, the first 4 years I was raised by nuns, can you believe it? I had to wear a fucking uniform and all that. I never really went crazy as a kid or teen. That’s all coming back to haunt me now, hard core. Also I don’t like adults and I have a hard time dealing with any kind of authority. I think this has something to do with obeying these stupid fucking rules at boarding school. It always gets me in to trouble!! (raging rebel for eva!)

SV: Can you explain your goal for “LADS”, will it be in print too or will you keep that purely online?

JS: I will delve in to that project as soon as I am done with the first issue for Ilovefake. I will keep you posted :)

SV: You bring a welcomed grit and “fuck you-pay me” feel to fashion photography, a genuine creative anarchist, would that be due to how you were raised or is that just the approach you have in general going into to the fashion industry?

JS: Speaking about money, I’m broke as fuck right now, contemplating “if this is all worth it”, I guess I will keep on trucking right now, but fuck, I can’t work for free anymore, my bills are getting out of control and I won’t even keep my house if this continues….

SV: You seem to be a film tragic like me, with influences ranging from shock horror to the beautifully kitsch “Heathers” and movies of that ilk from the nineties. You’ve made a few short films already, will we be seeing more of that medium from you?

JS: I would love to shoot more, but frankly I need a camera and secondly I need a fucking script. ”Fuck me gently with a chainsaw”. I mean, come on, that’s great.

SV: Your subjects often capture more attention than the clothes they are wearing, clothing almost takes a back-seat in your shoots, is that intentional and how do labels feel about that? Do they ever pressure you to “showcase the couture” more?

JS: I usually care more about the person in a shoot, because that’s the one who can surprise me and  like, it’s the  one that lives and can make the clothing come to life too. I love it when I can capture something in between, something that no one else sees. Clients usually hire me because of this.

SV: What is it that attracts you to scrawny, pale english lads?

JS: Awkwardness.

SV: When you published your Taylor Momsen shoot, I went to youtube and heard her music for the first time, she was singing live and I was genuinely surprised. Did you have any similar revelations or preconceived notions that were dissolved after working with her for NYLON (korea) ….. and can we talk about her attachment to those hair extensions?!

JS: Haha, I really didn’t even know who she was, because I live in a cave. But of course she’s the gossip gurl, when I googled her I saw she had that slutty dress style with black lipstick and I thought it was awesome. We got along quite well, fun girl to work with who surprisingly wanted to move to Amsterdam. 

                

SV:  Did Taylor (or her management) want to maintain a certain look or were you able to do what ever you wanted in regards to hair/makeup and styling?

JS: She wanted to keep her panda eye look , and i pushed her in to doing the black lipstick later on the day. The magazine was hesitant about it, but we both loved it and did it anyway. Haha.

SV: You seem to have a shit-load of projects going on all the time, how you do deal with stress and what do you do to relax?

JS: Watch movies, have sex, do drugs, drink loads, blow my brains out, fall sleep.

SV: What drugs have you used in the past and how did it affect your art and work? Do you have a favorite?

JS: Dude my Mum and Dad read this. I don’t do drugs duhhh

SV: What do you like to do when you’re munted?

JS: Really, seriously, I don’t do drugs mmkay

 …. moving on …..

SV: You’re constantly between paris london new york, where do you call home?

JS: I feel that I don’t really have a home anymore.

SV: You’re photos have a real hard-ass “don’t give a fuck” feel to them, it’s polarized by you’re writing which is beautifully sentimental, with a palpable sense of loss. What drives you to be so forthright and open? 

JS: I have nothing to gain by censoring myself.

“I refuse to enjoy anything or anyone, because my eyes are wildly opened to see the point of it at all, which is absolutely none… There is no happiness, there is only a dream state of happiness…I have a hole in my body that is growing rapidly, expanding more every day. Soon that hole is going to grow so big that it will cover my whole body and consume me, I will disappear completely, to become as invisible as I already feel in this city” -Jolijn Snijders”

                   

SV:  “I will disappear completely, to become as invisible as I already feel in this city” - That was New York you were talking about, right? How do you think your time in that city affected your creative work?

JS: Well, after that I grew up a little and started thinking about why I was doing this fashion work anyway. I pulled myself together and started shooting in the same way I was before, I knew that I was doing something right but I didn’t know (and still don’t) exactly know what it was…

SV: The images you create would look at home hung in a modern gallery. What is your view of the art world? 

JS: I think it’s filled with people who learned stuff about art from books and now buy art because of it. It has nothing to do with taste anymore, its all politics. It’s the same sheep mentality that I see everywhere. Makes me sick. 

SV: When will you have an exhibition?

JS:  I’d do some pop up art gallery somewhere sometime, maybe even curated by Ilovefake. Exhibition or a book sounds great but it’s something for in the future, once again you need money to invest in these kind of love projects, not something I have the time for now…. (I wish)

SV: Have you noticed other people essentially trying (and failing) to copy your style of photography? How do you deal with competition in this industry?

JS: Yeah sure, but I think you can’t really copy “guts”. People need to start shooting from the fucking heart

SV: When I spoke to Bobby about his preference to shoot with film he said he liked it because of “the life you get from film vs digital” Why do you prefer it?

JS: Yeah, I like film because I like surprises, it’s like opening your presents on christmas day!! Also the colors, the grain, the realness, the mistakes, all of that is much nicer 

SV: Why natural light?

JS: Because it’s real, it’s also surprising. i don’t like studio light it makes stuff look awkward and posed right away, it always ends up “trying to hard”…. I don’t believe in studio shoots mostly. I do like flash-on-camera because it works quickly and instantly and even puts more focus on catching the moment.

 

SV: Your photos are some of the most reblogged images when it comes to models. How do you feel about Tumblr and it’s users?

JS: I think Tumblr is great and I love when people enjoy my pictures!  I have a blog on here too it’s called shadowplays, it’s a nice collection of mind fucks, you can get a pretty good idea what’s in my mind when you see all those crazy images together ! 

SV: For a lot of people, you’re name became synonymous with Cole Mohr, you’ve mentioned regarding model choices; “There has to be some real love there, like an infatuation with that person”. It was the first time we actually saw that personified in your creative process, what made you expose such a raw, personal side of your work?

JS: I don’t censor myself. I’m like Tourettes syndrome gone wild when it comes down to censorship.

SV: Are you a lover or a fighter?

JS: Fighting for love and love to fight

SV: Who is your latest infatuation?
 

JS: My boyfriend. He lives in milan. ;(

SV: What are thoughts on the glorification of models?

JS: Well i don’t know, i think it’s fucked up to built someone up to heroic status just because they were born with a pretty face, it’s a dead sin, so very shallow, but because I’m in this business as a photographer, it means I’m glorifying them from the core. so you can consider me the root of all evil haha I never take it seriously in any case. If someone has no personality I really don’t like them. 

SV: You shot Lagerfeld’s fall lookbook back in 2009, did you meet the man himself? What do you think of him as an artist? 

JS: I haven’t had the pleasure to meet him. I think he has great set of rings and did some awesome photography back in the day. Further I don’t really know much about him, as I’m more inspired by other people and don’t really know anything about fashion or their icons. 

     

 

Quickies:

SV: Shannon Doherty:

JS: BRENDA!

SV: Ashley Stymest: 

JS: NO COMMENT

SV: Yuri Pleskun: 

JS: YO THEY CALL ME SHINE

SV: Cole:

JS: FRECKLES!

 

SV:Cindy Sherman:

JS: INSPIRATION!

SV:Micky Ayoub: 

JS: VATO LOCO!

SV: Noma Han:

JS:  FUNNY TATTOO MAN!

SV: Vincent Gallo:

JS: NO SMILING !! 

SV: Robbie Wadge: 

JS: SCHNEIDER!

SV: Callum Wilson:

JS: FILLED WITH HATE (LUV IT!)

SV: Damien Hirst:

JS: DOPE FISHES!

SV: Hedi Slimane:

JS: CASTING INSPIRATION!

SV: David Lynch:

JS: LLORANDO !

SV: SocietalVengeance:

JS: COOL

      

                                           ilovefake — wastedyouth — LADS — shadowplays     

                       Other interviews can be found here if you’re bored