All About Campbell Addy
PORTRAIT BY LUCAS BULLENS
Campbell Addy, if you didn’t know, is a British-Ghanian photographer and filmmaker from South London. It wasn’t until he was literally hit in the head with an idea when books fell on his head sorting books in the library for school detention. Nick Knight, Irving Penn, and Norman Parkinson were the books to be exact.
After graduating from Central Saint Martins in London, it was difficult for Addy to find a job. At this point in time, he developed his own source to display his work and from there his career became bigger than he could’ve imagined.
He launched Nii Journal and Nii Agency in 2016, a culture magazine and a modeling agency. The journal was born in the midst of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2015. In response to the anger he felt during this time, he wanted to explore these issues of empowerment and representation with race.
In the modeling industry, he was saddened by the discrimination. Addy was shooting one of his models, who was albino, when he learned that this model was turned away by an agency after being told, “We have one of you already.”
This prompted Addy to develop an ultra-diverse agency without the conventional beauty standards being a requirement. He also had a particular focus on black men. Addy refers to a specific aura, a story someone may have told him, or a certain part of the body that inspires him.
COURTESY OF CAMPBELL ADDY
The 29-year-old is now working on numerous projects and thriving. He has worked with Tyler the Creator, Kendall Jenner, and multiple editorial outlets such as i-D, Vogue, Financial Times, Dazed, TIME, Wall Street Journal Magazine, Rolling Stone Magazine, and Garage Magazine.
His work has been shown in exhibits around the world. His first solo exhibition spoke to his faith, as a Jehovah Witness growing up, and his sexuality. Coming out as gay in 2017, he felt as though his faith and sexuality were incompatible, so he wanted to explore it more when he eventually broke away from his religion. By doing so, he took a scripture from Matthew 7:7, which means “seek, and ye shall find”, and further made it the basis and title of his exhibition.
He has won many awards including Dazed 100 in 2017, The British Fashion Awards in 2018 & 2019, Forbes 30 Under 30 in 2021, and many more.
COURTESY OF CAMPBELL ADDY
Addy also recently wrote a book called Feeling Seen, showing his work, Black artists that inspire him, his work from the journal, words from his mother, and other early works he is proud of. He wanted to encapsulate finally being content with himself after feeling like an outsider for a while. He wants his book to come full circle to the time when the books fell on his head and inspired him. He wants to create a space for those who have also felt what he felt growing up and coming into this industry.
Addy has a fascination with time. He plans on potentially making a second book called Time to emphasize a certain subject and how it changes with time. He continues to make great work and we can’t wait to see what he has planned for the future.
