Last quarter I was commissioned by South Coast Style Magazine to photography Congo ceramicist Jim Simms from ‘Congo Crafts’. The brief was to capture Jim in his studio and garden.

Jim’s work is inspired by Japanese and Korean styles and he’s been exhibiting every year for the last 36 years, talk about prolific! For the shoot I used natural light and tried to make sure any portrait shots were near a window. It was an overcast day so the light was quite low.

When Jim isn't creating incredible pieces of earthy looking ceramics with handmade glazes he's bodyboarding or hanging out with his girlfriend in his beautiful Japanese inspired house and garden.

This guy had me in stitches, every second word was 'f-ing' this and 'f-ing' this... I felt very at home with this language - my mum is an ex-fisher. I love his energy and passion for life, I left the shoot feeling so bloody pumped that I could still be living a life like this when I'm his age. He said he doesn't like hanging out with people his age because they're bloody boring as shit, love him!

I fell in love with some of his brown spotty cups so I’ve ordered 6 of them 👏🏼🧡.