At 17 years old, Gabriel Moses spent his days making short movies about his friends on the football pitch. He would direct and shoot them according to his creative vision, after which upload them to YouTube where they’d get not more than 100 views. “That didn’t matter to me,” Moses tells Dazed. “There was a way of accomplishment in creating something that was in your head for the world to see.”

Now, just three years later, Moses – who has quickly established himself as one in all London’s most prolific photographers and filmmakers – is gearing up for his first solo exhibition, Regina at 180 The Strand. The show will include between 50 to 60 photographs from his work across fashion, music and sport, and can premiere two short movies, including Ijó which follows a gaggle of young ballet dancers on the Leap of Dance Academy in Lagos, Nigeria, and Regina, which features performances from a variety of Moses’ friends. Alongside being the youngest photographer to ever shoot the quilt of Dazed, the show is just the newest in a protracted list of the photographer’s accomplishments.

“My profession has all the time been filled with moments where someone offers me a chance, even this exhibition, at a time that makes loads of sense,” he explains. “It’s funny the way it takes individuals who consider in your stuff before it is smart to everyone else.”

There isn’t any doubt that Moses’ rise inside the creative industries has been meteoric, but fashion photography wasn’t all the time on the cards. Growing up, Moses describes being surrounded by his sister’s reference images that she assembled as a part of her fashion studies. “On the time I didn’t think it was interesting,” he recalls. It was only when he picked up his first camera in his late teens that he began to develop an interest in fashion – and a keen eye for what he believed makes a lovely image.

His idea of beauty has since resonated with a lot of his contemporaries. Moses, who’s self-taught, has in a short while developed a definite style characterised by deep tones and wealthy textures. His images are truthful, authentic, complex, and narrative-driven, composed of characters inspired by memory and fantasy in equal measure. The general aim, he says, is to create honest art that transcends time; and art that celebrates the ladies which have shaped who he’s today. 

Ahead of his exhibition opening, Moses speaks with Dazed about faith, community and the facility of collective memory.

What inspired the title of the exhibition, Regina? 


Gabriel Moses: ‘Regina’ is definitely the name of my studio, however it also means ‘queen’ in Latin. This show is a salute to the ladies in my life; my sister, my nieces, my grandma. I’ve all the time had an enormous respect for the ladies in my life and the role they’ve played in all the pieces about me: the way in which I speak to people, the respect I actually have for others.

After which [the show] also references Regina, the signature that the Queen would use to log out her letters. I all the time found it quite interesting actually, prefer it’s the identical thing while you go to Crown Court: a case is all the time Regina versus [the individual]. The word has so many connotations to different people.

The show is made up of around 50 photographs out of your profession across fashion, music, and sport. What are the mandatory ingredients to creating a picture you’re happy with? 


Gabriel Moses: I’ve had my studio since July. Before that, I worked rather a lot from my bedroom and never really archived or organised my photography. I might just keep churning out work over the past two or three years without reflecting on what I had done. We develop into a bit like machines in that sense, all the time focused on what’s next without looking back. It wasn’t until I collected all the pieces I’d done and put it onto one document that I realised how much I had actually done: like, at what point did I do all this?

Looking back, I realised that I had been creating work that represented me and the way I see the world. I do it subconsciously. I’m very stubborn about what I see as beautiful; I don’t care what others have done previously. It’s all in the identical world… all my editorial, celebrity, and music work connect visually.

“I would like my work to have a way of timelessness – in that it could have just as easily been shot in 2023 because it might have been shot in a totally different time period” – Gabriel Moses

You reference black-and-white ancestral photography as having shaped your aesthetic. In what ways has it informed the tone, composition and subject material of Regina?

Gabriel Moses: I really like Malick Sidibé’s work, each visually and by way of the topics he photographed. Back within the day in Mali, people would go through [his] studio to have their photos taken. You see so many various characters [in his work], from children to soldiers to people celebrating their birthdays. He found beauty in on a regular basis people and in the neighborhood. It’s the identical way I approach my casting as in how can I create characters inside this world?

I also [look to] family photos, like pictures of my grandma. After I have a look at her photos, I see confidence in the way in which she dressed and used tones. I also love the feel of the pictures in the identical way that after we have a look at old family photos it’s like, what’s it that we like about them? Is it the tones? Or is it the proven fact that it’s an aged photo, so it looks a certain way or has a selected texture? I would like to create that feeling today. That’s why loads of my work is heavily textured. I would like my work to have a way of timelessness – in that it could have just as easily been shot in 2023 because it might have been shot in a totally different time period.

And in what way do themes related to memory – each collective and individual – recur throughout the show?


Gabriel Moses: My taste comes from my memories – I didn’t study any of this in class. I struggle to observe movies; I’ve got a correct short attention span. It’s the identical with photography. It’s only recently I’ve begun studying other photographers and fashion imagery from the past. A whole lot of my interests come from memories of being around my sister growing up when she was studying fashion. She had reference images lying round her bedroom, but on the time I didn’t think anything of it. I assumed it was shit.

But then, the second I picked up a camera, it was like I knew what a pleasant image was. I really like beautiful things, and my mum definitely understood that in me. She’d arrange flowers in the home and run arts and crafts workshops at Sunday school. She was all about pushing creativity. At 17, I used to be very confident in my taste and in my ability to trust what I see as beautiful. 

You might be premiering two latest short movies that you might have each written and directed as a part of the exhibition. What was the creative process behind the film? 

Gabriel Moses: I remember coming across Leap of Dance Academy, a ballet school in western Lagos, and I used to be blown away. I had all the time desired to create a movie a few discipline with children because I find them so interesting. I’ve all the time loved how children love everyone, ? They don’t care what work you do. As adults, we develop into more rigid and concentrate on superficial things like work, but children don’t care about those things.

“At 17, I used to be very confident in my taste and in my ability to trust what I see as beautiful” – Gabriel Moses 

How in regards to the film Regina? How do the themes within the film construct in your existing body of labor?

Gabriel Moses: Regina is fun. I never learned the technical ways to make movies or take photos, so I literally just went off my instinct, and what I see as cool and delightful. Regina is a mirrored image of my imagination in a movie; like a series of moments that I’ve found interesting and that I desired to bring out to the world. It’s what I see after I close my eyes. The film features amazing performances from various people, including a few of my friends. It’s a little bit of a multitude; there are various clips from Regina available online that together form one long film.

It sounds a bit like the way you described the primary few movies you made that you simply dropped on Youtube. 

Gabriel Moses: Yeah, exactly. The way in which I work is that I actually have an idea, I make it occur, after which I drop it on the web. I don’t follow the standard route of getting it published or anything like that. If five people see it, or if 500 people see it, that’s my audience, ? I do not overthink the method, I’m identical to, let’s do it.

I don’t put any pressure on myself because I feel like I actually have nothing to lose. Daily that I get up is a blessing, and every single day that I’m capable of do what I do for a living is already a win for me.

Gabriel Moses’ Regina is running at 180 The Strand from April 5 until April 30, 2023.

Editor’s note: This interview has been edited and condensed for purposes of clarity and length.

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