Hi, I'm Jamila Hardy, I’m 22 and I’m from Croydon, London. I’m based in London and I graduated from the BA Fashion Photography course at London College of Fashion in 2020. I’m currently working as a freelance photographer/filmmaker and I’m a video editor for a company!
I originally started off studying fine art for a number of years. Since GCSEs, I studied art up until I studied at The BRIT School, in which I moved onto visual arts and design. This course led me into studying and loving photography, and it's been the same since then! I was introduced to many different forms of visual arts and photography and landed into the sector of fashion. I applied for LCF and got in, which was a miracle haha.
I’ve been very fortunate to land the video editor role but before that, I was working on personal projects and I was also assisting a fashion photographer.
I’m currently writing a script for a short film I’ve been meaning to do for a while. Just in the process of finishing it up and trying to secure funding/get a crew, so hopefully that works out.
Professionally, I’d love to land a directing job, whether it’s a music video or film, ideally that’s the goal. If not, just working in the film industry would be really great.
I’ve always been interested in fashion and after studying a photography module at The BRIT School, I fell in love with portraiture. That kind of manifested into photographing my friends and they were really fashionable people, so it kind of took off from there.
I fell in love with it after studying a module on my visual arts and design course at college. From there, I knew I wanted to study it more and learn more about it. I remember working with film during that module and I completely fell in love. I just wanted to explore more and UAL had the perfect course for that.
I loved my tutor haha, shout out Michiel. I also enjoyed the freedom to explore different themes and briefs. The thing I enjoyed the most was the people I met and the guest lectures. It was such a unique experience, I miss it a lot.
I would say the last project, in my third year. For my final project I created a short film called HYBRID. That last project gave me the freedom to dig deeper and create something so powerful yet so personal. I learnt a lot about myself during that final project and I’m forever grateful for it. Hybrid ended up doing really well, I got a first class honours degree and it did well outside of Uni! I was featured in Aesthetica’s Short Film Festival and in Nataal Magazine. A lot of people resonated with Hybrid and I’m eternally grateful for that.
Gosh, there were so many I honestly can't remember. I think mainly they encouraged us to pull our ideas from a personal place because at the end of the day, you're exploring yourself and there will always be a space for you when you’re passionate about a project that comes from within. This really translated when I was creating Hybrid and it was the best advice ever.
Trust yourself and your ideas but don't be afraid of feedback/constructive criticism. Source ideas from within and experiment, experiment, EXPERIMENT! Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there, someone will love and receive what you have to give to the world.