JUSTIN THOMAS X OASIS

I asked a photographer friend of mine if he had any contacts who had shot Oasis - a few days later he put me in touch with a friend of his, Justin Thomas. I explained to Justin that I wanted to create a Black & White broadsheet newspaper of purely photographs which could be enjoyed by Oasis fans riding the wave of hype surrounding their upcoming tour dates (for which I had tickets).

Newspapers are such an analogue, tactile medium which in today's norm of scrolling for visual stimulation is a defiance in itself - much like the photos I chose from the mid 90’s - arguably when Oasis were at their best and most defiant. I also loved the idea that we were elevating the humble blu-tacked ‘band poster’ which would have adorned the walls of teenage boys and girls in ‘95 to something that would be desirable to have on a coffee table. 

Receiving the link in my emails to the photography from Justin I was struck by how bloody brilliant the photos were - dynamic poses, raw and unfiltered. Justin was great to work with and took a leap of faith - sent me the files I selected from his portfolio of over 100 and a week later we had our newspaper.

It was a couple of weeks later that I was heading up to Wembley to watch Oasis - I headed into London before the event with a single newspaper, the sun was shining and the whole city was a sea of bucket hats and plastic pints of lager.

I put the leaves of the newspaper up outside the pubs and enjoyed watching fans interact with them, taking pictures and in a couple of cases trying to take them down and sneak them off.

As special thanks to Justin for trusting me with his beautiful photography - if you would like to own one of these newspapers or one of Justin’s photographs as a fine art print  - reach out. 

Solomon Smith