JJ Waller

JJ Waller is a British photographer who has made street photographs of Brighton—his home town—and other seaside towns. He is best known for his portraits of people in Brighton during the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown.

Performer
Waller grew up in Stoke Newington and Brighton. After leaving school, he trained as a drama teacher and then worked on a community arts project in Liverpool. While in the city he developed a comedy act which he would perform at street parties and events and then developed it to become a street entertainer, at first in London's Covent Garden. Billed as "Captain JJ Waller Unusualist".

The University of Kent holds material by Waller as part of the British Stand-Up Comedy Archive. The collection focuses on Waller's career as a performer. The archive contains a flyer which describes his act as including "Eating a Live Human Being" and an escapology routine, in which "suspended from the ceiling in a straight jacket singing "My Way" JJ escapes from the jacket and jumps head first into an egg without breaking the yolk." The collection also has a photograph of another act, "'The Bed of Nails' where Waller balanced two London double-decker buses whilst lying on a bed of nails."

Waller spent most of the 1980s working as an act in comedy clubs. He then joined the French circus Archaos, as front-of-house manager, until the company's tent was destroyed by a gale in Dublin in 1991.

Photography
In the 1990s, Waller took an evening class in photography, then a degree in editorial photography at the University of Brighton. After finishing his degree, he spent twelve months as Artist in Residence at Gatwick Airport. He then worked as assistant to Magnum photographer Paul Lowe. Waller subsequently spent a number of years as a photography producer in the advertising industry.

Brighton
Between 2014 and 2017, Waller produced three volumes of books on Brighton.

In 2014, he documented Whitehawk Football Club, when they played their first season in the Conference South. He also regularly photographed Brighton and Hove Albion, following the club's move from the old Goldstone Ground to the new stadium at Falmer. In 2017, he published these photographs in JJ Waller's Brighton & Hove Albion.

In 2018, Waller published a book on Brighton Pride.

In July–August 2023, Waller staged an open-air exhibition of his Brighton photographs on the seafront beside the West Pier.

Elsewhere
In 2014 and 2022 he published volumes on St Leonards-on-Sea. In 2017, he produced a volume on Blackpool. Later, he began to photograph the British in Benidorm, Spain. In November 2018, Waller documented Bonfire Night across Sussex. Rather than photographing the celebration itself, he made before and after images of the bonfires.

JJ Waller's Lockdown
From March until May 2020, Waller made around 100 informal portraits of people isolated in their homes during the Covid Lockdown. The photographs, taken in Brighton and Hove, St Leonards, Hastings and Firle were almost all shot through windows. His subjects included "a woman holding her newborn baby against the pane of her door, a crouching couple peering out from the front of their house, and an entire family posing in the colours of a local non-league football team."

Martin Parr edited a book, JJ Waller's Lockdown: Informal Portraits of this Time, published in September 2020. Parr wrote, "When we look back at the spring and summer of 2020, I think this suit of images will be an iconic memory of this strange time we have all lived through."

In 2021, Waller began a second project, in which he asked volunteers to stage scenes, revealing their lockdown activities.

JJ Waller's Sussex by the Sea
Waller spent the summer of 2020 photographing the Sussex coast, published that year as a book presented as postcards, inspired by the work of John Hinde.

Publications

 * JJ Waller's Brighton. Vol 1. Curious, 2012.
 * JJ Waller's Brighton. Vol 2. Curious, 2014.
 * JJ Waller's St. Leonards-on-Sea & Hastings Vol 1. Curious, 2014.
 * JJ Waller's Brighton. Vol 3. Curious, 2017.
 * JJ Waller's Blackpool Vol 1. Curious, 2017.
 * JJ Waller's Brighton & Hove Albion. Curious, 2017.
 * JJ Waller's Brighton Pride. Curious, 2019.
 * JJ Waller's Lockdown-Informal Portraits Of This Time. Curious, 2020. Edited by Martin Parr.
 * JJ Waller's Sussex By The Sea. Curious, 2020.
 * JJ Waller's St. Leonards-on-Sea & Hastings Vol 2. Curious, 2022

Collections

 * British Stand-Up Comedy Archive, University of Kent