And those relationships have turned into something much bigger than Jensen. Around two years ago, he met and began mentoring ‘Rasta Dave’, a young guy from a rough part of town. “He was one of those kids that had pretty much lived a full life by the time he was 20.” Jensen started to teach Rasta Dave how to take pictures, and he was a willing learner. Pretty soon, Dave’s cousins and mates, with names like Big Vic and Mikey Lowkey – “just running wild on the streets” – started turning up. “Some of them had gun scars, some of them had been locked up. And I got them to start coming out with us instead.”
Jensen would take themn on seven-mile photo walks across the city, and pretty soon they started turning up with their own camera around their neck. “These guys were hustling on the streets,” he says. “However they came up with money, they spent that on a camera. That’s a lot of work to go buy a camera. They could have bought a quart of weed, but they were willing to buy a camera. They are some of my best friends now. They have my back, as I have theirs.”
So the Sidelines of Society collective was born, and around 70 people are now a part of it. It’s open to everyone, and everything is organised through Instagram. There isn’t a better way, Jensen says, to learn about your city. “People charge a lot of money to teach other people how to do street photography. But there isn’t much street about the people who teach it, in my experience,” he says. “So what I’m saying is, if you don’t want to spend $3,000 on a course, come and hang out with us, and get a real wake-up call.”
See Jensen’s photography, and find out more about the Sidelines of Society collective, on his Instagram feed
