Meet Our Members: Jay, Founder of Bad Seed
Introduction
Long before Bad Seed existed, Jay was the kid glued to the pages of Kerrang! magazine, dreaming about the bands he loved. Years later, he wasn’t just photographing those artists—he was shooting the magazine’s front cover himself. Today, as the founder of Bad Seed, he spends his days creating photography and creative campaigns for brands, while still chasing the same excitement that made him pick up a camera almost twenty years ago.
For Jay, photography has never really been a career choice. It’s simply been the thing he has always wanted to do.
Today, he is the face behind Bad Seed, a production studio specialising in photography, social creative direction and making things look good on the internet. Sitting alongside fellow Desk Space members Create Racket, Bad Seed has created work for a remarkably varied mix of clients, from entertainment names like Live Nation, MTV and Universal to Ferrari, Unilever, Salesforce, WPP and many more.
Although Jay works across all areas of the studio, there has never been much confusion about where his heart lies. “My one true love is photography,” he says. “Honestly, if it stays still — or even if it doesn’t — I’ll probably try to take a picture of it.”
That passion has been with him for as long as he can remember. “I honestly can’t remember a time when I didn’t want to take photos.” The obsession really took hold in 2006, when he got his hands on his first SLR camera and, as he admits, “a cracked copy of Photoshop.”
Since then, Jay has developed a photographic style that feels unmistakably his own. Much of his work takes a fly-on-the-wall approach, capturing people and moments as they naturally unfold rather than trying to overly direct them. “I have always found the idea of being an outlier and quietly observing people really fascinating,” he explains. “Think classic people-watching, just in the least creepy way possible!”
Looking back, the signs were there long before photography became his career. Growing up in the UK, Jay was glued to the pages of Kerrang! magazine, reading about his favourite bands and imagining the world surrounding them.
Back then, he never expected that he would one day be the person behind the camera at those shows, let alone see one of his own photographs appear on the magazine’s front cover. “I still pinch myself that it actually happened,” he says. “But looking back, that early obsession logically led me down the exact journey I am on today.”
Another person who profoundly shaped that journey was Jay’s best friend and mentor, Chaz McGregor. Chaz sadly passed away in 2024, but the lessons he shared continue to influence the way Jay approaches both his work and his life.
“He taught me the most important lesson of my career,” Jay says. “He showed me that you do not need to play by anyone else’s rules but your own, and you cannot be anything other than unashamedly you.”
It is a philosophy that feels closely tied to Jay’s career. His work has never followed a particularly conventional path, but that has also been the source of some of its most memorable opportunities.
Before founding Bad Seed, Jay spent years travelling the world with musical artists and documenting life on the road. Photography took him across the UK, Europe, Japan and North America, allowing him to build a career around the very music culture he had grown up admiring.
That journey eventually led to the launch of Bad Seed alongside Jess Hope, founder of Create Racket, in 2018. The studio was originally created to service the music and events industry, but, like many creative businesses, its plans were interrupted when COVID arrived.
After a hiatus, Bad Seed returned in late 2025 with a broader focus, fresh momentum and an entirely new range of clients. “We’re back in the saddle,” Jay says, “bigger, better, and shooting for a whole new range of clients.”
When asked about the career moments he is most proud of, choosing just one proves difficult. Landing the front cover of Kerrang! is naturally high on the list, along with being selected as part of the production team covering the first-ever MTV Unplugged in Australia.
Touring across the UK, Europe, Japan and North America remains another major highlight, as does launching HAMMERHEAD, Bad Seed’s own street style and subculture magazine. Yet despite the scale of those achievements, Jay still gets just as much satisfaction from seeing the finished work out in the world.
“There’s still a special kind of kick we get just seeing our work in print, wherever it pops up.”
Outside of his commercial work, Jay somehow remains just as creatively busy. In his words, his whole life feels like “one big extracurricular activity.”
Alongside tinkering with various personal projects, he is celebrating twelve years of being vegan and looking for ways to combine his photography with his love of animals. “I am currently looking into ways to marry my photography with my love for animals,” he says.
He has also been having a lot of fun photographing weddings, which has led him to discover a somewhat unexpected niche. “If you know anyone who needs a photographer, definitely send them my way,” he says. “It would seem alternative weddings are my niche!”
There is one other personal project on the list, although it may prove the most difficult of all: finally catching up on all the sleep he has in lieu.
For 2026, Jay is hoping to spend more quality time with the friends he has made around the world through photography. Closer to home, his plans are relatively simple: take his dogs on as many walks as possible, eat plenty of good food, and travel somewhere new with his partner, Jess.
As part of getting to know our members beyond their work, we always enjoy uncovering the unexpected details that make them who they are. Jay delivers one of our favourite answers yet.
“It might clash with the rock upbringing,” he admits, “but when I was eleven, I actually auditioned for a kids’ pop group.”
And while we are revealing secrets, his all-time favourite musical is Mamma Mia! Before anyone judges him, he quickly clarifies that he means the stage show, not the movie.
The best advice Jay has received has since become one of his professional rules. “If a client thinks they know exactly what they want, nothing you say will change their mind.” Instead, he follows what he calls the “two strikes” rule: offer your expert advice twice, and if they still insist, give them exactly what they asked for.
His advice for photographers just starting out is simpler. “Shoot way too many photos and don’t forget to actually have fun with it.” He also adds one hard-earned lesson: trust your gut.
Like many creatives, Jay has embraced AI not as a replacement for creativity, but as another tool to explore. Over the past few years, he has experimented with building automations, workflows, systems, websites and apps, and more recently has begun exploring AI video and photography.
It is an area he hopes to continue developing, with the goal of eventually offering it as a more established service through Bad Seed. For Jay, the appeal lies not only in what the technology can produce, but in the chance to keep learning, experimenting and finding new ways to create.
When it comes to software, however, his greatest enthusiasm is reserved for something slightly less glamorous: backing up his work.
Jay recently discovered an app called DriveBuddy, which indexes every file stored across his many external hard drives. It means he can search his entire archive without repeatedly plugging in different drives, ejecting them and starting all over again just to locate a single image.
His other essential is Backblaze, which continuously backs up his computer and external drives to the cloud in the background. Knowing that his full archive is securely stored off-site gives him complete peace of mind without requiring him to think about it.
“Okay,” he admits, “turns out I’m reeeeeally into backing things up!”
Around Darlinghurst, you will most likely find Jay eating curry at The Colonial British Indian Cuisine or browsing Supply Store, which he describes as “hands down the coolest shop in the world.”
At Desk Space, though, it is the warmth of the community that stands out most. Jay loves how welcoming and friendly everyone is, although he is quick to clarify that “the best part is obviously the dogs.”
His top tip for new members is to head to the Level 1 kitchen window, which offers a prime view of all the activity at the doggy daycare next door. It is a particularly useful recommendation for anyone in need of a small mid-afternoon distraction.
If photography disappeared tomorrow, Jay already knows what he would want to do instead. His ultimate dream is to leave the corporate world behind and open an animal rescue somewhere in the countryside.
There is, however, one important condition. “I think I’ll wait until a drone can drop-ship a decent vegan burger to the middle of nowhere before I take that drastic step!”
Before finishing, Jay leaves us with more recommendations than almost anyone else has managed. For a book, he believes everyone should read Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire by Akala, which he describes as a brilliant and eye-opening combination of memoir and history.
His current television obsession is A Man on the Inside, starring Ted Danson as a retiree who goes undercover as a private investigator to help solve crimes. According to Jay, it is absolutely hilarious.
He also insists on mentioning his favourite podcast in the world, This Paranormal Life, a paranormal comedy show that he considers one of the funniest things he has ever heard. “I’ve even been a paid Patreon subscriber for the last four years,” he says, “so that shows you how good it must be!”
We’re so happy and honoured to have creative, curious and unapologetically authentic members like Jay in our community. Whether he is behind the camera, building Bad Seed, experimenting with AI, planning an animal rescue or watching the dogs from the Level 1 kitchen window, he brings humour, energy and a genuine love of creativity to everything he does.
