Jay Anderson Photography: My Name is Janhoi
I’m Janhoi Anderson
Is the first thing he says to me as our interview begins. “But everyone calls me Jay.”
I call him Janhoi—the H is silent—and learn that it’s an Ethiopian name that means “majesty.”
“Not that I’m that,” he says with a chuckle, but I assure him that majesty is a quality people can exude, rather than a title people claim. Janhoi fills his editing studio with a serene kind of majesty and a hearty laugh hiding just behind his warm gaze. “I’m that kind of wedding photographer who loves to interact—I speak to a lot of guests; I love having a laugh, a smile, a joke.”
He has a dark beard and hair—his curls spring free for once. He’s the “’Tog in a hat,” so named by his brother-in-law for his penchant for pulling a cap down over his head on a wedding day. “It’s such a cool little gimmicky thing—people know me by my hats. Some people always wear bow-ties to a wedding, or always have pink hair—people define them and know them by those things and know to book them from those things.” He’s not wearing a hat today as we speak of his work as a wedding photographer and videographer known as “Jay Anderson Photography.”
It might be too on-the-nose to say that Janhoi is a man who wears many different hats, but it’s clear to me how neatly this description fits him as he details his move from photography and into more videography, as well as sharing his background as a Londoner, born and raised, who now resides just outside Oxford City Center with his wife and three dogs. “I’m also a father! I have two children as well,” he says, his face alight when thinking of the children he’s raised, now adults.
He’s spent the last 11 years as a photographer, “I started quite late, 2008, while juggling other things.” He caught the shutter-bug through a friend, who handed him a polaroid camera while attending a festival together and told him to go wild with it. Bitten by the bug, he endeavored to learn more about film in time for a friend’s 2011 nuptials, which he was entrusted with capturing. (It must have gone pretty well.) And in 2016 Janhoi rode the wave of wedding highlight reels making their appearance all over Instagram and got involved in videography, which quickly became another beloved hat to wear.
“More and more people started enjoying my stuff—I wanted to learn more,” he confides. It doesn’t take long for talk to turn to audio—I’m not sure you can be a videographer and not be a huge audiophile. “Because I come from a photography background, I come from a documentary background—I come from a raw photography background—a lot of my films have audio—audio from the day. So people remember their day how it unfolded in front of the camera, not how people imagine it happened.” What else might people hear and see in his films and photography? An unparalleled dedication to raw 80’s nostalgia; even his Spotify Wrapped 2021 was all 80’s. “Everything reminds me of the 80’s—it feels like a period where you could get away with so much cheese, but it’s so much fun.”
It’s that infectious passion—up-beat, soulful, genuine—that makes it such a joy to work with Janhoi—even just for a couple of hours; I can’t imagine what a treat it would be to have his support and enthusiasm throughout the wedding planning process and on the day. “I want people to come to me who like my creative style,” he says. “When I choose music I always try to choose music that’s a blend between the couple and myself. You might get some soft music, but a bit of up-beat. Soul, hip-hop, reggae—I want to keep it real.”
“I feel I have to give my soul to it,” he tells me in earnest and I believe him.
Speaking of Janhoi’s soul, I give him the chance to reflect on its state, two years into a pandemic that saw time both stand still and rage on like a wildfire. “The biggest things that came out of the pandemic—other than the virus itself—people saw how people treat each other. Obviously, when I say that, I think about Black Lives Matter being elevated—opening peoples eyes in a worldwide sense. Because people felt their freedom was taken away it opened more peoples eyes to how people feel this way outside of the pandemic. It was a big thing for me—I felt—they see a smiling person, always happy—but the things that are happening, I’ve experienced that; had to get on with it; if I don’t it would drive me crazy. That was a big thing in the pandemic.”
Janhoi laments that it took a tragedy such as the murder of George Floyd to stir change, but the sustained efforts for justice since the tragedy brings some sense of hope to a man who has long experienced the subtle inequalities of life in the UK for a person of color. Though the racism of the UK is not as “in your face” as in America, its subtlety is isolating, making people doubt their own experiences. After 2020, Janhoi has surrendered his doubts.
“I’m glad it’s being spoken about and will continue to be spoken about. Instead of it being a one-time hyped-up and shouted about thing turning into something to whimper about—Black Lives Matter has the spotlight and now we move.”
Has the Black Lives Matter movement taken hold of the weddings world?
Are we seeing change? Janhoi likes to think so.
“In the wedding industry the Black Lives Matter movement opened a lot of peoples eyes to what we go through on a daily basis. It’s just a norm,” he says and in the same breath that he’s stopped accepting that. He’s reclaiming his name. “My name is Janhoi—in the past I knew my name held me back in jobs. I’ve lived here all my life—I’m as British as the Queen. I was born here, just like she was; my parents from Jamaica were part of the Commonwealth.”
How else did the last two years effect Janhoi? While taking a temporary position as a caretaker in the local school as his hairdresser wife waited to get clients safely back into her chair, he worried most about weddings—when the world righted itself—if it ever could—would weddings be a thing of the past? A celebration reserved for happier days suddenly gone forever?
“Will I have to give up something I really love doing? I have to think about paying bills.” The change from 2020 to 2021 was remarkable—from famine to feast so to speak—but the days were endless. Janhoi details a week of his life, criss-crossing the country, sometimes over night, to attend every one of his promised couples’ weddings, even those whose new dates fell side by side, but miles apart. He once drove 300 miles overnight to honor his commitments.
It wasn’t the kind of road trip he was anticipating. As a photographer, Janhoi has attended weddings in some incredible places near and far, but I’ve spotted a particular wedding I want to ask him about. Turns out Taylor and Ren’s country club-style wedding in Southern Pines, North Carolina was his first American wedding. “Loved North Carolina! Absolutely loved it because of the people.” I happen to be one of those people—Southern Pines is a short drive from my hometown. “They loved my accent—went into a petrol station and said pump number five and this woman said, “Oh my god, your accent is so beautiful!” I felt like a star, really.” Janhoi grins at the memory and I can just picture the gas station attendant’s thrill hearing a genuine British accent. He enjoyed his time in my home state and as he details his plans for a future roadtrip—taken at leisure, his camera less a tool of the trade and more a means of making a memory—I promise I’ll help make sure he and his wife hit all the best spots.
But before he can take his extended roadtrip, Janhoi has a busy and exciting year ahead with Jay Anderson Photography. I ask if he has any goals or challenges he’d like to meet—either personally, or professionally.
“Business-wise I haven’t—I don’t want to try and push challenges because I’m happy with my business. There’s always things to improve…like admin work,” we both laugh, apparently neither of us best friends with the day-to-day minutia that comes hand-in-hand with creative work.
He is anticipating accepting a new life challenge instead: “It comes down to music. My friend’s getting married in May and they’ve challenged me to do a set at their wedding as a DJ. That’s my challenge.” I anticipate that he’ll rise to meet it, after all, the last time a friend handed him a challenge and a camera it changed his whole life. This time it’ll be a different friend teaching him how to lay down decks in the spare room of his house. It does seem like history may be repeating itself, but it’s also a new day. Maybe Jay the photographer, the ‘tog in a hat, will soon also be known as Janhoi the DJ.
“I love the music—you know when you get a really good DJ—coming from a photographer getting people on the dance floor is the best feeling—makes our job easy—no need to make something look better than it is.” He recalls one particular evening when the music was really pumping—he can never really forget. For once he was the one in front of the camera. He still has the photo a guest snapped—a rare capture of a familiar scene, Janhoi at the center of the dance floor, camera raised to snap a photo of everyone dancing around him. “Yeah, that’s what I’m about—that’s where you catch me—right in the middle of the action.”
