Pete Doherty by Lula Camus

"Pete turned up at my flat unannounced as he sometimes did. It was the 16th of January 2002 and I was living in Brick Lane. He picked up my guitar and started to play. Earlier on that day I had looked at an L.P cover from The Jam, on which Paul Weller is on stage jumping while holding his guitar. I showed it to Pete and he started to reproduce the act. I instinctively knew that if I didn’t capture this moment the opportunity would never arise again- The Libertines had just been signed. Luckily a spare B&W roll of film was lying around, I loaded the camera and shot asking Pete to keep on jumping. I also did a few portraits of him sitting on a Marshall amplifier, smoking. Pete was very comfortable with being photographed, he was one of those rare people who aren’t self conscious at all. He would play guitar wherever whenever and was always on the look for some new adventure. That day we talked about life and dreams. He was already taking drugs then but it was nowhere near as bad as what it would become. He was just this young, free spirited man."