Bilal
Posted: May 17, 2012 Filed under: Arts, Music, Portrait | Tags: arts, music, portrait Leave a comment »
The Robert Glasper Experiment were in town this week with a huge sell-out gig at the Barbican and then on to an ‘on the fly’ pop-up gig at the Village Underground the next night. Touring in the aftermath of their latest release, Black Radio, RGE invited a couple of the album’s guest vocalists to join them on stage…
…so it was a pleasure to meet and photograph the album’s most diverse singer – Bilal. Working with everyone from the late great J Dilla to Badu and Common, Bilal’s live performance is something to behold.
Fans will need no introduction but if any of these artists are new to you; go check them out, you will not be disappointed.
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Turner Prize 2012
Posted: May 1, 2012 Filed under: Arts, Portrait | Tags: arts, portrait, prize, turner Leave a comment »Today the web-news-media-sphere lit up with the announcement of the Turner Prize 2012 shortlist. Amongst the 4 finalists is the film maker and artist Luke Fowler.
Since 2009, I’ve been commissioned by the one of the UK’s largest supporter of the arts, the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, to take the official photographs of the 8 recipients of their prestigious Awards For Artists prize (split between visual artists and composers). Luke received the prize in 2010.
Once the official photos were taken, I grabbed this sweet shot of him during the pre-award ceremony private drinks reception at the fabulous RIBA building.
The Turner Prize exhibition will open on October 20th at Tate Britain and the winner will be announced live on Channel 4 on December 3rd 2012.
Good luck Luke!
Take Five Europe
Posted: April 7, 2012 Filed under: Arts, Music, Portrait | Tags: jazz, music, portrait, serious, Take Five Leave a comment »
Towards the end of February, Bore Place (set in wonderful grounds in deep, dark Kent) hosted the latest incarnation of the highly successful Take Five artist professional development initiative. Take Five Europe (Edition 1) awarded 8 recipients from across Europe:
Benjamin Flament & Céline Bonacina from France.
Bram Stadhouders & Oene van Geel from the Netherlands.
Tom Arthurs & Fraser Fifield from the UK.
Gard Nilssen & Ole Morten Vågan from Norway.
Maciej Obara & Maciej Garbowski from Poland.
Check out their impressive biographies here.
As ever, it was a pleasure to work with all these artists and the creative buzz was awesome; be it capturing these formal portraits or documenting their daily practical sessions with the mighty John Surman. Fantastic.
Ms Dynamite, Skepta, Devlin, Fazer & Jules Buckley
Posted: March 2, 2012 Filed under: 2012 London Olympics, Arts, Music, Portrait | Tags: arts, music, portrait, serious Leave a comment »Yesterday was a great day at the BBC’s legendary Maida Vale Studios.
Ms Dynamite, Skepta, Devlin, Fazer & Jules Buckley were in Studio 1 for a day long rehearsal with the BBC Symphony Orchestra in preparation for this weekend’s Urban Classics at the Barbican. A brilliant collaboration of Biggafish, Serious and the BBC, Urban Classics is now in it’s 6th year.
Everyone was seriously on fire and the sound was awesome. If you want to listen to the whole performance – then go online at 19hrs on March 3rd, as BBC Radio 1 & Radio 1 Xtra are broadcasting it simultaneously live with Trevor Nelson and MistaJam.
I’ll bring you another post early next week with some highlights from Saturday’s gig!
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Mitch Dalton & The Studio Kings
Posted: February 27, 2012 Filed under: Arts, Music, Portrait | Tags: arts, music, portrait Leave a comment »After a gruelling national Strictly Come Dancing tour, Mitch launches his new album ‘Meet Mitch Dalton & The Studio Kings’ this week. To celebrate this launch, I thought I’d show a few highlights from the album artwork photoshoot detailed in my previous entry here.
I proudly present Mitch Dalton & The Studio Kings in all their 1960s recording booth splendor…
11 Downing Street
Posted: February 27, 2012 Filed under: 2012 London Olympics, Arts Leave a comment »This slideshow requires JavaScript.
February 8th was fantastic, as I covered a superb reception organised by Serious at 11 Downing Street. The evening was a great success with speeches from the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport Jeremy Hunt, Frances Osbourne, Claire Whitaker and Ann Grant, the Chairman of the newly created charity, the Serious Trust.
Aside from the inside of No 11 looking & feeling like something straight out of an episode of the glorious The Thick of It it was great to see a strong selection of my work presented as rolling slideshow presentation. I couldn’t help grabbing a few frames prior to the guests’ arrival.
As the reception came to a close I decided it would be fun to loiter outside and capture guests leaving in a classic paparazzi/doorstepping style. Take a look at some more over on Serious’ Flickr pages.
Oh and thank you Shingai Shoniwa for looking like you were leaving Studio 54 
ERT Part 2
Posted: February 14, 2012 Filed under: Portrait | Tags: ERT, portrait Leave a comment »
Over a few days late last summer, I went to Höchberg, Bavaria to photograph fresh employee portraits for world leading medical company ERT’s new global site.
Read more about the assignment here.
Different photographers covered their 8 international HQs and after a little delay, there new site is up online now. Here’s 2 screen-grabs of my portraits from the mix.
Ice Music Crew
Posted: February 13, 2012 Filed under: Arts, Ice Music, Music, Portrait | Tags: arts, cold, festival, geilo, ice, icemusic, music, norway, portrait, snow, wudang mountain Leave a comment »
These 2 hard working gentleman were part of a fantastically strong 2012 Ice Music Crew.
In a mere 7 days, a team of volunteers & professionals constructed the best Ice Music Festival arena and stage yet; a cathedral of snow and ice. And yes, the tippee was used to sleep in, even with nightly temperatures dropping below -30c. Snow is a superb insulator!
Please take a look at my main site to see a portfolio of the whole crew in all there glory.
1975
Posted: February 8, 2012 Filed under: Arts, Ice Music, Music, Portrait | Tags: arts, cold, festival, geilo, ice, icemusic, music, norway, portrait, snow Leave a comment »
As the Ice Music Festival’s artistic director, Terje Isungset invites noteworthy musicians from around the world to join him creating incredible sound with wild ice. This year’s signature ice instrument was the cello and Leo Svensson, a folk hero from Sweden, accepted the challenge of playing it. Bill, of course, gladly accepted the challenge of making it.
Working with a design supplied by Leo, Bill and he worked well into a very, very cold and snowy night to produce the world’s first ice cello. Although still freezing cold, the next morning produced some lovely calm conditions for Leo to start tuning his instrument. Around an hour of fine tuning with Bill and his intricate ice tools, was all that was required to produce a beautifully faithful sound of a cello.
Whilst Leo tuned, I looked for a suitably clean 50mm composition that would really emphasis the uniqueness of both the instrument and it’s location. I quickly settled on this frame, as I felt that the juxtaposition of industrial snowcat (which also built this year’s IMF arena and stage) with the cello’s bow would really sing.
To fine tune the frame, I decided to use the red number 75 to mirror Leo’s red coat and, crucially, anchor the frame. Lighting up a 1000w halogen ‘night sun’ to the rear left of the frame served to add a little warm to the proceedings and also lift the contrast ever so slightly (when the sun is behind cloud, snowy compositions become awfully flat). Throw in a delicate bow position to cut through the left of the frame and bingo, recipe complete.
Once Leo had finished tuning, I showed him the frame on the rear of the camera. I explained that I used the red 75 as an anchor and he looked at me with great surprise; Leo was born in 1975!
And guess what, my brother, Leo, was born in 1975 too. A photograph that was meant to be
The Fixer Returns
Posted: February 6, 2012 Filed under: Arts, Ice Music | Tags: arts, festival, geilo, ice, icemusic, norway, snow Leave a comment »
It’s gone midnight, -20c and Geilo is deep in snow. A lovely press dinner evening at the Bardøla Hotel has just finished, with taxis on their way to take journalists, a film crew and core Ice Music Festival posse back to their beds.
Bill, Helder, Wolfgang Gehrmann (senior business editor from Die Zeit newspaper in Germany) and I are waiting to share the same taxi. We’ve all hanging around the warm lobby and the banter is flowing effortlessly. Headlights shining into the lobby indicate our taxi’s arrival; and we are surprised to see The Fixer at the helm of the steering wheel. Yep, he had returned in the shape of a taxi driver…roll on lots of warm greetings.
Now at this point, I’d like to mention that I’ve been assigned by both Die Zeit and the Financial Times of London to cover Ice Music Festival 2012 and with both their journalists in Geilo, I feel a little responsible that they receive a warm welcome and good impression of the town and it’s people.
New readers unaware of The Fixer – please read here.
After The Fixer’s out of control pyrotechnic craziness last year, I suddenly have a gut feeling that all hell is going to break loose. We all jump into The Fixer’s spanking brand new Mercedes estate, laden with enough controls and gadgets strewn across it’s dashboard to pass off as Darth Vader’s bathroom. I introduce Wolfgang to The Fixer and we set off.
As soon as we leave the lobby area and with a stark absence of any warning; The Fixer puts his foot to the floor and spins the steering wheel into the biggest power slides, covering the full width of the high snow banked road, regardless of the sharp bends or steep incline. We absolutely crack up.
We get down the mountain at break neck speed and the hit the main road like a scene re-enactment from The Getaway. The Fixer then pulls the sharpest left turn in Ralliart history and flies into a huge, empty lorry park knee deep in snow – chaos reigned. The next few minutes were a total blur of snow and laughter as the car repeatedly spun around and around and around; 360 doughnuts after 360 doughnuts, until we were dizzy.
All sense or illusion of responsibility completely shattered, we all rolled out of The Fixer’s cab and headed back to our apartments.
Wolfgang had officially experienced The Fixer.
Sub Zero Chainsaw Blade Sharpening
Posted: February 1, 2012 Filed under: Architecture, Environment, Ice Music, Portrait | Tags: arts, cold, festival, geilo, ice, icemusic, norway, portrait, snow Leave a comment »
Who on earth would want to sharpen chainsaw blades at night in temperatures of -24c? Bill Covitz, that’s who.
Yep, this year’s Ice Music Festival opens to the public this Friday night and ice carving supremo Bill was up late last Saturday night preparing his collection of blades ahead of his cut crew’s arrival the following day.
Seated on his trusted tool box and wrapped in 3 deerskins, Bill dreamt of his favourite cheeseburger & Halling beer combos…
Let’s Cool January Down…
Posted: January 9, 2012 Filed under: Arts, Ice Music, Music, Portrait | Tags: arts, cold, festival, geilo, ice, icemusic, music, norway, portrait, snow 2 Comments »2012′s Ice Music Festival is fast approaching and 360 Oslo Airport Magazine and Lonely Planet Magazine have published a couple of articles with my photos highlighting the festival’s aural magic. I’m flying out on 24th January to cover the festival and it’s construction for a 3rd year. Bill, Helder & Ivar; don’t forget the Grand Marnier
The frozen omens are supremely good this year too, as the mighty Arve Henriksen will be accompanying Terje Isungset on stage, to perform Terje’s seminal album Iceman Is in full!
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My Time With Stefano Bollani & Martial Solal
Posted: December 8, 2011 Filed under: Arts, London Jazz Festival, Music, Portrait | Tags: arts, festival, jazz, portrait, serious Leave a comment »Ok, so I’m grabbing some food in the Barbican’s food hall and the ever-delightful Amy Coombe phones me to say that 2 true giants of piano, Stefano Bollani and Martial Solal, have just finished their soundcheck and were heading off to their hotels for some pre-performance rest. Before they leave, could I grab a quick photograph of them? Oh YES, I reply; and asked for the show’s production manager Alastair to somehow delay them…
…5 minutes later I arrive backstage, already deciding to photograph them together (afterall, why waste such a lovely opportunity) but not near any clichéd piano! The question was whether they would be happy with my idea? I greet a welcoming Stefano, so I put forward my duo portrait request; he was happy but would check with Martial. Meanwhile I zoom around the new artist bar area behind the Main Concert Hall looking for an appropriate backdrop; there wasn’t one, so I had to improvise.
Cue throwing a load of plush seating out of the way, moving a large metallic finished curtain into place and choosing 2 suitable chairs high enough for Martial to sit in easily. I position the chairs, set the tripod and composition, then take a couple of ambient light readings with and without flash. No decent strobes, just a single 580EX Speedlight on manual 1/4 power that I decided to bounce of the ceiling to throw in just enough contrast. Furthermore, the metallic curtain would also act as a little reflective fill-in, in order to separate the guys’ outline from the background. Time is ticking away very quickly and luckily, Martial is ready to say hello.
As any portrait photographer will relate too; this kind of seat-of-your-pants/ad-hoc shoot requires an immediately successful rapport to allow one’s subject to relax and feel comfortable. Luckily both Stefano and Martial were obligingly on form and took direction with ease. With my time vaporising fast, I took 3 subtlety different safety shots but wanted more engagement between them, so I suggested that Martial pop his glasses on. This sparked a discussion about Martial’s failing eyesight and they started comparing each other’s vision by moving their index fingers back & forth from their eyes.
Oblivious to my presence, their eyesight exchange was exactly what I wanted, so I clicked 1 frame; bingo! They carry on speaking for a few seconds, at which point Stefano asked what I wanted them to do, so I happily replied that I had what I needed and wished them a great performance.
So there you have it; 15 minutes, from first greeting to saying goodbye, with a total of 6 frames (including 2 test frames).
Sweet and Breathless.
Jazz Voice
Posted: December 3, 2011 Filed under: Arts, London Jazz Festival, Music | Tags: jazz, music, serious Leave a comment »
The hot ticket for the opening night of the London Jazz Festival is Jazz Voice. Curated, scored and conducted by Guy Barker and his specially selected 40 piece orchestra; each year welcomes an eclectic mix of tip-top vocalists performing classics and new compositions.
This year’s roll call was quite something: Ayanna Witter-Johnson, Gregory Porter, Mary Pearce, Ian Shaw, Michelle Dockery, Lucinda Belle, Norma Winstone and Shingai Shoniwa. The evening was hosted one of the UK’s national treasures, Victoria Wood.
A lot of preparation and rehearsal goes into staging such a grand performance, especially with the show being broadcast live on BBC R3. So back in September, Guy and I agreed that a little spotlight should be shone on this preparation and he invited me to document the whole process from the first 1-to-1 run through with each artist and then on through the various rehearsals until the big night.
Accompanying me during the first stages was the C4 News Culture Editor Matthew Cain and his team, who put together a great 4 minute piece about the modern women of Jazz.
So, for a few coffee laden mornings at 9am, with cleaners still on duty from the night before; Guy, Dave Newton the pianist, production manager Dylan Bate and I gathered with the guest vocalists at the 606 Club out in Chelsea. One by one, each artist came in and went through Guy’s fresh off the press song sheets. Superb, relaxed intimacy with amazing musicianship. Sweet.
Next up was a super long day at the gigantic Music Bank studios in South London, whereby the orchestra staged full rehearsals with all the vocalists. For the record, I’ve shot in there before and the colour/decor has to be the worst in London. Does anyone know of any worse?
Suffice to say, one has to deal with what’s presented and luckily the low, autumnal sun decided to break through, which allowed me to put some zam-zam into the proceedings by working with the long shadows.
Moving amongst the orchestra when Gregory launched into his incendiary 12 min burner 1960 What? was completely electric.
Finishing off the day was Shingai Shoniwa of The Noisettes, who turned up in with the largest hat box ever to grace London town – her talent for making an entrance came to fruition for the live show; the dress was pure needle & thread & architecture! And what a voice…
Roll on the big day, another long rehearsal/soundcheck, many backline double checks, Victoria Wood playing her role with aplomb and bam! the audience is seated. Cue Gregory walking in from stage right and Ian from stage left through the audience for the opening song and Lucinda turning the sex dial up to 11…
London Jazz Festival 2011
Posted: December 2, 2011 Filed under: Arts, Music | Tags: arts, festival, jazz, serious Leave a comment »
I’m awfully behind blog-wise, as I’ve had a damn busy couple of months.
Within this heady work mix was the London Jazz Festival, which I covered for a 4th year as the festival producer Serious’ sole official photographer. With some detailed planning, the ambitious task of capturing 49 events over a 10 day period, via all modes of transport from train, tube, taxi and foot was hectic but very rewarding indeed.
Zooming around London town with a wheeled camera bag and tripod, I wore many photographic ‘hats’ to capture in-depth stories, one-off portrait sessions, backstage action, networking events, musician masterclass, private receptions, small club gigs, headline performances and above all documenting a deluge of world class music. I had a complete ball.
The London Jazz Festival has become London’s largest single arts event by programming 271 events which engulf 50 venues, from the entire Southbank Centre and Barbican to a maze of clubs and music spaces. What’s not to like?
Over the next few days I’ll gather together a few photographic highlights and try and give you a little taster of my daily routine.
Shameless Self Portrait
Posted: November 3, 2011 Filed under: 2012 London Olympics, Architecture, Arts, Music, Portrait | Tags: arts, jazz, music, portrait Leave a comment »
Much fun was had a few weeks ago capturing the launch of the BT River of Music; one of the major events that will make up next year’s London 2012 Cultural Olympiad. The glorious back drop to the press launch was Somerset House, which will be one of the 5 themed locations along the River Thames showcasing leading international musicians, major stars and emerging British talent.
Andy Sheppard (pictured here to the left of me) and his ongoing Saxophone Massive project will be one of the artists performing during the weekend of July 21-22 2012.
After arranging the musicians (the eagle eyed among you will spot Shabaka Hutchings in there too) and photographing the formal shots, I decided to hit the self timer and cheekily dive into frame, much to the surprise and amusement of the BT executives standing behind my tripod
MOBO Jazz Award Win!
Posted: October 5, 2011 Filed under: Arts, Music, Portrait Leave a comment »A massive congratulations to Adam, Jasper, Jon and Ivo aka Kairos 4tet who have just won the 2011 Mobo Award for best jazz act. Bloody good to see 4 super talented and hard working artists, who live and breath the huge resurgence in UK jazz, rewarded on the national stage.
Well done guys
Caught In The Act
Posted: September 26, 2011 Filed under: Arts, Music, Portrait | Tags: arts, jazz, music, portrait 1 Comment »After a perfectly sunny & early morning start, I recently arrived for a day’s shoot at a glorious 20 room Edwardian manor house set in deep, dark West Sussex. The house is home to Curtis Schwartz’s recording studio and the shoot was to capture Mitch Dalton & The Studio Kings in all their glory for an up and coming album release; both for formal album cover artwork and informally for a media friendly press package.
Mitch Dalton & The Studio Kings are a true ‘super group’ but not in a household name kind of way, as these guys normally play for and with other world renowned artists.
The ‘Kings creator and writer is one of the most revered session guitarists in the business. For 35 years, Mitch has played with the best – from Herbie Hancock and Ella Fitzgerald, to Peggy Lee, Abdullah Ibrahim, Wayne Shorter and Melody Gardot. He’s also featured on a diverse and long list of film soundtracks from Twilight, Chicago and Fantastic Mr Fox to the last 5 James Bond films!
The 3 other Studio Kings are just as mighty; on keyboards (and arranger par excellence) is David Arch, the musical director of Strictly Come Dancing and featured pianist on The King’s Speech. On Bass duty is the funkateer Steve Pearce, who has accompanied an endless roll call of artists from Madonna, Van Morrison and Joss Stone to Take That, Stevie Wonder and George Michael. And finally, in the drummer’s hotseat is Ian Thomas, first-call choice of Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood, Sting, Mark Knopfler and Jeff Beck. Serious dudes.
The album cover is a highly stylised take on early 1960′s album artwork normally showing groups’ members posing in various ways to simulate a recording session. Suited up and using a windowed studio acoustic panel, I photographed the Studio Kings as a group and then on an individual basis.
I love shooting on location, as one has to think a little out of the box because locations rarely offer the convenience of photography studio. In preparation, I took a couple of 100x75mm softboxes, a beauty dish and a range of grids and reflectors to control the light (to be honest this mixed combo travels really easily and copes with most small group situations).
Upon arrival, it was immediately clear that the kitsch orange velour curtains hanging in one of the recording rooms would work as the back drop. Couple this with some re-positioning of the studio’s heavy duty acoustic screens and hey presto, a perfectly framed series of portraits was up for grabs!
The only 2 tricky obstacles was firstly to shield all other stray light sources around the studio (mixture of day and various artificial light) and then to get one of the softbox’s positioned high enough so not to reflect on the pane of glass that I was shooting through. Normally a purpose built photography studio has high enough ceilings but the restrains of an Edwardian manor house presented a tuff challenge to get the softbox jammed high enough ‘into’ the ceiling void. Success prevailed.
After several hours of recording time (whereby I shot some candid images of their ‘album in progress’) all 4 ‘Kings donned their attire and stepped into the booth.
You’ll see the formal results once the album’s release is confirmed and promotion starts.
London Jazz Festival 2011
Posted: September 19, 2011 Filed under: Arts, London Jazz Festival, Music | Tags: arts, jazz, music Leave a comment »
300+ guests descended on Farringdon’s Smithfield Bar & Grill last Wednesday night for the 2011 London Jazz Festival launch party. An enviable ‘who’s who’ of the burgeoning UK jazz scene, from musicians, producers and promoters to journalists, radio DJs and venue owners jammed into the bar and partied till late. Much fun had by all.
Check out some of the posh party pics from the night at the London Jazz Festival Image Gallery. Roll on the Festival’s opening night on Friday November 11th!
Last Night Of The Proms
Posted: September 9, 2011 Filed under: Arts, Environment, Music | Tags: music Leave a comment »
This weekend sees the Last Night Of The Proms at the Royal Albert Hall. Will I be there? alas, no. But the occasion does excuse me to dig a little into the archive and show a successful assignment I completed last year to document a day-in-the-life-on-tour of Italy’s mighty Ludovico Einaudi.
During his worldwide tour last year, he performed to a sell out audience in the RAH. To celebrate, Milan’s Ponderosa decided to produce a deluxe 2CD/1DVD live release of the performance and commissioned me to document a whole day of putting the show together, from light rigging, orchestra rehearsal and soundcheck to piano tuning and preparing back stage.
The subsequent release has sold by the truck load (the same with most of Ludovico’s output) and the original artwork containing all the final photos and layout can be seen here as a PDF. Word of warning; if you’re ever in a position to photograph the interior of such a grand location, then don’t even think about walking in there without a sturdy tripod and at least one wide angle tilt/shift lens!
I’ve also put together a 5 minute montage of some of the day’s photographs, accompanied by Ludovico’s track Indaco. To film fans out there – if you look closely you might just spot Shane Meadows as Ludovico composed the original score to This Is England.
Please go to my Vimeo site if you wanna view the sweeter, fullscreen HD version
Ayanna
Posted: September 6, 2011 Filed under: Arts, Music, Portrait | Tags: arts, music, portrait Leave a comment »
Much fun was had in West London recently paying homage to Man Ray’s Le Violon d’Ingres. The delightful Ayanna releases her new EP this week and as vocalist/composer/cellist supremo, she wanted to produce her own take on the classic image.
With the EP’s production, mixing and mastering credits going to Marc Mac (4 Hero) and featuring master pianist Robert Mitchell, the EP boosts a busy autumn for Ayanna; she’s already taking over Kings Place and confirmed to perform in the prestigious line-up at this year’s Jazz Voice.
Throw in some great make-up work from Constance Lawson and superb cover design by the Team at iwantdesign and bam!, a beautifully finished EP release.
ERT
Posted: August 16, 2011 Filed under: Portrait | Tags: ERT, portrait 1 Comment »Based in Philadelphia USA, ERT are a world leading medical company who specialise in Cardiac Safety, Respiratory and ePRO services & solutions in clinical trials. A very busy 2 day assignment saw me out at their German HQ in Höchberg, Bavaria.
The brief was to photograph high quality work environment employee portraits in each of the 10 company departments. With ERT’s Höchberg facility being very much device focused, the opportunity to capture some noteworthy portraits was great, as the departments varied greatly from software development and hardware final testing to shipping, worldwide tech support and data management.
My contact during the shoot was ERT’s Senior Director of Business Development, Reza Farienfar. Reza was ever-helpful (thank you Reza) and wonderfully efficient in liaising with the various nominated employees. During the second day and ahead of schedule, we squeezed in a fresh portrait of him
Arkitektur N
Posted: August 10, 2011 Filed under: Architecture, Arts, Environment, Ice Music, Music | Tags: architecture, arts, cold, geilo, ice, icemusic, norway, snow Leave a comment »
There has been more interest in Norway’s magical Ice Music Festival and viewed from a slightly different perspective too, with an article recently published in Arkitektur N (Norwegian Review of Architecture).
Arkitektur N expressed great interest in the 2011 Ice Music stage and audience arena’s designer Helder Neves (surely the koolest Portuguese architect in Tromsø? and shown above surveying the ground).
They asked Helder to put together some words about his concept and the design details that greatly influenced the stage’s final assembly. Combined with a series of my photographs documenting the stage’s gradual and deceptively simple construction, a great 7 page article was born.
A big thank you to Arkitektur N’s Editor Ingerid Helsing Almaas for all her assistance through to final printed copy.
Please take a peek at the published article as a PDF tearsheet here.
Coastal Differences
Posted: August 5, 2011 Filed under: Architecture, Environment | Tags: sea Leave a comment »After a great portrait assignment for US medical giant ERT in Germany (more about this in a future post) I took a week’s break/recharge with family and friends in England’s rural sunny southwest.
Whilst visiting various coves and inlets of Devon, I was struck by the huge difference in visual aesthetic between the rural, sparsely populated and mainly protected (National Trust) coastline and that of another part of England where I’m currently developing a new photo project; a densely populated Canvey Island.
Although my project is documenting Canvey Island’s unique housing stock (specifically housing built after the great North Sea flood of 1953 that devastated alot of Canvey Island) I have been intrigued with both residents and visitors’ interaction with the massive 15 mile concrete sea defence that surrounds most of the island.
For sure, the tiny stripes of beach and tidal pools of Canvey’s industrial shoreline may differ from Devon’s infamous picture postcard thatched tranquility but this doesn’t seem to bother people seeking a little playtime in the sun.
Burghley House Celebration
Posted: July 7, 2011 Filed under: Wedding | Tags: wedding Leave a comment »What a glorious day in Stamford as Richard & Sasha Olsen were married in Burghley House’s tiny but delightful Summerhouse. After walking back through the estate’s sun-bathed grounds, the newly married couple were greeted by another 50 or so guests for a afternoon and evening of celebration. The Great Hall hosted the formal meal and what a setting it was, as the room boasts a 90ft high vaulted wooden ceiling – a perfect example of Elizabethan architecture!
Road Trip
Posted: July 5, 2011 Filed under: Education, Environment | Tags: education, student Leave a comment »
It’s been a busy week on the road photographing some pretty varied but always interesting subject matter.
I started in Stamford shooting a rather delightful and intimate wedding, exclusively held at Burghley House (Britain’s largest Elizabethan private home). Then it was down to South London with a regular client, the Golf Foundation. The Golf Foundation were involved in the massive London Youth Games 2011 opened by London Mayor Boris Johnson (yep, he played a round of tennis…) and hosted in the imposing National Sports Centre at Crystal Palace. I then sped up to Walsall, a little north of Birmingham, to work with another long term client, the Paul Hamlyn Foundation.
Musical Futures is a Paul Hamlyn Foundation special project. Since it’s genesis in 2004, the project has assisted over 750,000 school children across the UK engage in making music. PHF’s support has proved a resounding success and I’m proud to have worked with the forward thinking educational initiative for 5 years now. Last weekend saw a major UK wide conference, Play-Learn-Live, drawing together classroom music teachers and music practitioners to attend a workshops, lectures, presentations and professional drop-in clinics covering many aspects of music technology and key pedagogical strategies.
With keynote speakers David Price & Jonathan Savage adding powerfully informed and critical voices of the government’s music education policies; the event was particularly engaging for the well attended audience.
Upon arrival, I was quite taken by the scale of event’s venue; the impressive Walsall College. Only 2 years old and built in partnership with all walks of the corporate corridor, from Microsoft and ICI to EON and the National Grid - the college must surely be the UK’s most luxurious place of further education!?
Thames Barrier Park
Posted: June 27, 2011 Filed under: Environment Leave a comment »Sunday June 26th was pretty hot in London, with a peak temperature of 30.5c. Along the north shore of the River Thames in Silvertown, is the near-futuristic Thames Barrier Park.
Superbly designed and landscaped, the 10 year old park offers a welcome and vibrantly communal space to one of city’s poorest boroughs, Newham. This girl, literally jumping into frame, rounded off a great summer’s day!
Returning Dragon Temple
Posted: June 3, 2011 Filed under: Environment | Tags: china, wudang mountain, wushu Leave a comment »
If you pop over to my main site, you’ll see a fresh photo essay from my recent trip to China. Focusing on the training regime the students encounter 6 days a week, the photographs are taken in their 3 main practice areas; the backyard, the front driveway of Huilongguan village and up in the derelict Returning Dragon Temple that watches over the tight knit community.
Returning Dragon Temple dates back to the 9th Century and it’s solid foundation walls display the most amazing array of red hues and tones.
Take Five Edition VII
Posted: May 27, 2011 Filed under: Arts, Music, Portrait | Tags: arts, Award, jazz, Mobo Award, music, portrait, Take Five Leave a comment »
Much fun was had recently photographing 2011′s prestigious Take Five Initiative.
Aimed at British and UK based composer/performers, Serious developed the scheme in 2004/05 and designed it to give the most talented emerging creative jazz musicians the opportunity to take ‘time out’ to develop their craft, build their careers and get their music out into the world. Initially in partnership with the Jerwood Charitable Foundation and PRS for Music Foundation the initiative is currently in its seventh edition, and has involved 56 musicians from around the UK. Since Edition V, additional funding has been received from Arts Council England and the Musicians Benevolent Fund.
A glittering array of previous participants include Soweto Kinch, Matthew Bourne, Jules Buckley, Seb Roachford, Natalie Williams, Gwilym Simcock, Nikki Yeoh, Tom Cawley, Chris Sharkey, Shabaka Hutchings, Fraser Fifield, Jasper Høiby and Kit Downes – a mighty strong slice of the UK’s burgeoning jazz scene! After shooting the official portraits of 2010′s Take Five Edition VI winners, I was invited back to capture the initiative’s latest roll-call of extremely talented individuals. For someone who’s passionate about music but doesn’t even know how to pick an instrument, working with these people is an absolute pleasure.
3 of the 8 artists are featured here; above is the sharply dressed Adam Waldmann, in the middle is Christophe De Bezenac and below is Trish Clowes. For a few of last year’s images, please take a peek through my ‘Portraits’ portfolio over on my main site.
UPDATE 5th Oct 2011 – Adam Waldmann and Ivo Neame have just won the 2011 Mobo Award for best jazz act with their group Kairos 4tet!
Staff Benda Bilili
Posted: May 18, 2011 Filed under: Arts, Music, Portrait | Tags: music, portrait Leave a comment »Staff Benda Bilili have just finished a sold out UK tour and are now trail blazing the rest of Europe across the summer. Their packed performance at the Roundhouse in Camden was electric and sparking with energy.
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Spending time with them prior to the gig offered a brief insight to their collective spirit and humour – witnessed to the full, when they had no choice but to smoke outside on the fire exit steps leading straight out to Chalk Farm Road…the banter between them and passers was bloody funny; especially when a couple of well dressed guys showed up shouting that they were from Kinshasa. After some quick-fire verbal exchange, the two guys had backstage passes and joined the fun.
In addition to grabbing them a few cups of coffee, I also offered to complete a much needed cigarette run for them. To be honest, this was the least I could do as they were so relaxed & kool with my camera. A few days later, they also appeared on Jools Holland – check their performance here.
Being signed to Crammed Discs and with a worldwide successful film under their belt; Staff Benda Bilili are on fire!
