Frock me!

Texprint is an annual competition for new textile designers, and this year was judged by Zandra Rhodes and Grayson Perry among others. I'd never paid much attention to Grayson, beyond the facade, but after meeting him I'm intrigued. I wasn't sure what to expect, but he's not camp or effeminate, he's just a bloke in a frock. The more I watched him the more I liked his idea. It challenges the preconception that men in girls clothes are different, weird etc. The fact that he's squarely heterosexual and blokey jarrs even more than if he'd minced about. It's that thing of context, like it's OK to wear speedo's at a swimming pool, but if you wore them to the shops you'd feel self conscious.

Burt's Bees - product launch

Apparently Burt really exists, and really does look like that. The story goes that he was a lo-fi beekeeper who sold his honey on the road-side next to his farm. One day he met Roxanne who's car had broken down nearby, and she then went on to help him sell his honey. Now Burt had years worth of beeswax stored up, without a use, so Roxanne started making candles, lip balm etc - and pretty soon they had a massive international franchise business. 

What I found interesting is that Burt, after initially moving to the smoke when the business outgrew his farm, eventually realised that he missed his simple life. So this guy, who still owns a multi-national cosmetics business, is back living in a converted turkey koop with no electricity or phone. Briliant.

Another interesting fact I gleamed from today (one for the ladies) is that an average woman will swallow approx. 4lbs of lipstick in a lifetime. At least all Burt's Bee's products are edible (they may not taste nice, but they'll do you no harm).

Glastonbury

I was working in the Guardian Lounge for most of the festival, but managed to get out to see Lady GaGa among others, and then fell in love with Little Boots when she came into the lounge. The Specials were special, and I'm trying to find out more about a band called Ebony Bones...
But I still managed a night or two in Shangri-La, Horsemeat Disco's tranny bar, and made it to the Stone Circle for dawn. Every year I find myself there, trying to capture something of the atmosphere that made Glastonbury so special the first time I went. Or maybe I'm just embracing the inner-hippy?

Window of Opportunity

After keeping all the photographers on tenterhooks all day at Glastonbury, dangling the carrot of 'maybe we'll let you in to shoot Bruce Bringsteen, oooooooooor maybe we won't' - Brucie's people finally gave a list of the hallowed few 5 mins before we were due in the pit (I wasn't on the list, but managed to get in with a bit of secret squirrel). When we got into the pit, we were told we'd have to shoot from the sides of the pit. As you can see from the pic above, we were miles away from him, with stairs, TV camera jibs and numpty security men who kept standing right in front of us. I've marked on the pic with a box the actual area where we had a clear sight of Brucie boy. Wow. There'll be a lot of keepers out of that set. The guys who weren't on the list and who went into the crowd on ladders cleaned up, because after our 3 song limit, Brucie came out and ran up and down the barrier, right in from of them.
'F*ckwit of the festival' goes to whoever in Brucie's camp thought they could control pictures by restricting who got in and then restricting where even that golden few could shoot from. All they did was push all the other photographers into the crowd, where they couldn't exercise any control over them at all.
This was one of only a few usable shots out of my time there. I almost wish I hadn't bothered.

Heart Throb in The Mall

A friend recently asked me if I could help out by contributing some photos of Amy Winehouse, for a collaborative exhibition on pop icons. The exhibition is called "Heart Throb" and features sculptures, paintings, prints and photographs of and inspired by pop/rock icons.

My contribution is a tryptych (three pictures in one), showing Amy at different stages of her career.

I was pleased enough to be invited to take part, and was impressed at the posh location, but absolutely gobsmacked when I saw who I'd be exhibiting alongside. Other contributors to the show include Sir Peter Blake, Terry O'Neill and John Lennon.

Gulp!

"Heart Throb"

10am-5pm, 25th June-3rd July

The Mall Galleries

The Mall

London SW1

Grade A

I had a nice compliment the other day. I bumped into the producer of the Pot Noodle ad's I'd recently shot set stills for. He was telling me that they were so happy with my pictures, they used them to grade the film.

"Eh?" I asked.

"It means, we used your photos as a template, and adjusted our video to match the colours and contrast of your pictures".

Cool.

Pants

Oxford Street was closed for the unveiling of the latest David Beckham/Armani pants poster today. The banner was the full height of Selfridges, and the organisers had a three minute window where traffic would be stopped for the unveiling.

I was working for the production company responsible for the event, and they wanted wide shots of the banner, store and street. Thanks to Westy from PA who swapped places with me, allowing me to shoot from a window across the street.

50mm ƒ1.4

I've been using my 50mm ƒ1.4 lens quite a lot recently, for portraits and personal work, mainly because it's very shallow depth of field gives a quite distinct look. I've also come to realise that this £200 plastic cased lens absolutely p*sses on my considerably more expensive zoom lenses in terms of sharpness.

These shots were for a friend of mine who has a traditional barbers shop near Leicester Square.

Cannes it be true?

Here we are again, another year, another Cannes. This year's festival felt busier than last year, in terms of running around, yet without the big name celebrities to go with it. And combined with the poor exchange rate, which made it the most expensive year to be in Cannes, it wasn't the greatest year.

The nearest I got to a scoop was the night a few of us sat in a bar, me with my camera at my feet having come straight from a job, till daylight crept across the marina. The bar was all but empty, and as we got up to leave so too did one of the other remaining tables - including Paris Hilton. Four photographers and two celebrity journalists, sat for 4 hours in a bar with Paris Hilton, and not one of us spotted her! And did I suddenly leap into action to get that exclusive papp shot?

Umm, nah.

Mariah Carey at a photocall for her new film 'Precious'.

Altogether now: "he's behind you!" - old leather face himself Johnny Haliday.

Sophie Marceau & Monica Bellucci, at the premiere of 'Ne Te Retourne Pas'.

Verne Troyer is 'dwarfed' by photographers at the amfAR Cinema Against AIDS benefit.

(see what I did there?)

Seychelles

Work's gone a bit quiet this month. Maybe it's the credit crunch, or end of year budgets have run dry, but there are definitely less jobs happening.

So, when I was asked if I fancied a trip to the Seychelles to shoot some brochure shots for a 5 star resort, and they'd throw in a few days R&R there afterwards, I didn't have to study my diary too much to know I was free (like I'd have turned it down otherwise?!).

A random week

One of the things I love about this job is that every day is different. Not to mention occasionally surreal.
This week I've found myself variously lying on my back photographing buses with red noses on, inside the House of Commons for an awards ceremony, on the set of a new Pot Noodle ad, bobbing around in the middle of the Thames trying to capture a water projection, and finally (and most surreally) arranging several Madame Tussauds figures to look like they're shopping at a Sainsbury's checkout!

Fashion Week.... Dahling

It's London Fashion Week again. I was working for Toni & Guy, so had to shoot the models having their hair done backstage, then dash out the front for the actual catwalk shows. By far the most stressful part of each show was ensuring I had a decent spot on the podium. It's hard trying to squeeze 50+ photographers into a space fit for 15, especially when everyone wants to be slap bang in the middle.
My favourite show of the week was Qasimi, with Victorian gothic style clothes modelled by an all-star line-up of Erin O'Connor, Lily Cole, Jade Parfitt, Jasmine Guinness, Liberty Ross, Jacquetta Wheeler, Yasmin Le Bon and Carmen dell'Orifice. Despite the big names, this had the most chilled and friendly backstage of them all.
The booby prize of the week went to the House of Blue Eyes show, which was the most self-indulgent piece of sensationalist w**k I've ever had to sit through. The designer, who played a central role in the evening's 'theatre', was so pompous and rude to the assembled photographers before the show that we unanimously decided to boycott photographing his grand entrance (and subsequent repeated appearances). The karma kick was that T&G were doing the hair for him as a favour (though I wasn't allowed backstage), and part of the deal was that he'd get a copy of my pictures. So he'll now receive pics of all his models, but none of himself. Ya boo sucks.

Obamamania

Where better to watch the Obama inauguration than TGI Friday's?

Sony VAIO

To launch their new VAIO P-Series laptops, and to demonstrate it’s mobile capabilities, Sony took a load of journo’s to Paris on the Eurostar. I’d just unwrapped my shiny new Canon 5D mkII camera, and this was it’s first outing. I wanted to experiment with alternating between shooting stills and video on the same camera, and I have to say I’m quite impressed with it’s ease of use and video quality (the 60mb still images aren’t bad either!).

First day back

The first day back at work after Christmas is never a pleasure - though it’s made easier when you’ve got a buxom actress like Gemma Bissix doing press-up’s in front of you.
I’ve had worse days.

MTV EMA

This is Perez Hilton, BitchMeister General of celebrity gossip blogs, at the MTV European Music Awards in Liverpool.
(add your own punchline here).









Solange Knowles (Beyonce's sister) played an exclusive set at the awards afterparty. I wasn't sure what to expect, but she blew me away with a wicked set and non-stop dancing.
I became an instant fan.
Then, a few days later, I listened to the album properly.
On seconds thoughts...

I'll Eat My Hat!

A wedding dress (fully functional), covered entirely with chocolate decorations - complete with matching shoes and hat.
It'll be the one time you hope the sun DOESN'T shine on your wedding day.

Cut!

This was a slightly surreal day at the office:
I was shooting set stills at the recording of a new advert involving Johnny Vegas and Monkey. Then I had to shoot some portraits of them both. And I was talking to Monkey asking him to give me a range of expressions. Which he did.

Now, just read those last two sentences again, slowly.

Pet a Porter

A fashion show for dogs.
Dogs wearing VERY expensive designer clothes.
Dog lovers BUYING very expensive designer clothes for their own dogs.
Nope, still don't get it.

Walter Mitty

I love speed dating events. I've been to several now (purely in a work capacity, you understand) and it just looks like a great excuse to lie your pants off. "Hi, I was a jet-pilot, but I've given it up for the time being since I won the lottery".
This one was organized by the South Australian Government, to entice English women to emigrate there with prospective Aussie suitors. Apparently there's a 'Sheila drought'.