2nd album due. Albatross hear here. Love it.
New Fly magazine is out, with lovely portraits with Smith Westerns, Mona, Wild Beasts and of course the very excellent Friendly Fires. Welcome back chaps.
We actually hired a bona fide ice cream van who kept em comin' while we shot. It was ace of course. I'd like to have them on other non-ice cream themed shoots from now on.
Friendly Fires for Fly May issue
Their perfect songs, beautifully performed to a very warm audience. 500ISO, F1.4 at 125th. Thanks for wearing a light, y'get me?
A Metronomy Love-In at the Barfly
Three minutes with Tim in between jobs. Virgin Limo Bikes, love them.
Tim, Limo Bikes Rider
He owns the same camera and lens set up as I was using for this, (Canon 5D MK2 w/85mm f1.2) which is always quite intimidating. However, the sun shone, the feel was right, we chatted kit, I hosed the most minimal of depths of field and got this result and many more winners too. Justin is a fascinating chap, and the new Bon Iver LP drops in June.
Bon Iver in Hyde Park
Battles mean it.
Battles.
Kenyan Stephen did it in less than 3 hours, including his 3 (count 'em 3) toilet breaks. More about Virgin Unite here, the charity arm of the Virgin Group. A great fun team and high spirits all day.
Virgin Unite at the London Marathon
Do you know about Ministry of Stories in Hoxton St? It's a creative writing project with a great vibe and the young journalist participants there are producing a newspaper called Hoxton A.M. which is due to hit the streets (well, Hoxton St) at the end of next week. The MoS is this wonderful idea inspired by Dave Eggers who's work I truly admire, Nick Hornby has set up the UK version and I'm very, very proud and excited to be volunteering there and shooting some features for their paper. You can help too. It's ace.
Toni Brooks, of A Brooks in Hoxton St for Ministry of Stories
Wild Beasts for The Fly
Rest and Be Thankful, near Witchampton. A welcome sight, even if not on foot.
I love you Dorset.
Loads of punchy light, 11 set ups in one afternoon, perfect varied location. Felt like I was back home.
Nicholas Ashley-Cooper, 12th Earl of Shaftesbury
A beautiful sunny day in Dorset, in the village of my junior school to shoot portraits for Pretty Green with Nicholas Ashley-Cooper, 12th Earl of Shaftesbury at his lovely homestead. Nick is a genuinely supercool guy with a healthy interest in electronic music, I"m delighted to report.Thanks to Nic Rand for his lighting skills and running about in blazing heat. Results above...
Back in Wimborne St Giles again
They are very young and very cool and sound bloody lovely. Respect I say. More here.
Smith Westerns for The Fly
And as a member and their photo guy, I went down and shot some portraits of the ambassadors. It was fun. I won't explain now why Luc Le Corre of Chorus and Echo is holding a Homer crunk juice container but there is a reason and it makes good sense, I assure you. More about the CVTF500 here.
The Courvoisier Future 500 had a bash
Was bloody good actually, awesome production and a crowd of Shoreditch types bang up for it. Every once in a while it's ok to dip a toe in, surely.
ckOne and MTV party at Village Underground
So Virgin Media have launched Our House - a private members club opening for one month in Soho, London. During this period James McCauley and I will be exhibiting a selection of our live shots from our years of shooting at V festival. We're the official snappers at V and have been for a wee while, so it made sense to throw caution to the wind, put our reputations on the line and have some whomping great big prints (produced by the awesome Spectrumin Brighton) mounted on the beautiful walls at The House of St Barnabas. It's drinks and frolics tomorrow night so don't expect much from me this week. Fingers crossed for a positive reaction. This image is of Lady Gaga, who made a customarily large splash when she played in 2009.
Our House exhibition featuring Lady Gaga
From Virgin Media's Our House exhibition - 16 years of V Festival photography.
Our House exhibition launches featuring Dizzee Rascal
This was a fantastic shoot. More shots from it here, in The Fly April issue. I wanted an electronic feel with the shot, so as to mark out the sound - but as the band have ever so slightly moved away from the nu:rave boom (quite wisely) I wanted this feel to sit comfortably in the urban landscape but positioned within a digital framework. And where better than with East London disappearing behind them at sunset, with a kinoflo cube that cost a fortune but looked bloody ace? Lighting by Tom Andrew and retouch by Neil Pemberton, design by Russell Moorcroft, shot by me. Metronony were cool, the team was ace and nailed the whole look, the shots made the cover and I'm very happy. Not in a smug way, no.
Metronomy for The Fly Magazine, April issue
Here's more info all about him on Grimepedia. Grimepedia? Really? Actually, he's from my hood so I better shut up.
Tinchy Tinchy Stryder
In the new bumber issue of The Fly, Alexander Ebert. The best shoot too.