Rachel Khoo for Metropolitan Magazine
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds for MOJO cover, January issue
Nick Cave
Sky Ferreira for The Fly cover, December issue
Well, this was a good one. Pure Parisian chaos prior to us getting this but we got there. Sky was great to shoot, completely at home with me in this tiny hotel room and I totally got why there have been so so many notable shoots with Sky and why everyone, everywhere just love her so much. In 17 minutes, in the smallest room ever, we got loads of usable images and about 10 cover options. It's rare I say to a magazine, 'here you go, take your pic' but I was very happy to this time.
Raleigh Ritchie
I have a feeling that one day this cat will rule the world, and we will all be working for him. Game of Thrones. Awesome music and irritatingly good looking, talented, pleasant, young, man.
Jon Hopkins
The brilliant thing for me about Jon Hopkins is that I discovered on shooting him that he lives 100 yards from my house and I now see him in the caff, wine shop, all over. We had a chat about Brian Eno and he IS a complete don apparently, and what I suggested of him was completely incorrect. I'm a buffoon is why.
Jools Holland, Vanity Fair On Time
So you did know that I've wanted for my whole life to shoot for Vanity Fair, right? And here it is, at last, aged 43, my portrait of Jools Holland for Vanity Fair On Time. Shot on location at his studio in Greenwich, and he was every inch the kind host, giving me and VF the tour of his funny little corner of South East London. A wonderful experience from start to finish, and very proud of this one.
Connan Mockasin for The Fly
Such a beautiful man. I wanted the most normal portrait ever of this proper eccentric and I got just what I came for. He is so lovely too. I then wanted to wrap him in a sheepskin and carry him somewhere warm and show him off to all my friends, like an ewok. Connan is the loveliest.
Joey Bada$$ for The Fly cover, November Issue
That's a strong cover huh. Well worth the wait, those hours spent outside the 100 Club's back door at the end of October for 90 seconds with the man himself, before he got bored and wandered off. Fuck it though, right? I mean, I got the shots and made this shit hole look like a lavish studio. In your face, world.
Yuck
Really wanted to get 4 faces of a band into a portrait frame without having to shout 'bundle!' or 'pile on!' or ask them repeatedly to 'get in a bit, like you're friends, that's it, *raises camera* actually, a bit more, sorry' merely to ensure your picture then looks exactly the same as everyone else's. Yuck are great and Jonny Rogoff (middle) is very much the focus so you know, this all made great sense to me. And you, loyal reader, I hope.
Haim for The Fly cover, October issue
So this was the cover. Hard light shooting is just such a fad that won't go away will it? I'm almost disappointed that I lit this in such an annoyingly popular way but they looked great and it worked well. Sometimes, why resist? It seems like now EVERYONE shoots like this the backlash will head back to softness and beauty so it won't be long til loveliness can resume. Phew.
Haim for The Fly
Actually shot this for The Fly's Haim cover but they preferred the hard light on white version. 'Fine!' I said, and stroppily turned and stomped out of their offices. That's why I always shoot two versions of everything because you never know what folks will like and what they won't. It's just bonkers.
MGMT for The Fly
They do live in a cosmic, dreamy space really, don't they? So you know, I thought this made sense. I shot the sky in Lesotho of all places, MGMT in a hotel somewhere. Hey - don't judge me. Sometimes the media lies.
Vidic, Man Utd skipper for PUMA
His fans sing nice things about what he will do to you if you're on the opposing team, but he showed absolutley no signs of wanting to harm me in any way at all during our highly successful shoot with him in Manchester for Puma. He looks great, shoots great, plays great. Perfect.
Aguero for Puma in Sport Magazine
More fun times for Puma, the cat looking strong on 300K copies handed out in London last Friday.
Alex Turner, cool guy.
How could you fail? Just look at the guy. He's doing all the work here, I just point the thing.
Me vs Pocket Lint at V2013
Me and Rik had a kind of, not really, photo-off at V this year. Read his feature here, if you're ever wondering what it's like in the pit.
Arctic Monkeys make The Fly, September Issue
Great mag this month. I can well understand why the regular reader of this blog may grow a tad weary of my constant enthusiasm for my own work with The Fly magazine. If that is the case, I of course apologise - though it does beg the question - what you doin' back here huh? Anyway, no time for that, because it's the Arctic Monkeys! They came into Ermine Works the Monday after their Glastonbury weekend success and couldn't have been cooler, they knew the deal well, we cracked on and in no time at all I knew we had a great cover. I wanted a classic look, even shadow-less lighting so we could have a clear idea of who they were and what they looked like in 2013. A punchy process (light soft, process hard) and lo, a super clean portrait of a Great British band. Thanks fellas.
Josh Homme, Queens Of The Stone Age
I would sell my soul to be in a room with this guy and Dave Grohl. It would be incredible. I've never come across a vibesman like Josh, the very embodiment of the old school, traditional, proper rock front man, since meeting Dave Grohl and he's obviously pretty unique himself. Travelling to Portugal to SuperBock SuperRock to shoot portraits and live shots for The Fly magazine was made increasingly challenging due to Vuelling (not recommended, chaps) losing all my stands and diffusion on the way OUT - something I have to tell you we weren't really able to recover from. The travel time meant me and Dan Ross had to race across the city to hire some less than ideal kit, then the hotel room/location was no good, then blah blah blah. The cover looks cool but wasn't the full power band shot I really sought unfortunately. However, the gig was incredible, band were mighty, crowd were killer AND we had a police escort. Huh.