Laurie Anderson for MOJO
It finally happened.
Sorry for being the worst blogger.
David Gilmour and Polly Samson for MOJO Magazine
Pretty much as good an opportunity as one could ever hope for I would say. Driving to a legend's home to shoot portraits, with just about enough time to make a good job of it. The weather held off, we sprang into action with swift set ups in a tight selection of different spots and the imagery was used big in the mag. A privilege.
Chance To See: On/Off Prints
It's still going! The lovely and generous souls of Gibson Guitars kindly offered up their windows for 2 whole months for me to display a selection of prints from my War Child On/Off project. Please go have a look - you can buy them here if you'd care to and support the powerful work of War Child with a mere click of your mouse. Artists include: Muse, MIA, Arctic Monkeys, Take That, Flying Lotus, Paul Weller, Prodigy, Rudimental... The Gibson Guitar Studio is at 61–62 Eastcastle Street, London, W1T 2AA, just north of Oxford Street. THANK YOU.
Dave Eggers is my hero. Seriously.
I really really admire this person. So much so that I got embarrassingly starstruck and did a LOT of staring at him, which I hope wasn't too noticeable (or cringey). If you don't know Dave Eggers, my favourite works of his are The Circle and Zeitoun plus the whole McSweeney's thing too is a wonder BUT he also came up with the idea for The Ministry of Stories and now they're dotted around the world giving kids the chance to invest more time in their creative writing skills, after school and behind a themed shopfront. It's beautiful and brilliant and so worthwhile. Here sits THE LEGEND with Nick Hornby and Paddy Doyle, being interviewed at Second Home last week by three Junior Minister writers aged ten or so. Everyone laughed a lot including me, though I doubt everyone filled up 3 times and nearly cried. It's cos I'm a parent I'm sure but honestly, if anything was going to set me off it was this.
Alesha Dixon is astonishing.
Portrait for BGT. Over in a flash and ever shot a winner. Work is easy.
Sam Sure
Personal work - all important you know. Loved meeting Sam. He's got a great sound and a great look too. With those sharp cheekbones he's an obvious choice for some Tom love so crank that gridded softlighter and let's shoot some portraits eh?
Cesc Fabregas for PUMA
The coolest gentleman on the park, we love Cesc over here at Tom Towers. Here featuring the PUMA Evospeed SL, for Q3 launch.
Mario Balotelli for PUMA
Mighty Mario for PUMA, in Liverpool. OK, he was a little bit late but it was well worth it and man can this fella whip a ball.
Sergio Aguero for PUMA
Nice punchy aesthetic for the Q3 launch with the Argentinian goal king, Mr. Sergio Aguero for PUMA. Movement frozen with Broncolor Move of course, what else you gonna use on location huh? Challenging as these fellas travel quick and we needed to capture the apparel in flight, plus we had to shoot in all the conditions, day and night and rain and shine. And freezing cold, in Manchester here. Brrrrrr. Great though, home of football and all that.
John Cooper Clarke for National Trust 3
Whoever said don't meet your heroes was wrong. Am always banging on about the privilege of my job but DAMN, sometimes this job floats up opportunities I still am so excited by. To spend the day at Ringstead Bay in Dorset, where I swam as a nipper, to shoot this most beautiful of talents was a nice call to get for someone like me. The portraits were for the National Trust, via Mischief PR, who have commissioned John to write a poem to help save and celebrate our wonderful coastline - More here. My friend described him as the Dad you wished you had. My Dad is great but I could happily accommodate more JCC in my life. Printed in the Independent and Express, and elsewhere online. Very nice indeed.
John Cooper Clarke for National Trust 2
John Cooper Clarke for National Trust 1
James Kingston for EE
This was just bloody magnificent. A press and PR shoot for EE of James Kingston, freerunner and generally fearless danger monkey launching a 4G streaming camera. 3 months of planning, 60 people in production and then me, up in a helicopter, leaning out and shooting this. Good, right? We tethered to a laptop and WeTransferred the RAW files from the air via EE's 4G dongle to an editor below in Wembley Stadium. Insanely quick and enabling the pictures to splash, big. Made every national print version the next day and everyone involved got a pat on the back. Solid work chaps.
Everyone needs The Ministry Of Stories
I got involved because I truly admire the work of writer Dave Eggers and he inspires me to achieve bigger and better. He started this in America like Nick Hornby did in the UK and you could help too if you'd care to by clicking here and acting. They optimise the creative writing talents of local kids (junior ministers) around Hoxton Street and I sometimes am lucky enough to go and shoot their activities. It's wonderful, honestly, and really good fun. Go ahead punk.
Gilbert and George for Time Out NY
Captured here in their studio in Spitalfields. An honour and privilege, like you would imagine. This was a call I didn't know I was waiting for. But when it came, from the angels at Time Out New York, it was quite a moment. Shooting portraits for a living is a wonderful thing as it is, and when you get asked to go to the home of a truly great British artist, with a free brief, and it goes swimmingly because we spend just the right amount of time doing three really quick set-ups, you realise that all of this work is properly worth it and mornings like this are the pay off. Huge thanks to Brian Whar for accompanying.