More self-initiated project work - it's vital these days really isn't it? This one, shot on June 20th, The Longest Day - A Portrait of East London, really brought me to my knees. We shot from midnight to midnight, from Dalston to Shoreditch to Smithfields to Walthamstow, Bethnal Green and Victoria Park, a portrait every hour for 24 hours. It was proper graft but well worth it. Great to work on my own practice and demand better pictures of myself despite tiredness and sometimes having nothing planned. We're printing a newspaper with Newspaper Club for distribution Friday 24th June at Hoxton, Shoreditch and Old St stations from 8am. You gotta put yourself out there huh, else how will you ever know?
Gilbert and George for The Longest Day
The Longest Day - A Portrait Of East London
Alexander Ebero for Hasselblad H6D launch
A killer shoot, brilliant talent, loads of quick thinking and an exceptional team made for a truly memorable shoot. The kit works - it will change medium format as the price is so competitive, trade-ins are super-generous, the quality and optics are off-the-scale, the new developments (flash sync at 2000th!, USB-C, dual ports, touch screen) will truly make this an entirely new chapter for Hasselblad and I am really proud to be a small part of it. Plus they are really, really cool people who have treated me and my pictures really wonderfully throughout this experience.
The incredible Amanda Franden for Hasselblad
I'm an ambassador for Hasselblad H6D
Well I can tell you that while it's incredibly exciting to get the call asking if you'd like to shoot a project for the launch of the new H6D - the brand new platform for an incredible new array of features and flourishes from Hasselblad - one quickly feels the pressure of imminently being judged by everyone who looks to this industry titan for the quality of its output. I've enjoyed some great fun shooting Crossfit recently and with an open brief to supply a series of images shot on location in Sweden, we pushed ahead with these two powerhouse athletes performing a range of activities to properly test this new kit - hard. And it went great.
Courtney Barnett for MOJO
Click on the images above for a slideshow, why don't you. Sooooooo this was a good one, as it turned out. A few ideas were batted about (well, back at us) and in the end we went with the classic 'pose up in the venue' style, as well as the studio-lit set ups on the main venue floor at the Forum, after soundcheck. Courtney sold out two nights at the venue in North London so it's truly happening for her and MOJO celebrated this with a really tasty 4 page feature in this month's issue, out now. Looks great, as do the portraits (Hasselblad) and the lighting (Broncolor), the process (IMGN) and the ideas (ahem, me). We like to do things properly here.
Liberia for Riders For Health - Slideshow
Leon Bridges for Time Out New York
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.