Beginnings

The week begins on a Saturday sometimes. It was time for Club Cool vs Ligers & Dreams at Resistance Gallery; Guns 2 Roses were headlining, apparently the world's best Guns'N'Roses tribute band, or so some folks said.



The club is part of a growing scene coming out of Hackney Wick, combining dubstep and punk and the sort of cheaply-home-made-yet-highly-fashionable ethos of that part of town. It usually gets very busy and more than a bit messy. The first bands on were Molloy and then Tictac.




Then The Coolness came on. It's their club night. Their frontman, Chaz, is a nice enough fellow, and seems to have found a golden touch when it comes to promoting his events.




Clubs like this, they have started to feel like work, but not in a bad way. Rather, I go there looking for pictures. Still, it's nice to get to know the people who put on these nights, they tend to be quite dynamic people. Also, because Resistance is run by the Lucha Britannia manager, a lot of the Lucha crowd show up; it feels like our club. Here's Garry, head of Lucha (on the right) talking to Keith, and underneath my good friend Tammy, one of the Medical Bitches.




Guns 2 Roses had all sorts of technical problems. I have no idea why but it seems like the bigger bands, more used to touring, are far more likely to have technical trouble than bands which only play once a month. Regardless of the quality of the band, it was great to hear the tunes played live in a small club.





Obviously the crowd enjoyed it.




Afterwards there was a secret set by Yo Majesty, by which time the club had emptied a bit, but it was nonetheless rowdy in the extreme thanks to Mike and Jan from Dead Kids going balistic at the front of the audience.



Afterwards everyone was all smiles; they headed off to the afterparty, I went home to bed. I must be getting old.




Monday was a busy day; first of all my first cut-out shoot for a new client: Tesco. While cut-out photography is hardly as instantly exciting as shooting performance, as artistic as shooting fashion or as likely to get you meeting interesting people as portraiture, there is a sort-of striving for perfection that is satisfying in itself. Every time I find a new sort of photography to do, I become consumed with the learning process; whether it's shooting in a new venue, or just a completely new form, I enjoy the challenge of figuring out how to do it best, even if that means squinting at packets of cosmetics in my bathroom at two in the morning. Monday also had another first: a test shoot for a girl I saw at Dice Club, who I hope to be able to find a modelling agency. I was pretty happy with the results, and got to work with some good new stylists.





Tuesday I got an email from one of our writers at lecool, asking if I'd like to shoot for one of the other sites he works for, Slutty Fringe. I said yes; although there was no offer of money, he's usually involved with interesting projects, and interesting projects, as well as having a certain value of their own, also tend to lead to other things to do, as well as raising your profile. As it happened, he immediately put me in touch with the people at Cargo, one of the larger, older Shoreditch venues. They asked if I could come along the next day to take some shots of some bands they had playing, offering money, free entry for me and my friends, and any drinks I wanted. I asked for soft drinks, he gave me beer and whiskey vouchers, which I handed out to people in return for taking their picture. Mostly though I was there for the band; I'd been asked to get shots for use in Mixmag. I think I did alright.







My final photos of the week come from tonight, which started with a trip to my old housemate's new studio on Hackney Road. He's a video artist called Mo Stoebe and one of the nicest people I've lived with. We played table tennis.






Then it was time to go back to the Gallery for Salon of Kinbaku, and Jon Blake's birthday party. People sometimes ask me if I'm involved in the scenes I shoot much. While it's true that I have friends who are heavily involved in several specialised scenes, I approach them in much the same way I approach the wrestling I shoot - the strong sense aesthetic makes for a great subject to shoot, the people who become obsessed with it are interesting, but I'd never want to get in the ring, if you can pardon a slightly crude pun.






All in all, a fairly busy week. Working a lot is best if the work is varied. The next week could also be busy; Cargo have asked me to go and shoot some more things for them, and Slutty Fringe want me to cover four events over the next two weeks, starting tomorrow. I also need to find an interview for this weeks lecool, do a couple of flower shots and maybe a beauty shoot also, as well as a ton of administration to get through. We shall see.

Hello

Hello. I've decided to start a blog to show the different places and people that I photograph. I thought a blog would be a good way to do it, as it offers room for commentary and can also link back to the aforementioned people and places. In theory, I'd like to post every Friday with that weeks work; in practice, I suspect it will be more sporadic than that.

So, with no further delay..

Last Saturday was a busy day. It started with a visit to the Resistance Gallery where a 3 day festival, Iconography Of The Mask was taking place. I'm resident photography at the Gallery, and the festival included the showing of a few of my photographs. Resistance Gallery is run by the lovely folks behind Lucha Britannia, and that's where my photographs came into the equation. They had colour prints, but I generally prefer my monochrome wrestling shots. It was nice to have a little exhibition.



By early afternoon it was time to run off to Field Day festival. It's my 3rd festival this year; I'm planning on Offset and then I'm done. Here's Tom; Field Day is his festival.



Aw look at him there. I think he said the baby is only a few weeks old; imagine the birthday parties that kid'll have when it's older.

Field Day was alright; it rained a lot, and it seemed like most folks I knew were hiding in the press area. In the photo pits, there was a nice atmosphere. It's nice to recognise a few faces from other events. The security were very nice as well; after some of the ridiculous cunts that were at Download, and the misery of the 1234 administration, having one of the mosh security guys hunt around for five minutes among his colleagues to find me a disposable rain poncho was excellent. Anyone who's worked on a festival knows the last thing you want when you've just finished work is a jobsworth telling you you're not allowed to squeeze through the gap in the fence between where you are and where you need to be five minutes ago. Here's Little Boots.





I don't really listen to a lot of music any more; it's fair to say I couldn't name a Little Boots tune or album or name without the aid of mighty google. I thought she put on a good show though; odd as it might sound, you don't really get to listen to the music when you're shooting, but you get caught up with the atmosphere of it. It seemed to me like, there's a shy girl there on stage, who's been told to dress a certain way to appeal to a certain crowd - and appealing she is - but for sure, she wants to be a pop star, wants to belt out the tunes.

Here's a couple of Horrors on the back of a buggy.



Hi boys.

Santigold was delayed and the crowd weren't happy.




Then Santigold showed up.




And the crowd went wild. I didn't stick around for long; I wanted to catch 4 Tet.



He was alright; I think probably that sort of music is better suited to somewhere you can sit down. The back to the main stage, for the headline act, Mogwai, who I hadn't seen before. It was curious to see them live; it's music I fell for when I was on mushrooms years ago, and to go from that intimacy to standing in a field with a few thousand people.. well it's just not the same is it? They had a nice light show though.







So I stayed for a couple of tunes and then it was off to The Victoria in Mile End, where I'd been asked to take photos at the Cramps Fetish Night, one of the official Field Day afterparties but also a chance to see a band I'd loved as a teen, Empress Of Fur. Their tune Johnny Voodoo left an indelible mark on my idea of how music should be.



First up were a band with a name I forget, but it involved sausages.





Oh, by the way, that's lady wrestlers he's singing to. It was that sort of club. Who wants to see more lady wrestlers?






Then it was time for Empress Of Fur. They were excellent.







Then it was back to the Gallery for a little mask party action.






Then home to bed. Boy I needed it.

Sunday saw me shooting catalogue images for Miss Jacqueline White. She's a nice lady who is launching a range of funny t-shirts. Most of the shots on her website are mine. Go get a t-shirt! Afterwards it was time for A Rebours, a club night at Catch put on by Mr. Reece Prince Watson. I've been thrown out of Catch twice; I would say it's the most "standard" Shoreditch nightclub, after Hoxton Bar & Kitchen. It was fun; his birthday celebration as much as anything else, and it was nice to see people dancing and having fun.







Then home to bed, via the Joiners.

Also this week: a "Day In The Life Of" shoot for my friend Ike Robinson, to help promote his new band Park Lane Girls;










a studio shot of Fred Butler at work, for an inflight magazine;



a 3rd shot for my "Flowers" series, not yet fully processed;



and that was pretty much it. It was a busy weekend but the week has been a little more sedate; next up, Dice Club on Sunday, a shoot with Matt Berry in the week, and who knows what else .