new website launched

between work, travel, a frozen shoulder and trips to the physio I haven’t done much to update the blog recently, but….

Here’s the new website

Hope you like it…..

Kate Tempest

“I thought poets were people who stood on stage wearing berets” said poet and rapper Kate Tempest in the live recording of her new spoken word album last week at Battersea Arts Centre
I first met Kate a few years ago when I bought her Cannibal Kids demo CD after watching her perform live onstage at Camp Bestival
The raw, lyrical beauty and brutality of her words haunted me with images that crowded my head

“These cannibal kids want to be kings
But there ain’t no royalty left
Because, round here, the sirens and screams float on the wind
And even the street shudders
Yes even the street shudders
Round here
These cannibal kids want to be kings
They don’t know that kindness is courage
Or that sympathy sings much louder than violence
They are bitter and drained
Eyes of ice stare from figures of flames
They, puff-chested, restless, nameless
They carry their pain to the point of being painless… ”

Since then I’ve been a diehard fan and last Thursday, as she prepared for her live performance, I got time with her on her lunchtime fag break to shoot this portrait for Flamingo Magazine

I’m not sure who created the mural on the wall but its faded beauty and pervading sense of ‘dreams in decay’ provided the perfect backdrop for such a raw, passionate and contemporary poet as the uniquely talented Renegade Kate Tempest

Dreams, Reality and Everything In Between

It’s a dilemma I often come across in my creative life.
When you meet someone who shows raw talent is it right for you to help them try to fulfill their ‘dreams’.
Because the reality is that talent isn’t anywhere near enough to ‘succeed’ and that can be a bitter pill to swallow.
Also how do you even begin to define success???
Is it just being good at what you do??? Trying to be as true and original as you can be whilst pushing the boundaries of your creativity or does it rely on making good money out of your craft???
Maybe it’s easy for me to say but I don’t think ‘success’ lies in the monetary value of your work but in the sense of personal satisfaction you get from producing it.
I don’t want to raise false hope. It’s a tough, ruthless industry and there’s no yellow brick road to fame and fortune.
A lot of the time it’s waves of rejection and disappointment before you ever get a ride of any kind and even then you never know how long the ride will last before it dumps you back out at sea – just trying to stay afloat.
I’m endlessly optimistic, passionate and upbeat – both for my own ambitions and also for those aspiring talents I come across, but I sometimes I question the journey we take in pursuit of our dreams.
Not so much for myself as the path I might set others on when the reality is that their dreams are better left undisturbed.

Help For Heroes

Just got back from a fantastic 2 day photographic workshop I was invited to give at Tedworth House in Wiltshire.
Tedworth House is a Personnel Recovery & Assessment Centre for wounded, sick and injured Servicemen and Women run by the world renowned charity organisation – Help for Heroes.
Help for Heroes is exactly that and aims to provide as many facilities as possible to support the recovery process in helping those who have served their country adjust to their injuries and deal with the emotional, physical and mental realities of a new life.
As someone who believes that anyone with an interest in photography can become a photographer it is always a privilege to be able to pass on the knowledge, experience and passion that I have in the hope that it might inspire others.
What was inspiring for me were the characters that I met throughout my stay.
From the injured ex-Paratrooper who loved wide open landscapes and wrote the most astonishing poetry to the quiet guy who said very little and then stunned me and the rest of the group with the raw, natural talent that was literally just bursting out of him to express itself in original photographic images.

Troy, Richard, Mike, Sam, Roli and Alex – I salute you all and thanks for sharing your weekend with me.

Thanks also to Hardy Haase at Flaghead Photographic for generous loan of Quantum Flash and Hedler Lighting Equipment