Flaming Youth

FLAMING YOUTH – a book of photographs by Glendyn Irvin from Puberty Blues.
I’ve been following this mega talented image maker since I first saw Cracker Bag and thereafter the brilliant Playground so I was excited to share his latest project – in his own words & photographs and available here

I started documenting the making of the show from the start. Like visual notes the photographs became part of the process of discovery of how the series would look and feel. From casting and location scouting to scene ideas, documenting a colour or how the light looked at a certain time of day. What worked, what didn’t. The people, places and things that make up the texture and tone of Puberty Blues.

Most of the time the photos were taken in the moments just before ‘Action!’ was called. Or in-between ‘takes’ to maintain focus and momentum throughout the stop / start rhythm of shooting. That small amount of precious time just before the cameras roll. I would sometimes take a quick shot just as that moment of transformation would take place, from ‘actor’ to ‘character’.

Sometimes the photo would become the key on how to shoot a scene. A way of trying to find the essence, or a reduction to a single image. An attempt to find stillness in and amongst the chaos of a film shoot.

Faces of Addiction

Faces of Addiction by Chris Arnade is a personal photography project of such raw honesty and integrity that the portraits literally speak for themselves. The fact that Arnade is an ‘amateur’ only adds emphasis to my belief that great photographers are not pre-determined by their commercial markets so much as driven by their passion to produce arresting images no matter what
As Arnade says, these are “the stories of addicts in New York City – as they tell them to me. I am not a journalist,
I don’t verify, I just listen….Its very easy to ignore others. By not looking, by not talking to them, we can often fall into constructing our own narrative that affirms our limited world view. What I am hoping to do, by allowing my subjects to share their dreams and burdens and by photographing them with respect, is to show that everyone, regardless of their station in life, is as valid as anyone else”

Halloween 2012

The Actress Trailer 2012

It is the twilight of a grand old movie star’s life. Poor health and old age have robbed her of her glamour, her career and now -probably within hours – her life. The end is near. She arrives, surrounded by her parasitic entourage, at a cinema for a private showing of her greatest screen moments. Kicking the hangers-on out, she sits alone in the dark as the light of the projector illuminates the silver screen and her previous youth and beauty. In a daring escape from the inevitable, she enters the screen and is suddenly back in her movies – a star once more. She tumbles from genre to genre in scenes taking in the silent era, film noir, ’70s sci-fi sexploitation and ’90s sitcom land. It is a desperate attempt to outsmart and outrun the apparition of death itself, which pursues her through the scenes. Inevitable or not – this old movie diva isn’t going without a fight. This is the story of a shooting star who refuses to fade away or go gently into that good night.

Starring Sadie Frost, Perry Benson, Sally Phillips and Morgana Robinson.
Produced by Ben Charles Edwards/The Smalls.
Directed by Ben Charles Edwards.
Written by Al Joshua
Director of Photography John Hicks

The Actress (2012) Trailer from John Hicks on Vimeo.