Liverpool

Whilst up in Lancashire for a shoot yesterday I decided to make a quick detour to Liverpool. Although I was only there for a couple of hours and there wasn't much going on, the light was good.

Japan, October 2008

These are just some random photographs I took while shooting my Aida 間 project in Japan a couple of years ago.

Recent portrait: Gordon Campbell Gray

Gordon Campbell Gray, Chief Executive of Campbell Gray Hotels, photographed for EP Magazine at One Aldwych, London.

From a shoot at the London Aquarium . . .

Corporate portrait: Simon Jose

Simon Jose, General Manager and Senior Vice President, GlaxoSmithKline UK

   
I used some additional, off-camera lighting for the first time today: one 580EX II (diffused with a Gary Fong Lightsphere) was placed on the floor to the left of the interviewer.

Section 44, The DEB and the ICO code

Two images I took at the 'We Own The Streets' demonstration back in January 2008  

It's annoying to be labeled a "Paparazzi" for taking more than one picture of something with a camera any larger than an IXUS, but one can at least understand the thinking behind it. However, thanks to anti-terror legislation - namely Section 44 - more and more photographers are now finding themselves viewed as suspected terror threats, detained while at work and questioned in relation to so-called "hostile surveillance." I have now been questioned and/or prevented from taking photographs on three separate occasions in London.

For more information about Section 44, your rights and the gatherings protesting its implementation, have a look here:

I'm a Photographer, Not a Terrorist! 

On top of this, our Government is planning to effectively dismantle copyright law in relation to orphan works usage rights and ban non-consensual photography in public. This is obviously going to make it increasingly difficult (if not impossible) for photographers to both control their images online and work in public. 

For more information about the Digital Economy Bill and the The ICO code click here. This law has not yet gone through so there is still time to write to your MP and voice your opposition! 

Strangely, although we may soon be allowed to object to having our souls stolen by street photographers, we still can't seem to do anything about all the CCTV!

New negs

A couple of weeks ago I helped out my friend and fellow 'tog Greg Funnell on an editorial shoot. The brief was to photograph the section of the Metropolitan Police that provides security for the building site that will soon be the 2012 Olympic Park. I carried the lights.

Having run through the brief and loaded the van we were only a couple of minutes into our journey when the police vehicle in which we were traveling was diverted to attend an RTA.

The moped - on fire and wedged beneath the truck's petrol tank - had crashed while overtaking, throwing its rider into the middle of a junction where he lay with what appeared to be a broken leg.

I took these on my M6 and have kept them fairly small for the sake of the injured man.

While on the Olympic site itself I couldn't help but think of Stephen Gill's work, especially his book Archeology in Reverse, which documented the Olympic Park site before the building work got underway.

The last shot shows the frame of the Aquatic Centre.

Old negs

I was going through some old negatives today and found these images of Larry Towell and David Alan Harvey, taken at the Magnum AGM in 2003. David Alan Harvey is using a Leica digital something-or-other belonging to my friend Ania Dabrowska.

Bookiwooks

A couple of faves . . .

I bought Tunnels by Andre Principe in 2005 after seeing his exhibition at the Centro Português de Fotografia in Porto. Back then I was in the early stages of editing what was to become my first photobook, Visions 1-26, and Tunnels became a significant influence.

I've been a big fan of Trent Parke ever since my internship at Magnum but only recently discovered this rare artists' book containing a (very) small selection of his Minutes to Midnight work. I've always been disappointed that Trent never saw fit to publish the entire project but apparently it had something to do with the high degree of exposure the work received through touring exhibitions. However, Stills Gallery told me recently that Steidl plan to publish three Trent Parke titles - one of which will be Minutes to Midnight. Images from the Minutes to Midnight road trip can be found here and there's a short film about it all here.

Soldbuch dummy

Here are a few images of my 'Soldbuch' dummy. The book documents the period of time in 2008/2009 when I located my Grandfather's war grave and then attempted to walk 600 miles from central France to northern Germany - the journey home he had not been able to make himself. The end pages are prints of flowers - collected near Lyon - that I crushed onto blotting paper.