Remembrance

On Sunday 13th November I went to the Remembrance Sunday event on Victoria Park. It was a very moving occasion and I felt honoured to be in the presence of people who had done so much in service. As last year I took some very good pictures of the younger people there who were attached to the Air Cadets and the TA. It was good to see the young Asian boy in his Cadets blue turban who I photographed last year. After the ceremony I came home and made my customary slideshow for YouTube and other channels paying great attention to the music. Watching previous Remembrance Day videos I became aware of a poem called “In Flanders Fields” by Major John McCrae 1872-1918 who fought at Ypres in the First World War. I found a choirs’ interpretation of the poem and knew that it would be the best choice to accompany the pictures. The comments form those who have seen the slideshow suggest that the choice of music was correct. Below is a link to the slideshow as featured on the Leicester Mercury’s website.

http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/Thousands-Leicestershire-stand-silent-salute/story-13844260-detail/story.html

Oxjam & The Japanese Incident

I recently shot a day of music and gaiety in support of Oxfam called Oxjam which took place in Leicester’s Cultural Quarter. I suspect that the CQ is cursed as even with the amount of things happening the place never really came alive until the usual weekend revelers entered the area. I really enjoyed shooting the young performers at the Phoenix Arts Complex and even got a large group of artists and their friends to all face the camera at the same time. The most odd event of the day involved myself and one of the many Japanese female volunteers. Now, having lived in Clarendon Park for far too long I’m in the habit of kissing women on the cheek as soon as I know their names which I naturally attempted after a long chat and goodbye with said volunteer. Oh dear, I really should have studied the book “Japanese Females Do Not Appreciate Being Kissed By Strangers” because she was less than enthusiastic. It’s not that she screamed in horror or pushed an index finger in my eye but rather the way her head disappeared into her shoulders resulting in my my lips pressing against a mound of hair. Within 2 milliseconds I was aware of my faux pas and withdrew my guilty lips to see  the face of a woman whose life just ended in a bar in Leicester. From the goodness of her Japanese heart she had agreed to sit at the door of Manhattan 34 and check wristbands. No one told her about the risk posed by photographers and their wandering lips, this was not part of any risk assessment.

After this shameful incident I was a little shaken and feared that the lady might have been granted compassionate leave and would be soon be at home being consoled by friends and family. I really hoped that she wouldn’t be  abandoned by the folks back home and be condemned to a life in Leicester burdened by “that” incident. Like a true professional I carried on shooting and got some very good pictures of those Paul Weller admirers called The Moderators who kicked up a storm in the Curve Theatre. I was tempted to attend the post event party but it had been a long day and dancing to 60′s garage rock at the Basement seemed a lot less fun than Match of the Day and a cup of Earl Grey!

日本の女の子は最高です

Progress

Much normal life to contend with but the camera came out occasionally. I say “the” camera to mean my friend Angel’s Canon 5D which I have borrowed a great deal as my Nikon was being repaired. Angel has been wonderfully understanding during this time and I would have lost much work without him. I shot a simple evening function in the city and then found that the organiser became rather elusive as I attempted to collect payment. I eventually found him hiding behind a post box. The biggest recent job was a community calendar featuring Clerics, DJ’s, Sportspeople and folk from different Caribbean Islands. I maintained my calm despite being upset by some incredibly rude people. Last weekend I shot some of the Leicester Marathon and was amazed to see such effort, often for good causes. I am planning to run some classes quite soon and hope to find a large  group of retired folk beating the door down.

Leicester Fringe & The Molestation of Paths

Great Imitation @ The Donkey

Benjamin Where Art Thou?

Well, the “Nude” exhibition is over and the consensus seems to be that the non-central location of the gallery was not ideal. People had to make quite an effort to get there and sales were low as a result. In the same week I entered a photograph in the Taylor Wessing Photography Prize at the National Portrait Gallery. The artist Jane Domingos had seen the image on my Flickr site and suggested that I put it forward. It’s a photograph of a Sikh boy in his Air Cadets uniform at a Remembrance Day ceremony which I thought was quite good but did nothing with it. If I get selected then Jane can expect something nice in the post!

I’ve recently shot a wedding for a good friend and had a whale of a time. The Bride Sarah had an issue with always closing her eyes when photographed so as I was not keen to cut & paste hundreds of eyes with Photoshop I devised a system whereby I asked Sarah to close her eyes and then open them when I asked her to. I then fired the camera and got a perfect shot. As my main camera is being repaired I had to borrow cameras from my friends Angel & Jenny who really saved the day.

One of the wedding pictures was featured in the Leicester Mercury which was very nice as was VisitBritain and The Monograph featuring my pictures. My last shoot was for Leicester Carnival where I captured members of Braunstone’s ER Crew who seemed to have forgotten something! Next adventure will be the Leicester Fringe Festival so let’s hope my camera is back by then…

Link to Monograph Website Link to VisitBritain Website

Harley Staples

Jamie & Katherine Staples

Whilst looking around the De Montfort University Degree Show I met ceramic artist Katherine Staples who spoke about her work and ambitions. We exchanged cards and I invited her to the preview of the “Nude” exhibition. Some weeks later I met Katherine and a large group of family and friends in a local music pub that I was taking pictures for. This is when she spoke about losing her son Harley to cancer and the creation of the Harley Staples Cancer Trust which led to the GlastonBlaby Music Festival. The festival was to feature bands such as Charlie & The Martyrs, The Screening and Those Night Terrors.

Despite being contracted to cover a City Council event on the same day as the festival I was determined to get there and so with the help of Google maps I planned a way to get from A-B damned quickly. After two dry runs and getting completely lost I finally figured out how to do it. I got to the the festival at 2.30 and shot away, capturing some great moments onstage and amongst the crowd, organisers and volunteers.

The day was a great success and as predicted Harley kept the rain away until the event had finished and then came the monsoon. So good to meet a nice bunch of people and to be of some assistance in their great efforts.

Harley Staples Cancer Trust

The Naked Truth

I am now a “Leicestershire Artist Laid Bare”. My name has been mentioned in the esteemed Leicester Mercury for all to see so a return to civilian life is now impossible. Ordinary people are asking me – “Is it really you? I didn’t recognise you with your clothes on…”

The preview night was a great success and at least 25 of my friends turned up to admire the work on show and quaff as much wine as possible. The night had a quirky start when having taken a picture of people looking at a painting, a fellow artist informed me that there may have been a child in the picture and that I should be cautious. I wanted to respond and hopefully use the phrase, “Tabloid created paedophile around every corner hysteria designed to sell papers to people thankful for the slaying of monsters…” but I didn’t. I did, however meet some really cool people including the artist Jane Domingos whose painting is included in the Royal Academy’s summer exhibition. My two images seemed to be liked by most people but some of my friends who are not great art lovers were more interested in how I kept my balance on a rather small chair. More photographs were taken of the gathering before plans were hatched to retire to Leicester’s third best public house where the night disappeared in a blur of red wine and peanuts.

Images of preview night…

Catching Cricket Fever

Saturday April 2nd was ICC Cricket World Cup Final day and India were playing Sri Lanka. Despite being busy with home renovations and needing to pay my seemingly daily visit Wickes I was determined to get to to Belgrave Road in Leicester where a large Indian community reside. Having had enough of shredding my fingers on “easy assembly” kitchen units I drove to the area in the knowledge that India were very close to victory and that the party was about to begin. Armed with my trusty Nikon 70-210 I photographed people overcome with a mixture of joy and relief , the latter because their cricketing deity, Sachin Tendulkar played poorly in the final but others fought admirably. It was interesting to observe and photograph groups of middle aged women celebrating together conspicuously apart from the men. I have to admit to feeling a little anxiety about being a black photographer at such an Indian occasion but apart from a few pointed enquiries most people were too happy to care. At one stage a man from one of the many food shops came out and offered me something that looked like a spiral of orange coloured batter. “When in Rome” was my cry as I dispatched it with a minimum of fuss. As with all such events groups of well oiled young men would grab me by the arm and demand that I take a photograph of them without a care about what I might do with the picture or how they might ever get to see it. I know that some photographers pretend to take pictures when “the lads” approach but I am far too correct to do that. One regret on the day was not climbing onto a traffic light to get a better shot of the scale of the crowds, but I probably went into heath and safety mode and feared falling and impaling myself on a lens of some description. As darkness fell I met a friend who had lost members of her family in the melee but insisted on a photograph before continuing the search – her Father was found later waving an Indian flag from a traffic light incidentally. It was now time to bag all of my equipment and make my way home to the sound of tooting car horns and much Indian merrymaking.

The Roadshow Goes To Loughborough College

Sometime last year I photographed the “Lose Your Cool” music weekender at a venue called Firebug, during which I met a photography tutor called Liz. When the photographs appeared on Facebook Liz contacted me and asked me if I’d like to talk to her students about my work which I duly agreed to do and so today I spent a very enjoyable couple of hours talking photography with Art & Design students at Loughborough College.

I was keen to talk about iconic music photography but was concerned that mentions of The Clash and The Jam might lead to a room of glazed expressions but thankfully the images by Pennie Smith spoke for themselves. One student even mentioned “A Town Called Malice” so I was not an irrelevant old fogey and all was well with the world. The students had just done a project on location photography so I was primarily there to speak about the sort of equipment needed and the preparation involved. One student was kind enough to come to the front and show some of her images and explain her shooting methods and I must say that her wedding images were superb. Not many of the 30 or so students were seeking careers in photography but hopefully my comments about making contacts, self promotion and confidence were generally useful. I also spoke about the competitive nature of photography and the difficulty of making a good living from it whilst at the same time stating that if their work is good and they have the will to succeed then anything is possible. After the talk I spoke to a few students who had stayed behind and was shown some of their excellent photography, graphic design and animation work before firing up the Golf, hitting the A6 going home to the sound of “London Calling” by The Clash.

West Indian Journey – Wilmott Davis

Last year I went to the place of my parents birth St. Kitts, West Indies. I found my mothers old school and in the church she used to attend I met an old man who knew her as a child. Wilmott Davis came to England in the 1960′s and lived in the West Midlands. He went back to St. Kitts in the 90′s having had enough of the cold weather. After a visit to the Brimstone Hill Fortress I went to the home of my poorly Auntie Sylvannie who lived in a small pink house on Main Street. We discussed the failings of my father (her brother) and all was well with the world. I hoped to feel a strong connection with St. Kitts something akin to “going home” but the reality was that I was an outsider whose speech, dress and even walk marked me apart. Over the days I may have tried to walk in a more “Caribbean” way but probably looked like I was awaiting a hip replacement. In conversations with locals I tried speaking in patois but the looks of confusion on their faces prompted me to stop. I was told by the hotel owner about a certain local resentment towards people with St. Kitts connections who came for a visit “with all their money”. There was much poverty in St. Kitts and people had very creative ways to get money from you. This was not the “beautiful escape” described by my mother but an Island unsure of what to do with itself now that the sugar industry has closed down. There was no real embracing of tourism as found in other parts of the Caribbean which made things a little difficult at times but I’m glad to have walked the dusty paths that my mother did.