Noise Magazine contacted me and said ‘Would you like to do a shoot for us?” I hadn’t heard of the magazine before and the editor sent me a copy and the print quality looked great. This is something that is really important to me as it really makes a huge difference. I liked the magazine so I thought I’d like to work with them as they seemed like an imaginative title. I don’t know if they still exist but I really enjoyed working for them.
I decided it would be a great to get a good team together on this creative shoot. I called my friend Steven Carey (the hairdresser) as we had just been working together and with the wonderful make up artist Gary Cockerill and stylist Bernard Connolly. Steven agreed it would be wonderful if we all worked together again. l called everyone else and told them I had also found the most stunning Eurasian model who had a striking look. She was great to work with and had incredible body confidence. I wish I could remember her name, but I can’t as I’m terrible with names which is embarassing.
I decided it would be fun to shoot in my garden as it was looking particularly good and I had some interesting lighting ideas. I decided to back light all the foliage in the garden so I could capture the the translucence quality of leaves and branches, which gave everything a more mystical look. Like the moon through the trees or a sunset through a forest. I also used various gels (blue and red etc.) over the lights to give it that surrealistic feeling.
It was a gloomy overcast afternoon into evening, which was great for me.I positioned my flash lights throughout the garden and synced them together. This was difficult but after a lot of fiddling with the sensors, everything synced for each image. Gary came to the shoot with his box of magical tricks, fantastic eyelashes and colours. Steven arrived with extraordinary hair pieces and Bernard arrived with a great assortment of really cool clothes that fitted the atmosphere I was endeavouring to create. I was so delighted with the way everyone worked together and the model herself was a joy and a poem to work with.
At the end of the shoot we all drank some bubbly, (Pellegrino mineral water for me) and Prosseco under a full moon in the mystical garden for everyone else. We all sat together enjoying the feeling one gets from a creative day. Everyone telling everyone else they were fab, which they did. Thanks guys you are all brilliant.
