Graham Coxon plays Concorde 2 in Brighton
On 23rd April 2012, Graham Coxon and his band played Brighton’s Concorde 2 on Madeira Drive.
Ex-Blur guitarist Graham Coxon plays Concorde2, Brighton on 23rd April 2012. Persons pictured: Graham Coxon. Picture by Julie Edwards
My images of Graham Coxon’s gig are available to license from PhotoShot: Graham Coxon plays Brighton
Snoop Dogg
By the time I manage to publish this (I am writing this on a plane, travelling to Dresden to discuss rectified photography and photogramatry software), Snoop will have played a number of gigs on his UK tour, a tour which kicked off in Brighton on Sunday 15th.
I last photographed Snoop about a year ago in London at the Shepards Bush Empire. That was a shoot that I enjoyed very much (great light) and I had images published widely. It’s fairly obvious that I would be keen to photograph him again.
It was only a couple of hours before the stage time that I was actually notified I was “in” and I had to rush to make it in time to shoot the support act “Maverick Sabre”; an up and coming act that’s getting a lot of mentions on radio at the moment.
Maverick Sabre plays the Brighton Dome
When it came to Snoop we were not disappointed; although it is not my kind of music, the gig did “bounce” and I did come away with a number of nice images (well I think they are).
Here he makes his entrance (it’s my favourite shot although not one I think will publish very well)
Snoop Dogg plays the Brighton Dome
Snoop Dogg plays the Brighton Dome
More when I get back from Dresden…..
The Great Escape
For those not involved with the music industry, it is indeed a “Great Escape”, a chance to spend 3 days in the diverse city of Brighton on the south coast listening to many new bands playing every style of music your can think of (and many you cannot).
The festival is spread out across the city in many venues which range from small dark rooms in pubs to bright street gigs and even The Dome. It’s this variation in location along with the fact that so many of the acts are just unknowns that make this event a difficult, challenging but enjoyable event to photograph.
It takes educated guesses and a lot of luck to make enough as a photographer here to even cover your costs. That said, if you do manage to photograph the next “Lady GaGa” or “Take That”, you could do very nicely. This year I spent even more time talking to others and researching to choose my “hit list”, even then, time table changes and cancellations changed the bands that I photographed on the final day. So who and what? Over the 3 days I shot almost 30 bands, below is cross section which should give you an idea of the different challenges faced by a music photographer:
FRANK TURNER plays the HMV Store, Brighton on 12th May
CLOUD CONTROL plays the Corn Exchange, Brighton
RACHEL SERMANNI plays the The Green Door Store
JAMES VINCENT McMORROW plays an outdoor gig on Brighton Seafront with the peir in the background
A "flash-dance" broke out at a street gig in Brighton's Jubilie Square in Brighton
Le Corps Mince de Françoise (LCMDF) plays The Corn Exchange, Brighton
Guillemots play the Komedia, Brighton
How will I do financially? Only time will tell all I will say is that a day after the festival I received a request for photographs of approx 8 bands, I had shot 3 of them….
Happy ending for suitcase puppies
It’s always nice to work on a happy story. The story behind todays job could have ended so differently.
RSPCA inspector Rachel Bell visited a house in Uckfield in August 2008 along with police officer Dave Price. An “unearthly wailing noise” was heard coming from the cupboard under the stairs. The RSPCA staff found two suitcases containing 15 puppies, some dead and some still alive. One contained four puppies, one of which was already dead. The other case contained 11 puppies, four of which had died. In total, 25 dogs and a cat were seized from the property after they were found in squalid and cramped conditions.
The collies and their owners
It was touch and go whether the puppies survived but as you can see here, they did and today for the first time in 2 years the mothers of the two litters, Beth and Flo; Patch, another adult dog and puppies Kizzy, Macca Pacca, Tonio, Dudie, Megan and Daisy attended were reunited together with Rachel Bell.
Rachel Bell with the collies
Whilst a couple of the collies were very shy it was amazing to see them remember the RSPCA staff that cared for them. It was a very happy and joyous event.
Rachel Bell and the collies
NB: The dog breeder who put the puppies in suitcases and kept the adult dogs in squalid and cramped conditions was banned from keeping animals for life in November 2009. She had faced nine charges of causing unnecessary suffering and neglect, and was also sentenced to 20 weeks in prison for each of the charges, with each term to run concurrently.
Marching from classical to rock
Friday, Saturday then Sunday, 3 days to demonstrate the wide range of my work;
First, Friday and a pleasant trip with my “mobile studio” to North London to visit Dimitri Kennaway; a pianist and composer. The aim was to produce a set of portraits for use on his new website and also his social media sites (Facebook etc). We started in the music room with Dimitri playing his own works and Rachmaninov whilst we chatted and I set up lighting, reflectors and started shooting.
Dimitri Kennaway
After we were happy we had finished in the Music Room, we moved into the garden where the afternoon light was lovely for some more informal shots.
Dimitri Kennaway
So from peaceful Rachmaninov in the music room to the noise and confusion that was the Anti-Cuts march on Saturday.
Between a quarter and a half a million marching through London is huge news. The problem was we all knew it would get hijacked and there would be violence and once there is this level of violence the media will be dominated by images of this over the peaceful rally. My plan was to stick totally with the peaceful rally which was sort of limiting my outlet before I start but I am not an expert on shooting violence and to be honest I did not really want to put myself or my camera in harms way.
I started off at the head of the rally at 11:30 for the start..
Brendan Barber at the head of the march
My usual plan is then to move with the rally, gradually dropping back but this was so long (I understand it took over four hours for the tail to cross the start line) that this was not really an option so I moved along to Whitehall (near Downing Street) and stayed there allowing the march to pass me always keeping an eye out for interesting banners and sights. In hindsight this was probably not the best place to stay but it did also fit in with my overall plan to file about 2pm before heading back out. Although the mood was very jovial and good natured, there were a couple of pockets where the mood changed distinctly and although all the police I dealt with on the day were good natured and helpful, there was always a hint of what was to come if you looked for it..
Police Riot helmets
I headed off about 1:30 to file my shots and just as the last one uploaded, I received a tweet that mentioned the HSBC bank had been attacked at Cambridge Circus; only 2 minutes walk from where I was. I hurried over to photograph the aftermath (being sure that that perpetrators would have moved on). What caught my eye was that only 3 or 4 minutes after the trouble had left, with the building still protected by Police in riot gear, a que had formed for the cash machine as though nothing had happened.
Cash Dispenser
As the march had now moved on I decided to call it a day. A selection of images for sale may be seen here..
Sunday and it was back to The Brighton Centre to photograph Elbow. This was one of the nicest gigs I have photographed in a while. The low central walkway brought Guy Garvey (the lead singer) out in to the audience giving us a chance for some nice shots…
Elbow / Guy Garvey
Whilst the lights made things interesting on stage…
Elbow / Guy Garvey
A selection of Elbow images may be seen here..
A more contrasting 3 days I do not think I have had…
Business and Pleasure
It’s an old adage that one should not mix business and pleasure but I’m not really sure it applies to photography.
On Saturday night I left my family at home (as I do many weekends) to photograph K T Tunstall (and support) at Brighton Dome.
The Pictish Trail
First the support (Johnny Lynch / The Pictish Trail; very entertaining ). Having shot a the first couple of songs I relaxed at the back of the venue with the other photographers discussing upcoming acts and commissions.
K T Tunstall
Next up was K T Tunstall. Her show seemed to have more of an “edge” than shows in the past (looking at photos going back I think thats true).
K T Tunstall
She sounded really great and I have to say it was another of the gigs where I would have really liked to stay longer. My only disappointment from the evening is I did not manage to get a good iPhone crowd shot. (I got an iPhone for christmas and since then I have been trying to take unusual quick views of the audience and pit at every gig).
Sunday evolved like most Sundays along the coast, (although I started with editing the night’s before shots); A nice breakfast followed by a walk along the front (in the feeble attempt to walk off the eggs, bacon etc). As aways one camera is over my shoulder as we walked down Worthing’s to “Splash Point” which has recently been re-developed.
Splash Point
I captured this image of children playing in the mist/fountain with a small rainbow; a nice joyful editorial stock shot.
So you see, my work life and private life totally overlap, for me business IS pleasure (and visa versa in fact). The key is commitment, enjoyment and balance…
Brighton Tattoo Convention
This weekend was the 4th Brighton Tattoo Convention held at the racecourse.
The convention opened at midday on the Saturday and due to other constraints I had to leave by 1:30 to file and move on to other things. It was clear once there though that by leaving so early I would miss so many attendees and shots.
Given the timescale and the layout of the convention (very tight spaces with high walled booths) I concentrated on the artists and the work they put in..
A tattooist concentrates whilst drawing a tattoo on a knee
Whilst most of the artists were using the needles and ink we associate with tattoos, in one hall there was an artist using traditional methods. Being set up in a boxing ring, it was very difficult to get a good angle to show what was happening (there was also lots of blood which I wanted to show but not too graphically).
Traditional methods of tattooing
Traditional methods of tattooing
Overall it was a very interesting event to cover and one I should have given more time..
Stephen Fry collects an honorary degree from the University of Sussex
No matter how many shoots I do I always feel a little bit of an edge or nerves just beforehand, I can never be sure how much time I will have, what the location/background will be, how cooperative the subject will be, or if a news shoot, how may other photographers (and hence how much input to the shoot).
I was warned upfront that todays shoot would probably be quite quick but in the end it all worked rather well with Stephen being very helpful. First was a nice neutral shot against a nice flint wall.
Chancellor Sanjeev Bhaskar with Stephen Fry
Its quite important with news items not only to get the subject but also to put them into context if possible. By switching location by 20 metres we were able to add a Brighton context to the shot.
Chancellor Sanjeev Bhaskar with Stephen Fry
Also, having Chancellor Sanjeev Bhaskar with Stephen helped us get nice relaxed shots. Finally I was took a more informal shot as Stephen entered the dome.
Stephen Fry
Overall it was a nice quick shoot with a nice set of results.
A Mixed Bag
Following my last post on a single event, this post is just a quick round up of the last week.
If we ignore my chasing the weather earlier in the week, started on Wednesday with a client meeting before meeting my brother for lunch at Trafalgar Square. As we were about to meet up he phoned me to ask where I was, “call yourself a photographer – you should be off covering this student demo in Whitehall”. So I left him and headed to Whitehall for about 45 minutes just to get a taste. At this stage the demo was peaceful and jovial with many off for a day out and smiling for the camera. I did not go down to Millbank where it was so obviously hijacked and turned violent.
Originally uploaded by Julie Edwards Uk
After lunch it was off to The Roundhouse to cover arrivals to “The Marshall Classic Rock Roll of Honour Awards”
Originally uploaded by Julie Edwards Uk
Thursday the weather worsened and I headed off to Brighton to get some “weather” images before photographing veterans at an “unofficial” remembrance service. Weather images are so hard to capture.. ideally very strong winds along with a blue sky are needed for something that would be published. Unfortunately in Brighton all we had was strong winds, driving rain and a horrible grey overcast sky. The only image I can away with is this…
Originally uploaded by Julie Edwards Uk
I spotted this group making their way onto this pier and so I run across the pebbles, trying to shield my camera from the wind and the rain as I swapped to my longer lens. It’s an ok shot but not up to many of the shots that I saw from elsewhere in the UK. I was disappointed to hear later in the day that a kite-surfer had jumped Brighton Pier in all that wind… (see here).. only disappointed as I missed it and that was one image that would have been published. First rule of photography, to get an image to have to be there…
Luckily the weather was a little calmer in Sunday for the official remembrance parade.
Originally uploaded by Julie Edwards Uk
Originally uploaded by Julie Edwards Uk
I ended the week with some music; Gorillaz at the O2. It’s been a while since I had shot some live music and as it was near the beginning of their world tour and I have not shot them before….
Originally uploaded by Julie Edwards Uk