Sunday 29 June 2008

light...camera...action. Or a sudden bursting into flame: a sudden outbreak of violence. anger etc.


Flare-up.

There is something indescribably wondrous and beautiful about sunlight in the 'golden hour'.
That special time when the sun is setting...
The orange and banana light takes my breath away every time.
My earliest memory has me sitting on the hot bonnet of the family car... cast in sunlight while on holiday with my parents.
Clad in shorts.
My legs dangling.
Reflecting on how fantastic the whole sensation felt...
This is truly a very happy memory.

Maybe it was a defining moment because I have based my whole life and career around the pursuit of light.
And the capturing of it.
And the manipulation of it.

I love the way that light deals with the lens. (both still and motion)
I love the way that light reveals the lens with flare.
Lens flare is as important to me as my orgasm.
Refracted light represents ecstasy in it's purest form.

"To burn with a glaring, unsteady light: to glitter, flash; to blaze up..."
"The angle of refraction: the angle of a refracted ray and the normal incident ray of light to the surface."

All rules were meant to be broken and one of my first instincts whilst studying the laws of photography was to shoot into the sun... this is a big no no in traditional formal circles.
Especially when lens flare ensues.
When the medium is exposed for what it is, it transcends itself and all else around it.
It's intrinsic meaning is altered.
Light is honesty.

Saturday 14 June 2008

....... ..... and the Jerks

So Teenage Jesus and the Jerks played the Knitting Factory in N.Y.C the other night.... (the legendary No Wave band that Lydia Lunch fronted way back in the late 70's) 2 shows for 1 night only and I wasn't there. I wasn't even remotely in the neighourhood, I was stuck in London, England in fact. I have had a long, long love affair with this band.... can't remember whether I first heard them on John Peel or while sprawling on the floor in a friends bedroom while vinyl was being spun in 1978. Thirty fucking years... I have dilligently carried this single around with me from flat to flat for thirty fucking years!, there is something slightly obscene about the passage of time but therin lies it's beauty.


I guess I'm slightly guilty of fetishising various possessions that I own and this is a prime example.. I'm not really down with band reunions though... in fact I'm extremely suspicious to say the least... but when friday (the 13th) came around I found myself pining for another taste of Lydia Lunch. I've had various encounters with her over the years in both a professional and social capacity... (we have mutual friends and I've been commissioned to take her photograph). She has pinched my arse and given me shit in equal measures, but it has always been a challenge and a consumate pleasure. Thank fucking god she exists.
Out of all of the shots that I've taken of her here are some of my favourites...
This was taken in her dressing room at the Garage in London in the mid 90's.
Here she is with the very wonderful Cathi Unsworth at The Horse Hospital in London, where she did a reading from Cathi's book 'The Not Knowing" in 2006.

More to come...