..... the screens

Once upon a time in London town there was a Sonik window.

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.

....... ..... 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...

Oh! .......

Visions of Madrid echo and reverberate around the roof of my mind... the twists, the turns, the joya, the procession, the patience and the bustle of hot nights. It is truly a city of surprises.
I reclaimed Goya and took pleasure in the fervent heart and soul of my partner in crime.
The static and fragrant sweat of the air filled my lungs with an inspiration that cannot easily be quelled.

It's coming...

...soon

Mr Lonely...

Absolutely indefinable...

Wonderful, unnerving. disorientating, funny, tragic, awkward, magical, silly, beautiful, inspiring, uncompromising, exploratory, childlike, transcendental, surprising, brave, problematic, atmospheric, pertinent, wise, accomplished, episodic, hyper-real, adventurous, brutal and beguiling.

Double Grey Cigarette 23/02/08

Chopin RIP

So I heard that the legendary sound poet Henri Chopin passed away on the 03/01/08... His death will leave a huge gaping hole in the universal psyche of experimentation... this is my little tribute to him. At the beginning of the 00's I was fortunate to spend an hour or so in his company. I was on a mission to photograph him in his home and studio for the Wire magazine. He was warm, friendly, open and gloriously eccentric... and I had an amazing hour or so in his company... shooting the breeze, while he played me excerpts from his sound poetry on a 70's reel to reel tape recorder. I remember that he was particularly frail and unsteady on his feet, but insisted that we adjourn to the garden as he wanted to be photographed next to the mirrors that were installed there. His daughter installed them for him so that he could "reap the extra sunlight" he proudly told me. This was a dream commission (One of a handful that I will always cherish) and we should thank our lucky stars that Henri Chopin existed.

R.I.P.

2007 Celluloid Redux

C E L L U L O I D

1 Inland Empire
2 Control
3 The Science Of Sleep
4 I’m Not There
5 A Prairie Home Companion
6 Paranoid Park
7 Bug
8 Sherrybaby
9 La Noche De Los Girasoles
10 Two Days In Paris

2007 Music redux

...Phew, this has been a vintage year for music... I have spent a very long time agonizing over my top 20 and the order therein.... the remaining 50 or so are in no particular order.

1 Future Artists - The Dead C
2 Boss - Magik Markers
3 The Bark Haze (Vinyl)- The Bark Haze
4 Trees Outside The Academy - Thurston Moore
5 Split LP - Thurston Moore/Graham Moore
6 Remains - Religious Knives
7 Electricity Ghost - Charalambides
8 Green Blues - MV + EE And The Bummer Road
9 Unmuzzled Ox - Sunburned w/Paul Flaherty C40
10 Saw A Halo - Mouthus
11 Yankee Psychic hygiene 7” - Elisa Ambrogio and Karl Bauer
12 Person Pitch - Panda Bear
13 James And The Quiet - Wooden Wand
14 Shelter From The Ash - Six Organs Of Admittance
15 Feels Like Frenching - Leslie Keffer
16 Z - Sunburned Hand Of The Man
17 Tromatic Reflexxions - Von Südenfed
18 Stereo Mars - Lambsbread
19 Weirdo Rippers - No Age
20 XI - The Howling Hex

The Spring press 12" - Magik Markers
Likeness - Charalambides
S/t - Basalt Fingers
Black Weeds/White Death - Thurston Moore C40
Cataracts - X.O.4
Macannabis - Bark Haze C30
Kumpiny Night - V/a CDR
Dear Companion - Meg Baird
Gilded Splinters: Tape Work 1995-2005 - Bruce Russell
Dark Stars EP - White Magic
Panzer Division Lou Reed - Sunroof!
Reformation Post TLC - The Fall
Strawberry Jam - Animal Collective
Power(Fallujah Version)7” - The Dead C
Dispersed Royalty Ornaments - Skaters
Moonlight In Vermont - Emil Beaulieau
In Brooklyn After Dark 12” - Religious Knives
Jiwana - Jim O’Rourke
There’s No Home - Jana Hunter
The Volodor Dance (Vinyl re-issue) - Magik Markers
Through The Panama - Sightings
“Total Joke Era” - Bark Haze
Load Blown - Black Dice
Behold Secret Kingdom - Raccoo-oo-oon
Split 12” - Panda Bear/Excepter
Reformation Post TLC - The Fall
Hallucination Guillotine / Final Worship - Kites
Follow This House - Mouthus
We Are Him - Angels Of light
Love Is Simple - Akron/Family
People EP - Animal Collective
Mirage Of The Other - Zaimph
Three Sparkling Echoes - Birchville Cat Motel
A Tear for Every Grain of Sand - Pocahaunted
Blood Lightning 2007 - Burning Star Core
Hunted Gathering - Pocahaunted + Robedoor
Split 7“ - Michael Yonkers /Little Claw
The Squid - Aaron Dilloway & C. Spencer Yeh
Carrion - Jana Hunter
Bird Sister Blasphemy - Birchville Cat Motel
Strangle The Wretched Heavens - Charalambides
Everyday World Of Bodies - Burning Star Core
The Valerie Project - The Valerie Project
Ask Forgiveness Ep - Bonnie “Prince” Billy
Excellent Italian Greyhound - Shellac
Gettin’ Gone - MV + EE And The Golden Road
The Acidic Wing - Blood Stereo
Spit and Squalor Swallow the Snow - Little Claw
untitled - Kemialliset Ystävät
Valley Of Fire - Jackie-O Motherfucker
Alone in the Dark Wood - Fursaxa
Some Things Just Stick In Your Mind - Vashti Bunyan
Part Two The Endless Not - Throbbing Gristle
And Their Refinement Of The Decline - Stars Of The Lid
S/t - Liars
Luck 12" - Religious Knives
Alles Wieder Offen - Einstürzende Neubauten