Photoshoot

Nu Blvck

Nu Blvck is a new ethical fashion brand focusing on artisan-made, limited edition accessories and they enlisted the brilliant I'll Be Your Mirror and myself to work on images for their very first collection. The shoot took place in July at the Panopticon as well as a few outdoors locations in the East End of Glasgow. The day was long, cold, rainy and often crowded but we had a truly brilliant team who made it all a breeze. And I'm pleased to say Nu Blvck successfully reached their Kickstarter campaign goal in August and are now working on developing their brand further.

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Monkoora

Stuart and Kirsty, the styling dream team behind I'll Be Your Mirror, kindly approached me earlier this year to work with them on promotional images for HOT GEM's promising young singer/songwriter Monkoora. The artist's beautiful red hair provided the perfect opportunity for us to indulge in our shared Guy Bourdin obsession and it was his work as well as photographs by Nadia Lee Cohen that populated our mood board for the shoot. I'm working with I'll Be Your Mirror again in a couple of weeks (excited!), in the meantime here are some images from the Monkoora shoot:

Photography: Kris Kesiak
Styling & Art Direction: I'll Be Your Mirror
Hair: Lisa at Byers & Birrell
Make Up: Colette Murphy
Clothes: Silken Favours, Isolated Heroes
Locations: The Variety Bar, 13th Note

Behind The Scenes:

Tristan Cameron Harper

I've been meaning to do this post for ages but keeping this blog up to date is clearly not high on my agenda (despite the "UPDATE BLOG" scribbles on my notice board as well as notifications on my iPhone...)! Anyways.... Towards the end of last year, I had the pleasure of working with model/ice hockey player Tristan Harper. I rarely do TFP shoots so I'm quite careful about which projects I choose to get involved with under this banner. This one seemed like an interesting opportunity however as I didn't have photos of such bearded, tattooed and slightly rough around the edges guys in my portfolio. Tristan turned out to be an absolute gentleman and a total pleasure to work with. Results below:

After shoot selfie with Tristan.

After shoot selfie with Tristan.

St. Peter's Seminary

I love shooting outdoors, am always looking for new, unusual or in any way exciting places to use as a setting and it rarely gets more exciting than the ruins of St. Peter's Seminary in Cardross. I'd read about it online and one day in the summer of 2011, singer Jill Jackson (ex Speedway), her assistant and myself went onto an exploratory trip which eventually turned into an impromptu photoshoot. We found the place to be creepy as hell, we bumped into a couple of Japanese tourists bizarrely (you won't find these ruins in your travel book, trust me) but more importantly it also turned out to be an endless photo opportunity. I've been back several times since then, most recently in May with a shoot for Channel 4, and while the place is getting more and more difficult to access it never fails to deliver and despite my numerous visits I still feel there's more to see there. Here are some images from shoots I've had there over the years:

Jill Jackson

Jill Jackson

Jil Jackson

Jil Jackson

Scott Charles

Scott Charles

Scott Charles

Scott Charles

Patricia Panther

Patricia Panther

Patricia Panther

Patricia Panther

Channel 4

Channel 4

Channel 4

Channel 4

Stella Bartram

I've recently found myself being asked to do more and more fitness-oriented photoshoots. It's quite ironic, really, given my close-to-none interest in sport - I used to do yoga and pilates and now swim regularly but that's more to do with me turning 30 some time ago and desperately trying to rip my body from Mr. Gravity's persistent hands rather than any competitiveness or huge desire to be fit. Still, I found photographing athletes very interesting and quite different from the usual portraiture sessions. Apart from the technical aspects (lighting to emphasise the physique, etc) there's definitely more awareness of one's body and posture as well as confidence that come with a lifetime of training and making a living out of being fit. First fitness-oriented shoot I did was for the 2011 Ladies Handball Team Calendar but apart from the subject matter itself I wouldn't say these pictures could necessarily be classified as fitness ones. In terms of light and set up this was really a portraiture session which was meant to capture 13 beautiful girls who happened to be handball players. I wasn't trying to highlight how toned their bodies were or such. Things were different however, when the fantastic Neo Marketing send Stella Bartram my way. We had several meetings to discuss the concept and feel of the images she was looking for and after each of them I'd spend hours scratching my head, reading articles about fitness photography and considering cancellation (not necessarily in that order). Sometimes though, you just have to bite the bullet and that's what I did.

That first session with Stella Bartram happened a couple of years ago, we both enjoyed the experience, the images have been very well received and we have been talking about doing another photoshoot ever since. She's a very busy lady however (what with running her fitness empire, whipping celebrities into shape and promoting healthy lifestyle in general) and it wasn't until this February that both of us found the time to get some pictures taken. Rainbow Room International very kindly agreed to let us use their space as well as take care of Stella's hair for the 2 different looks we envisioned, I had my lighting assistant extraordinaire Laurabelle by my side and off we went.

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We are already planning another session, something a bit more gritty perhaps. In the meantime though, I managed to catch Miss Bartram doing what she does best - training. I was asked to take some pictures of Stella's Metabolic Mayhem workout in aid of Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research UK at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum in Glasgow. It was a beautiful albeit rather chilly early spring morning, people turned up in dozens and I got to witness firsthand why the Bartram brand is so successful:

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I certainly know where to head once I start losing the battle with Mr. Gravity and some laps in the pool won't be enough to keep my butt from hitting the ground anymore!