Live

Noise - Love Speaks Opera

in , , ,

Noise is a Scottish opera company whose aim is to broaden the audience for contemporary opera in Scotland. I’ve worked with them previously on their “Hirda” project, an opera written in Shetlandic dialect, and was delighted to be back photographing and filming their most recent production, “Love Speaks”. “Love Speaks” is a short opera written by Kevan O’Reilly and Jenny Knotts about love and relationships, celebrating the availability of prEP on NHS Scotland. The short piece was directed by James Robert Carson and featured stellar performances from Marie Claire Breen, Douglas Gordon, Kenny Reid and Shuna Scott Sendall. You can see the short film I made for this below and some images from live performances and rehearsals.

GEAR:
Nikon D4
Nikkor 85mm f1.4
Nikkor 50mm f1.4

Video filmed with Sony A7III + Sony 35mm f1.8
Metabones Nikon G to Sony NEX E-mount Converter
Nikkor 85mm f1.4
Nikkor 50mm f1.4
Nikkor 14-24mm f2.8
Zhiyun Crane 2 Gimbal
Edited in FCPX

Soul Nation Choir

in ,

Soul Nation Choir, run by the incredibly talented Chris Judge, is a Scottish rock choir that blends pop, soul and gospel in their performances. The best of the best vocal talents have gone through its ranks: X-Factor contestants, Bafta winners, West End stars - you name it. I've been photographing them since the choir's inception some 5 years ago: from candid, behind-the-scenes moments to images taken on music video shoots and during numerous live appearances. It's always a joy to work with them, I've made some friends along the way and I thought it was about time I compiled and shared some of my favourite images taken during these past 5 years. Enjoy and catch them live if you get a chance - they'll leave you smiling for days.

Horse - Careful

in , ,

Horse McDonald is a legend and a recent recipient of DIVA Magazine's Hall of Fame Award. Working with Horse is always a pleasure and we've done several different projects together over the years but the publicity images for her critically-acclaimed one-woman play "Careful" are definitely among my favourites. Shot on a cold winter day at Britannia Panopticon, the world's oldest surviving music hall, it was a very low key affair - just us, lovely Marta on makeup duties and a reflector. The play, written by Lynn Ferguson and directed by Maggie Kinloch, is a brutally honest, and at times painful story of identity struggle and self-acceptance and our goal for the promo images was to capture the intensity and intimacy of the performance. Peter Lindbergh, as well as old Hollywood photography from the 1940s, were our points of reference:

Behind the scenes:

And here are some photos taken during the play's run in Glasgow's Tron Theatre:

Bare Knuckle

in , , ,

"Bare Knuckle" is the title of Chris Stout & Catriona McKay's new album. It was released last December to unanimous critical acclaim and the duo has just been nominated for BBC Radio 2 Folk Award 2018 (Best Duo category). I've worked with Chris and Catriona for many years but "Bare Knuckle" was definitely the first time I was involved in their project to such extent - from promotional photoshoot to album artwork and promo posters, from filming the title track's music video to covering the album launch at Queen's Hall in Edinburgh. I'm a bit of a control freak when it comes to my work so being able to oversee every aspect of this album's rollout (creatively speaking at least) was truly rewarding. It's also been an absolute pleasure, sometimes a challenge (I'd never done a music video before) but above all a genuine privilege to work with artists of this calibre who also happen to be really decent human beings. 

ALBUM PROMO

ALBUM COVER

LIVE AT QUEEN'S HALL

CELTIC CONNECTIONS PROMO

FRANCES THORBURN & FRIENDS

in , ,

Frances Thorburn is a fantastic singer-songwriter and an actress, known to many for her role as Kim Monroe in River City, and a couple of weeks ago she put on a truly splendid evening of music to raise funds for Moe Abutoq, a film director and a friend of Frances who was diagnosed with MS 2 years ago. The illness has been rapidly advancing and its treatment requires travel to Mexico and some £60,000. Frances invited a host of musicians for the night including Martha L. Healy, Kathryn Joseph, Angie Darcy and many more. "Celebration of Songs", as the event was called, took place on February 8th at Saint Luke's and featured material ranging from show tunes to Americana, Broadway to Paula Abdul (yes, really). I was lucky enough to be there and capture the night (see images below). If you didn't manage to attend the fundraiser you can still help Moe by donating to the JustGiving page Frances set up: 

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/frances-thorburnmoeabutoq.

SOUNDCHECK

CELEBRATION OF SONGS