Portrait

Women at COP26 Exhibition

in ,
 
 

TRONGATE 103 Gallery SEPT 29 - OCT 23 2022

New Portrait Exhibition

I wrote about several projects I was involved in during COP26, and one of them was #GirlsAtCOP26 where I photographed various female speakers from all over the world. The event has since won an international award and now, almost a year from the climate conference in Glasgow, an exhibition featuring 50 portraits of women I took during those two weeks in 2021 is opening on Thursday, September 29th at Trongate 103 Gallery in collaboration with Street Level Photoworks.

Claire Stewart, a friend of mine and a brilliant photography lecturer at City of Glasgow College, is curating the show (she was an invaluable asset when I was putting together my previous exhibition). We’ve been working with Claire, Glasgow City Council and project manager Shirani Sabaratnam for the past 6 months and while the last few weeks have been rather stressful, I’m now excited and delighted to be finally able to let everyone know about this project. Prints have been made by the ever-reliable folks at Deadly Digital using environmentally friendly materials. The exhibition runs till October 23rd so there’s plenty of time for you to go and see it and when you do, I’d love to hear about it!

Scroll below for some behind-the-scenes snaps taken during preparations as well as the gallery’s opening hours and location.

 

Trongate 103 Gallery opening times:

Monday CLOSED
Tuesday 10:00 - 17:00
Wednesday 10:00 - 17:00
Thursday 10:00 - 17:00
Friday 10:00 - 17:00
Saturday 10:00 - 17:00
Sunday 12:00 - 17:00

Marissa Keltie

in ,

Portfolio shoot with Marissa Keltie

I’ve known Marissa Keltie for a few years and have worked with her several times as part of The Eves duo. However, this was the first time I photographed her alone. Aside from being a talented musician, Marissa is also a commercial model and a voice-over artist and was looking to update her portfolio. I love how these images turned out and I think Marissa is pleased too cause this is what she had to say about this session:

 
“Kris Kesiak is such an amazing photographer who I have the pleasure of working with regularly. He always manages to get the shots I’m looking for and always has a smile on his face, singing and dancing - shoots with him are lots of fun!”
 

I’m blushing although perhaps I should cut down on the singing, I’m not that good! Aaaanyway, the shoot took place last month at Basement49, an East End studio I use a lot and you can see some images from that day below:

GEAR
Nikon D850 + Nikkor 85mm f1.4
Tiffen Black Pro-mist ¼ Filter
Profoto B10 + Profoto OCF Softbox 3' Octa
OCF Softgrid Octa
Reflector

Mugdock Park

in

Portraits in Mugdock Park

Mugdock Country Park is one of my favourite outdoors spaces to photograph in. It’s easily accessible from Glasgow and not too remote. There are bits of it that feel like remote countryside, places that are lush green and overgrown with ferns. You can find meadows, huge trees, water, there are even ruins of a castle - basically a never-ending source of photo inspiration and despite having done numerous shoots there over the years, I still feel like I’ve only scratched the surface of the park. In fact, I got lost there for a bit on a shoot last year, wandering in a wooded area in circles. Below you can see one image from every shoot I’ve done in Mugdock Park so far. Enjoy.

Jill Jackson, Yours Aye

in , , , ,

New album campaign for Jill Jackson

“Yours Aye” is the brand new album by Scottish singer-songwriter Jill Jackson. After several pandemic-related delays, it finally saw the light of day in early May (hitting #1 on iTunes Country Album Chart no less). I’ve written about working with Jill many, many times (you can read about our first decade together here for example) and what can I say? It’s always a pleasure and a really, really good laugh.

Jill approached me last year to do a photoshoot for the new album cover and after sending me some examples of the mood and style of images she was after (see below), I suggested shooting the whole thing on film. Since Jill loves all things analog there wasn’t any convincing needed. I have to admit though that before the session I started panicking a little - what if I mess up and we don’t get the cover shot we needed? I got back to shooting film in recent years but haven’t done many 100% analog projects for clients so to alleviate my paranoia and to cover my back I took my digital equipment along with my Nikon FM and ended up using both.

We shot in Basement49 Studio as well as outdoors in Glasgow’s Merchant City. Gulabi did a brilliant job developing and scanning the 5 rolls we went through on the day (2 color and 3 black and white) and you can see some of my favourite images from the session if you scroll below. Wonder if you can tell which ones were analog and which were digital?

My involvement in the project didn’t end there however. Earlier this year I filmed Jill’s live sessions at Gorbals Sound studios as well as an interview, all of which are being used to promote the album on various platforms. I was also recently at Cottiers where Jill officially launched the album with a brilliant live set. Have a look below to see all of that and more. Enjoy and do check out “Yours Aye”, it really is a masterclass in songwriting and production.

Jill's visual references

for the session

“Yours Aye” Album Cover:

“Yours Aye” album cover shoot.

Basement49 Studio and Merchant City in Glasgow, June 3rd 2021:

“Live Sessions”

Gorbals Sound, March 6th, 2021:

ALBUM LAUNCH

Cottiers, Soundcheck & Live Show, May 19, 2022

Behind the scenes:

GEAR

Digital:
Nikon D850 + Nikkor 85mm f1.4
Studio Lights (can’t remember what was used exactly)

Analog:
Nikon FM + Nikkor 100mm f1.8
Kodak TX 400
Kodak Portra 400
Studio Lights

Video:
Sony A7III x 2
Sony 35mm f1.8
Sony 85mm f1.8
Tiffen Black Pro-mist 1/4 Filters
Nikkor 14-24mm f2.8 + Metabones Nikon G to Sony E-mount Converter
Profoto B10 + Profoto OCF Softbox 3' Octa
Neewer CN-216 LED Light x 2
DJI RS 2
Edited in FCPX

Live:
Nikon D850 + Nikkor 85mm f1.4
Tiffen Black Pro-mist 1/4 Filter
Nikon D850 + Nikkor 14-24mm f2.8 / Nikkor 24-70mm f2.8

BTS:
FujiFilm x100v
iPhone 11 Pro

COP26 Activists

in ,

portraits of climate activists at cop26 in Glasgow

The COP26 theme is back, hope you don’t mind - it was a busy couple of weeks for Glasgow! This was a really enjoyable job which, after the seemingly never-ending lockdowns, made me feel excited about photography again.

Project Everyone is a United Nations Global Partner for SDG Advocacy and Outreach which seeks to put the power of communications behind the Sustainable Development Goals, also known as the Global Goals, and I was asked to take photos of their climate justice activists who arrived in Glasgow from all over the world for the conference. It was a beautiful sunny November day and the shoot took place in Broomielaw area of the city where Global Goals put up a huge billboard displaying giant post-it notes with their 17 sustainability goals. Each activist was asked to pick a goal close to their heart and got photographed in front of it. Here’s a selection of images from that day:

GEAR
Nikon D850
Nikkor 85mm f1.4
Nikkor 50mm f1.4
Tiffen Black Pro-mist 1/4 Filter