10 Years of working with Horse McDonald
Horse was a customer at a coffee shop I used to work at in Finnieston when I was a student in Glasgow in the mid-2000s (waaaaaay before the area was deemed the new Shoreditch). I didn't know who she was at the time, just another person I was making coffee for, and I certainly couldn't have predicted we would not only work together but also become close friends in the future.
Our first proper introduction happened during a Jill Jackson gig at the Renfrew Ferry in early 2011 (I wrote about my decade of photographing Jill here). We recognised each other from the coffee shop and briefly spoke about the possibility of working together at some point.
That opportunity came along when Horse was gearing up for the release of her album “Home” and needed some publicity shots. We spent a brilliant day with her band in Strachur in October 2012 and it marked the beginning of a fruitful working relationship which eventually turned into friendship. There have been photoshoots, countless live gigs and most recently, a music video for her banging single “Leaving”.
It was actually working with Horse that lead to me exploring video work. I was doing some behind-the-scenes shots on a music video of hers and the guys filming asked for assistance. I’d been asked by clients to do filming many times at that point but I always refused, I was too scared of the medium and worried I wouldn’t be able to translate the visual style of my photography work into moving image. Having helped on that video for Horse demystified the process for me and made me go “Oh, that’s really not that different from photography, I can do it!”.
You can see the “Leaving” video, shots from every collaboration we’ve done over the past decade (including previously unreleased images) as well some personal snaps below.
