Chepstow Gallery, Notting Hill, London

 

From 2nd December until 23rd December I will be exhibiting work as part of an Our World in Frame Show at the Chepstow Gallery, London. It’s in support of the charity African Passions and includes work from my projects in South Africa, India and China. The private view is on the 2nd.

AMV Charity Print Sale

 

I was asked by Abbott, Mead, Vickers BBDO to donate a print for their annual Charity Print Sale in aid of Kids Company. The prints are displayed anonymously and I'm happy to say mine was sold twice. It's an image from my Gaza project.

Humanising Photography Network

 

I was invited to join a new discussion group called the Humanising Photography Network set up by Jessica Crombie and Emma Boyd. The subject was 'What is the benefit of Photographic Awards to Humanitarian causes?'.. Francis Hodgeson, the chair of the Prix Pictet Award and photography critic of the Financial Times opened the discussion. With the slow decline in editorial commissions from news and magazine outlets, competitions are becoming increasingly important to photographers as a means of getting their work 'out there'.

The HPN group is just starting out and could be an important portel for ideas and discussion on these and other important issues.

Add your comments to the debate on their website

Mugged at Gunpoint

 

Well I finally got off to shoot some personal work for my project on the growth of slums around the world.

Caracas, Venezuela, has some of the most notorious in the world, known locally as Barrio's. Tuesday morning with my fixer Anahi we went out to visit some of the communities. First call Petare, considered one of the oldest, biggest and most violent shantytowns in Latin America. It is made of 2000 different barrio's or communities and has more than 800,000 inhabitants. We strolled around and noted various points of interest.

Then to Capellin, considered one of the more relaxed communities. We had a look around but on our way back to the car we were held up at gunpoint, two guys approached us on foot pointed a gun at me and said 'Camera's, camera's'. I always try to put people at ease, so I let them help themselves. Two more guy's turned up on a motorbike, the guy on the back jumped off and pointed another gun to my head. They got the camera's when a couple of older guy's came over and told them to stop and give the gear back. After a short scuffle I got some of the gear back and luckily had a spare camera at the hotel. I hadn't even been in Caracas for 24 hours and I've now learnt why it is now the most violent city in the world.

After a coffee to catch our breath we went back into Petare to get the dusk landscape attached.

Nominated for the London Arts Fair

 

Joanna Pitman, Photography Correspondent at the Times, has nominated one of my projects for a show at the London Arts Fair. It's the Lovin’ It series exhibited at Host Gallery that was shot in Shanghai.

Barcelona World Race Shoot

 

I spent four days shooting in Barcelona for the BARCELONA WORLD RACE. We had to try and recreate being on a yacht in the middle of a full on North Atlantic storm. The Med at this time of year doesn't quite fit the bill so I set in up in the harbour and set up a rain and wind machine, ... two guy's on hose's and a couple more with buckets to cover us all in water. We used the real crew from each yacht and got very wet but all had a laugh. The people at the harbour thought we we're nut's but we got the job done.

Fifa/Iris Shoot

 

This shoot was for Sony Ericsson/Iris campaign for the UEFA Champions League as their official mobile partner until 2012. We had to recreate the atmosphere in the stadium with 20 models in the studio. I positioned them and then then relayed some pretend football match to them. Everyone got into the swing of it, and we all had a good laugh even though I'd lost my voice by the end of it.

IPA Award.

 

My bursary project on the redevelopment of Dharavi in Mumbai, India has been awarded second place in the Editorial Photo Essay Category. The project documents the lives of the people of Dharavi and the issues surrounding the proposed re-development of the area. As Mumbai has expanded what was once wasteland has become prime real estate and if the private landlords get their way over a million people will be forcibly removed or thrown into tower block hell.

HSBC shoot in Italy.

 

Spent three days shooting in Alba, the truffle region of Italy near Turin. I'm the one on the right in the photo. It was for HSBC and was a truffle farmer who uses a dog instead of a pig. Shooting with the DOP from Slumdog Millionaire, Antony Dod Mantle. It was interesting seeing him at work and the way he gets the best out of his subjects.

Creative Review Annual

 

My documentary work in Gaza has also been selected for the Creative Review Photography Annual. It’s in the editorial series section and will be published in the October issue of Creative Review.

AMV/Aviva shoot

 

This shoot was one big road trip around England stretching from Newcastle in the north to Exeter in the West. Aviva are sponsoring the Rugby Premiership and we travelled around with the TV crew who where filming the indents. We were showing the people involved behind the scene, from the Grounds man whom to the Financial Director.

AMV/Met Police shoot.

 

I was asked to produce a set of portraits as part of an Anti Knife crime campaign. It created a narrative of a knife crime in which someone was killed and the ads became part of a detective story for audience, as they try to work out who committed the crime and the complicity of the others.

Saatchi & Saatchi part 2

 

Back over to the States again, this time to San Francisco, one of my favourite cities. The idea was to cover more sports so it was basketball in San Fran and then skaters and mountain bikers in Santa Cruz. We used local guys that our producer Jenifer knew. The stuff these guys’s could do was amazing.

Doco in AOP Awards

 

The shoot I did in conjunction with the Hoping Foundation and UNWRA has been selected for the Association of Photographers Awards. The images document the physical damage caused by the Israeli assault in January 2009. They have been selected in the Commissioned Documentary section of the awards.

Saatchi & Saatchi shoot.

 

Setting off to New York on the first leg of a commission for Manfrotto. They are expanding their range and we had to shoot the new products in various different locations. In New York we shot on the streets and in Central Park. Then off to Las Vegas for a road trip to the Arches National Park. Vegas is a world unto itself whist the landscape around is as dramatic as it gets.

Foto8 Summer Show

 

One of my shots from Gaza has been selected for the Foto8 Summer Show.

It will be exhibited at HOST gallery until 4th September. It’s a shot I took from one of the last remaining building about 100 meters from the Egyptian boarder in Rafah, Gaza. The building was full of families but was rendered uninhabitable by the Israeli armed forces during their assault in January 2009. It shows hundreds of tents lined up close to the boarder. These are the entrances to tunnels that go up to 1km into Egypt. Gaza has become dependent on supplies sent through the tunnels ever since the almost total closure of the broader between Israel and Egypt.

Bronze in Pano awards

 

As I’d shot panoramic’s for my Dharavi project I entered some of them into the International Award for Panoramic Photography. I was awarded a Bronze for one of my nightscapes.

New York Photo Festival

 

Just been shortlisted for the New York Photo Festival ‘Best Advertising Series’ for my work with SPX. Down to the last dozen and very happy to get to the final contenders. Last year I was runner for ‘Best Advertising Single’ and a finalist in the ‘Best Published Book’ and ‘Best Adverting Series’.

Shoot for LSYVB. Part 4

 

Straight back from LA and onto the next shoot for the LSYVB. This time it was with Ray. He’d been heavily involved with gangs and had severed 2 years in prison. On release he was help out by the Prince’s Trust and is know a professional football cough and an ambassador for the charity. I met Ray at his home and shot him working with young kids at Sunday morning football training in Holloway.

Shoot HSBC. Agency JWT London

 

Working with Art Director Naz Nazli we travelled out to Los Angles to photograph a cool LA scene, a band playing on the roof of a tower block with LA in the background. The theme is to show the products of HSBC customers that produce in the UK and sell overseas. For this execution it was Orange amp’s, the choice of the likes for Oasis and U2.

We cast a real band and set up a real practice session and shot away. The guy’s were great and the client went with a shot that was off brief but the strongest image.

Winner in the PDN awards

 

I’m a winner in the best website category of the PDN awards in the US. It’s the site that was produced as part of my Bursary with the National Media Museum. It was designed by Paul Belford at This is Real Art. The PDN is a major US award and I’m chuffed to get it.

Shoot for LSYVB Part 1 & 2

 

I’ve worked with Harry for several years, as he was Head of Communication at the GLA under Ken Livingstone. He works on public information campaigns and for this one he wanted to produce a press and poster campaign for the LSYVB under the headline 99% i.e. 99% of young people don’t carry knifes and won’t kick your head in or shoot you. LSYVB is short for London Serious Youth Violence Broad. The campaign was run in conjunction with the Metropolitan Police, the NHS and the Major of London. Harry and I like working together because he gives me a brief and just lets me get on with in, touching base to let him know what I’m arranging and if he’s happy with how it’s going. It gives me lots of freedom to develop the themes in the campaign.

He gave me short list of case studies and left the rest to me. I told of my incorporation of video into my documentary project and suggested we did video as well. He went with it and it became a stills and video project. I began with two case studies before the Easter holidays.

The first study was an Emmanuel who goes out onto the streets of Southwark, in a council run scheme, to talk to kid’s who are hanging out at night.

The next day I was working with Whitney, founder of NoSexWithoutLove, a group that works with young teenagers.

Shoot for SPX. Part 2

 

This time off to New Delhi, India to capture an essence of rural and city life. Again 16-hour days, shooting thousands of images we ended up with a very complete portfolio of images. I ended up shooting over 16,000 images over the two trips!

Shoot for SPX. Part 1

 

Working with Creative Director Jamie Ambler with whom I’ve worked on several award winning global campaigns we set off on the first leg of a commission for SPX , an US utilities company that produces the things that build the things we all use everyday. The idea was to produce of people using everyday utilizes across several markets. We set off for Frankfurt to give the campaign a Western angle without making it look like wintertime, which it was. Jamie was shooting video as well and is one for Dawn and Dusk lighting, so lot’s of early morning and late evenings. We shot everything for real without using models to capture real life situations From Frankfurt we travelled to Cape Town; it was great to get out of the cold and into the sun.

I stayed on after the commission to work with some of the townships as part of my long-term project on the global growth of slums.