Manchester + Holga

A few more Holga shots from the archive.

Piccadilly Gardens

Manchester Cathedral

Selfridges and MEN Wheel

Piccadilly Gardens (Part Deux)

Urbis

Fly Posters

Audio Slides

Brrrrrrrrrr. Where’s the fun in cold when there’s no snow?

Here’s an audio slideshow I made using a demo version of Soundslides. Some of the opening photos are taken around Finsbury Park but most are taken in Cumbria, where I spent xmas with my family. The song is “Heavy Water / I’d Rather Be Sleeping” by Grouper.

Holga

In all her plastic splendour…

Put your wodges away, Holga is yours for a tenner. Mine has often been the source of immense frustration, often only producing a couple of workable images a roll. Though when used in the right light (or with a flash) it can produce some lovely images (Google ‘Holga photos‘ for a taster). Here are some old ones of mine which I recently scanned.

I’ll try and get some colour Holga photos up at some point as that’s probably when it’s at its best

Christmas Morning ‘07

I woke up unreasonably early on Christmas day two years ago. Plain childish excitement or was it better explained by the traditional fixture at the Adam and Eve the night before? Either way, unable to continue my slumber I decided to head out onto the streets of Lincoln with a friend’s Olympus OM-1 I was borrowing at the time. The combination of mist and the lack of activity made for an interesting morning stroll.

Phoenix in Mannheim

Here’s Phoenix at Alte Feuerwache in Mannheim on their recent tour of Germany and Scandinavia.

Bielefeld

Here are some photos from the German city of Bielefeld, the home of Dr. Oetker pizzas.

NATW Supporting Phoenix in Europe

Recently got back from selling merch on the Phoenix/Noah and the Whale tour of Scandinavia and Germany. Highlights include the jumpers on sale in Oslo (it’s all about the metal buckles on the neck), and the consistently excellent German catering. Dinner time was particularly good in Munich where the chefs, aside from making incredibly tasty schnitzel, really turned on the hospitality. I’ve never felt so much shame as I did when walking back from Burger King (BK being the only solution to midnight hunger on the outskirts of Munich) late that night carrying the unmistakable brown bag. Seconds before making it back to the bus a call came from across the car park “so you enjoyed our food today?”. It was the catering team.

During the shows I managed to sneak away from the merch desk occasionally to do some snapping:

sean rowe

the black-hatted new york statesman who supported noah on the recent uk tour. sean is a multi-talented singer-songwriter-survivor (more ray mears than bear grylls, though he did once eat a mouse’s stomach). check out a foraging video i made with sean and charlie fink here http://vimeo.com/7050699.

and here’s the man in action.

you can check him out here http://www.myspace.com/seanrowe and here http://www.seanrowe.net.

tour highs and lows

riding on the back of a whale

it’s a pleasure to be on the road with noah again. anyone who saw the band on their march ‘club silencio’ tour will remember the giant framed screen set up behind the band onto which an array of visual treats were projected before, during and after the show.

all the dates on the tour were hosted by a red suited compere who appeared on screen to introduce the varied proceedings throughout the evening. audience members were treated to a selection of short films provided by future shorts (for a taster, check out this) as well as a supporting performance by jay jay pistolet.

each of noah’s songs (with the exception of the acoustic part of the set) was accompanied by it’s own video.  some were provided by future shorts but the majority consisted of old footage sourced from the amazing prelinger archive, which consists largely of american public domain footage and where users are actively encouraged to download and reproduce content for whatever purpose they choose, commercial or otherwise. one of my first jobs for the band when I moved down to london in january was to help source and edit these videos together and i’m hoping to post a link here soon so you can check them out.

although only six months on, old father time has certainly changed his expression.  the current tour is a much leaner operation in terms of crew and gear (even before the tragic theft), the band line-up has morphed and i now hold the position of merchant. this means i now have a lot less time to photograph the band onstage but it has also led me to take a new approach… inspired by some photos a friend showed me recently i have reverted to using that nostalgic photographic device, the disposable camera.

i really enjoy the aesthetic of photos taken on a relatively good quality disposable, especially when printed on matt paper with a cheeky white border. it’s not a million miles from a polaroid, but significantly cheaper.