Fiona Bruce

It’s not long  since I stopped categorising my newsletters.  One of the reasons I stopped was that some shoots just didn’t fit into my most common subject matter, and therefor got left behind.  For example, I sat on a folder with politicians and topical/political journalists without ever sharing these.  Fiona Bruce was one of those shoots - shot a few months before the Covid pandemic came and changed the world forever.

Fiona came in at the agreed time, full of energy, and settled down in the basement studio under a trendy Haggerston cafe in East London.  I asked if we could get her anything and she had already clocked the pastry in the cafe on the ground floor, wanting it accompanied by a weak tea.  I left her to enjoy a little grooming before the shoot. When she stepped in I started talking to her about her early life, getting a little money from modelling for picture stories in the teenage magazine ‘Jackie’.  I was actually genuinely intrigued as I used to see those picture stories around when I was a kid, and it’s such a thing of the past.  Fiona confided in me that she used to love doing them as she could always get people she fancied in to play the male role.

Shot for Observer New Review

Jason and Ivan Reitman

It’s not every day you get a call to ask if I’m interested in photographing the creators behind Ghostbusters: “We’ve got a shoot with the Jason and Ivan Reitman - and they’re bringing the ghostbuster car and a couple of Proton Packs.”  I know - it might not mean much to many of you, but if you grew up in the 80’s you’ll know all about the Ghostbusters, the Cadillac and the Proton Packs.  Ghostbusters 2, also directed by the original director Ivan Reitman came out not long ago, but this 3rd film was directed by Ivan’s son Jason.  So - there I was, in the backstreets of Soho with a couple of Proton Packs, (ghost busting guns for you who are not familiar with the films) in a hotel room and the Ghostbusters car in a small alleyway on the side of the hotel.  I picked the alleyway because of its proximity to the hotel but also because it had a city vibe - without giving away what city it was.  The first thing we found in the alleyway was a dead rat without a head.  Nothing like a headless rat to set the scene for a Ghostbusting experience.  (I did decide on cleaning this up before inviting the Reitmans over though - maybe a little too real for a Friday morning?!).  I managed to get a local office to open its doors for me to get some electricity to start up the smoke machine, brought out some gels and then prepped the car for the Reitmans to cruise on into the shot.  

Ivan and Jason turned up and I was ready.  I placed them in the car and shouted “smoke!”  No smoke came - and a look of panic spread along the photography team.  The woman who had let us use the electricity socket had unplugged the smoke machine without letting us know and left the building.  I started shooting whilst the assistants knocked on every door until they found a socket.  The images I had hoped for were now finally coming in.  

10 minutes later we had to rush up to the hotel room to get the Proton Packs shots.  I had prepped the proton Packs with lights and was ready to explore with long shutter speeds to get the laser beams working.  Consistency and authenticity was of great importance for Jason but we got there in the end. 10 minutes later, all ghosts were busted and the Reitmans could leave the building.  Phewwww.  All I now had to do was to pack my equipment down and dispose fo 15 ghosts stuck in my Ghostbuster trap and safely dispose of them in the Echo-Containment System.  The problem is I’m not sure where the Echo-Containment System is so I’ll keep them under my bed for now….

Shot for G2  

David and Dolly Baddiel

This shoot with David Baddiel and his Daughter Dolly was to support an article in the Guardian Saturday Magazine about social media and its addictive qualities.  David had made a documentary for the BBC talking about the issues.  His daughter gives the view of a young person and also someone whom has suffered from anorexia and other self esteem issues, fuelled by the pressures caused by social media.

Although we played with a shadowy representation of social media in these images, it was the more simple portraits that appealed to me the most.  It was evident that David and Dolly were very close and it was a pleasure to be a witness to the closeness between them.

Shot for The Guardian Saturday Magazine

Munya Chawawa

The world of lockdown has seen the emergeance of comedians whom have actively used social media and online platforms.  Munya Chawawa is one of these comedians.  He’s best known for his portrayal of the posh rapper called “Unknown P” and the chef “Jonny Oliver”.  Now - Munya is not only online but also the star of TV programs such as “Complaints Welcome”.

As soon as Munya came to the shoot it was evident that music is of great importance to him.  He took over the Spotify playlist and started playing one tune after the other.  

A few set poses but also the freedom to move and jump created the images I wanted.  

Shot for Observer Magazine

Flashback

Old images from the family albums of celebrities replicated today. This month I feature Justin and Dan Hawkins from The Darkness, Gareth Thomas, Jayde Adams and Anastacia.

Shot for The Guardian Saturday Magazine

David Spencer Percival

David Spencer Percival’s office was exactly how I imagined my office to be when I close my eyes.  Nice and tidy, good taste in art and design, and a bar cabinet should a fellow colleague stop by for a little chat. David has been the founder of very successful botanical drinks company and energy company before now running the life science recruitment business Life Science People.  

David was fun, friendly and charming.  Many stories of his art work collections and trips abroad lightened up the conversation whilst we were working.  

Shot for Recruiter Magazine

Kate Garraway

Many people have managed to sail through this epidemic without any major loss.  Of course, we have all felt it to some degree, but some of us have really felt the impact.  Kate Garraway is someone who has really suffered from having a loved one contracting Corona virus.  Her husband, diagnosed early on in this epidemic, was in a coma for 11 months and is still suffering from issues related to Covid.  Kate has always been very honest about her experience and shared her story with the world.  In this book Kate talks about her experience watching someone you love suffer from Covid and the terrible effects it can have on people and the family of the effected.  A pleasure working with Kate on this cover, where I was trying to show the vulnerability of Kate as well as her strength and resilience when faced with a terrible personal struggle.

Shot for Penguin Random House

Anna Jones

This Anna Jones shoot took place about a year ago, but I never got around to posting it before now.  As we’re in January, all struggling through the New Years resolution to get a little healthier and help the environment, I thought there would be no better person to start the year off with than Anna Jones.  As far as I am concerned, Anna has written the bible of vegetarian cooking “A Modern Way to Eat”, a book she has followed with her “One Pot, Pan, Planet”.  The latter is a book that does not only encourage vegetarian cooking but also how we can cook in a more environmentally friendly way. This shoot was to support an OFM article about Anna Jones and her work as one of UK’s most cherished vegetarian cook book writers.

Shot for OFM

Stephen Mangan - Happy Christmas!!!

Last time I photographed Stephen Mangan, there was a birthday theme, and this time - the shoot is also a birthday; ‘Christmas’.  Mangan already looked the part as he plays Scrooge in the West End this Christmas.  My job was to bring the tree, snow and some decor.  We made the tree fly, put on as many fairy lights as I could get my hands on and wrapped up some Christmas pressies for him to kick about. 

Happy Christmas and a very Happy 2022 to you too (when it eventually gets here). 

Shot for Observer New Review

Cook's Christmas Dinner

It is always a pleasure getting to work with the team from Cook Magazine in Italy.  We have been on many trips and photographed many of the world’s best chefs together.  However, this time I was commissioned to photograph the team behind the magazine having Christmas dinner.  The dinner consisted of a meal that each member of the magazine associated with Christmas.  

For this shoot I arrived in Milan late on the Sunday, Monday morning, bright and early, we took over a section of the exclusive Ginori Chinaware store and got to work dressing the Christmas table.  A full team of set designers, flower arrangers, hair and makeup and food stylists were there to help create this feast.  

Everyone sat down and I started to photograph.  I wanted to suggest that they all raised their glasses and said ‘cheers’ - and I got some blank expressions back.  I repeated myself a couple of times before I realised that they all thought I was saying ‘cheese’.  The look of disappointment, ‘What has this pandemic done to the photographer - reverting to the good old classic cheese phrase?!’  A look of relief came across everyone’s faces when they realised that I was just trying to get everyone to raise their glasses.  Glasses were raised and laughter washed over the uncomfortable quiet caused by the one minute confusion.   

A large group shot, 6 individual portraits and 6 plates later - I jumped in the taxi and headed for the airport, back to London….

Shot for Cook Magazine, Corriere Della Sera

Samuel West

This was my last shoot of 2020 and, as this ‘Christmas thing’ is quite an obvious seasonal, I haven’t had the chance to share it before now.

Samuel brought his chilli jam, something all his friends and family fondly receives every year. (He also gave me a jar and it was TASTY!)

Shot for Observer Food Monthly

Flashback

The Flashback series for the Guardian Saturday Magazine continues, and here are four of the latest shoots that have been published. My shoots replicate images of celebrities from their younger days.  

Here we have JLS, Sadie Frost with her mum Mary, AJ and Curtis Pritchard and Vick Hope with her mum Ade

Shot for Guardian Saturday Magazine

Clare Smyth

Clare Smyth is one of Britain’s best chefs.  Her restaurant “Core by Clare Smyth” in Notting Hill has three Michelin Stars and is one of London’s most sought after restaurants.  She has been named the World’s Best Female Chef by the World’s 50 Best Restaurant, been the Good Food Guide’s ‘National Chef of the Year’, She got a perfect score by the Good Food Guide. She’s won the Chef Award and she was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire - to mention a few of her achievements.  Clare is basically “Da Bomb!”

This shoot was a cover shoot for Observer Food Monthly Magazine.  A real pleasure working with her and her restaurant.  

Shot for Observer Food Monthly Magazine

Daniel Fletcher

Daniel Fletcher is one of the most prominent young designers around.  This shoot was to photograph Daniel in his own flat with the patchwork patterns he worked on during lockdown.  Daniel created patchwork clothes and blankets, using the offcuts from his other design.  He even sent the material out to people with instructions of how to make to make it themselves if that’s what they wanted to do.  

Such a nice guy and such a talent!

Shot for Observer Magazine

Dame Eileen Atkins

Dame Eileen Atkins, winner of a BAFTA, EMMy award and Olivier Award, was appointed the Commander of the Order of the British Empire and Dame Commander of the Order of British Empire.  Now - how’s that for an opening sentence on your Wikipedia page?!  

The thing about Eileen (and yes - I was told to drop the Dame when I spoke to her so I continue on a more casual first name basis here too), is that she is so casual and pleasant to deal with.  Her place, a wonderful and charming house in the West London, is a long way away from where she grew up, as the daughter of a meter reader in Tottenham.  She had that charm that comes with the more senior generation of the British acting world.  There is a relaxed attitude there, a playfulness.  I have seen the same in many of the British traditional actors and actresses.  They started acting because they loved the work, not to become famous, and the joy they feel due to living the life they have always wanted to is worn on their sleeves.  

Eileen was 100% lovely!  Fun, charming, natural and playful - all at once.  She has just released her autobiography (up to the age of 30) and I bet it will be a great read.  Just seeing the pictures from her young days which are in the book is great fun.

Shot for Observer New Review

Elif Shafak

I had the pleasure of working with Elif in her house.  A place with an amazing living room where her office desk is too.  Elif is from Turkey and has written books like The Bastard of Istanbul, The Forty Rules of Love, Three Daughters of Eve and 10 Minutes and 38 Seconds in This Strange World.  Her literature touches on political issues, women’s rights, minority rights and freedom of speech.  Her political voice addresses issues around Turkish and European politics, democracy and pluralism.  Dealing with topics such as child abuse and Armenian genocide means she has made dangerous enemies.  A brave writer, yet not someone who comes across as being paranoid or threatened. 

Shot for Observer New Review

Ravneet Gill - Diwali

First time I worked with Rav was for a mothers-day shoot.  I was commissioned to photograph her, her mum and her grandma in one shot.  When they turned up I did not only meet very nice, fun and friendly Rav, but her mum and grandma were great characters too.  Such a great trio!  I have to admit that there was a slight language barrier between Rav’s grandma and me - but somehow the humour and a sense of understanding each other was definitely there. 

So - it was with great pleasure that I received a commission to photograph the trio again.  This time to coincide with Rav’s new book release - as well as the celebration of light day, Diwali.  Rav had also brought some friends over to help enhance the feeling of festivity. 

In order to give an impression of us celebrating Diwali - I wanted to create a dark and atmospheric room with candles and food decoration.  I was sent props to use and the shoot was to take place in Rav’s place. I was given 2 hours to setup and shoot, but Rav was happy to extend the time a little when I got there.  2 hours was tight, but especially as I got there to see a 3 meter diameter glass dome above the room we were shooting in, and it was a bright sunny day.  One thing is to expose the daylight away with flash, but I also needed to bring some atmosphere out with the candles.  I took what blankets I had, ripped off the paper backdrop and got ready to cover as much of the glass dome as I could.  However - the glass dome was 6 meters above me so the only way to get to it was to climb through a tiny window, in the top end of Rav’s bedroom window, to get to the roof.  I am already not a very flexible with my almost 2 meter height, seeing me climb through that window was a sight to behold.  (I never knew I could get my knee behind my ears - a move I had to perfect to get out.). I covered what I could of the window and got on with setting up the grand Diwali celebration table with the props I had.  We managed to create a setting that had some of the intended atmosphere.  Rav’s friends and family were not only lovely to work with, but managed to look and act relaxed and festive.

Rav comes across as a nice and friendly person when on TV. Having met Rav on several occasions now, I can truly vouch for her being the friendly, fun, and a sparkly, kind person.  Having met her friends and especially her family, also gives a depth to understanding who Rav is, and she is exactly as you would hope from seeing her on TV.  

I hope to work with Rav again, and if her mum and grandma is there too then that’s a-ok with me.  Maybe next time we’ll get them all posing as Charlie’s Angels.  I can especially see Rav’s grandma Biji getting into that…

Shot for Waitrose Food Magazine

Flashback!

The Guardian Weekend Magazine has just had a redesign and relaunched under the new name Guardian Saturday Magazine. With the new redesign they have introduced the weekly feature ‘Flashback’. This weekly feature is about celebrities contributing a picture from the old days and they tell a story about that picture and that time in their lives. I have been been commissioned to do most of these shoots and so far it’s been very challenging but also really fun. Here are the first 4 shoots in the series that I have been involved in, with the help of Andie Redman who is responsible for the props and set:

• Sophie Elis Bextor and mum Janet Ellis

• Pepsi and Shirley

• Sindhu Vee and her dad

• Jamie Lang

Shot for The Guardian Saturday Magazine

Massimiliano and Raffaele Alajmo

I have too admit that the introduction to this trip to Padua didn’t bode well for an amazing meal.   We rocked up to a roadside hotel on the side of a semi industrial district of Padua, Sarmeola di Rubano, at about 11pm.  The hotel, only a few hundred meters from our final goal and objective of the trip, the acclaimed restaurant Le Calandre.  The hotel had closed and we had to call and wake up the staff to come and let us in.  There we were met with a hotel that felt like Miami Vice on a budget.  I eventually got to my room quietly hoping that the Le Calandre, a couple of hundred meters down the road, would be considerably better.

When I first saw the restaurant from the outside it didn’t look like we were up for much of an improvement.  The restaurant entrance and windows looked good, but the building looked more like a mix between a South of France building estate and an industrial warehouse.  However, as soon as we walked into the bistro that is in front of the restaurant itself, we realised we were somewhere special.  Le Calandre restaurant is run by the two brothers Massimiliano and Raffaele Alajmo.  Max (Massimiliano) is the chef and took the restaurant in 1992 and took it from one to two Michelin stars in 1996, making Max the youngest ever chef to get two Michelin stars at the age of 22.  At the age of 28 Max gained the restaurant its third Michelin star, making him the youngest ever chef to get that accolade.  The restaurant has maintained its three Michelin stars ever since and Chef Alajmo has been given the nickname “Il Mozart dei fornelli” (The Mozart of the stoves).

The restaurant is a family business run by the two brothers Max and Raf.  The adjoining bistro is run by their sister Laura.  The restaurants were previously run by their parents Erminio Alajmo and Rita Chimetto.  The family now run several of Italian and international restaurants as well as having a bakery section that supplies food to external shops, bistros, restaurants and cafes.  

So - when a chef like Max, receives me with open arms and insists that it is a true pleasure to be photographed by me, then it is a true sign of his humility and generosity.  We did not only get to eat the taster menu at Le Calandre, which was exceptional! - but we were also invited to dine in the Bistro and their new restaurant on St Mark’s Square.  For the latter we were transported on a wooden speedboat, not unlike what you see in a James Bond Movie.  

The restaurants run by the Alajmo family do not only provide excellent food, but also an experience that makes you smile and laugh, makes you excited and stimulate all your senses.  So - to call Max the Mozart of the stoves may be an understatement.  

Shot for Cook Magazine

Gareth Thomas

Having grown up in Norway, I have to admit that Rugby has never been on my radar.  However, having married a Welsh woman, the game came as part of the parcel.  I still have a hard time getting my head around all the rules, but I have started enjoying watching the game.  I also admire the physicality of the game.  The men and women who play the game sure aren’t afraid of a few bumps and bruises.

Gareth Thomas is welsh by name, and welsh by game!  Yes - one of the most well known and respected Welsh rugby players.  Not only has he shown guts and courage on the pitch, but he has also been open about his sexuality and having been diagnosed as HIV positive.  Gareth has had guts to come forward writing books about his experience, his sexuality and his diagnosis.  This shoot was for Gareth’s last book, a frank tale of his own life and experiences.  

This shoot took place at a golf club in Wales.  We had the changing room to our disposal.  Gareth, was as fun and kind as you’d hope he would be.  It’s a characteristic I find many of the rugby players have photographed are not brash or arrogant, but friendly and forthcoming.  

Shot for Penguin / Ebury Press