I was looking back at the Space Baby series of images that I made a few years ago and this one drew a wry smile. What comes next? I hope you're all well and staying safe.
photography
Iterations of a Garage /
Here are a small collection of the iterative maquette models for the garage at the Anywhere House in Canada. Because the rest of the house has been split down into individual rooms the scale of a garage seems huge in comparison. The right answer ended up lying in breaking the garage bulk down, giving it the appearance of two conjoined volumes, each comparable in scale to the other volumes in the house.
Tokyo Comp /
I created the Tokyo Penthouse images a couple of years ago, purely as a portfolio piece blending photography and CGI together. I was looking back at them and thought it would be good share these images of the various stages of creating the image - the raw photograph from the studio, the quick render with a 3D model person as a placeholder to help set up the shot, and then the final composition. When you're after lifestyle images of a property that hasn't been built yet, this is the creme de la creme.
deDraft's DA Residence /
I just realised that I haven't posted any photographs recently on my blog. So here's a lovely project by deDraft that I photographed back in the autumn.
Grant and his team have got off to a great start to 2018 with this project being shortlisted for this year's Don't Move, Improve awards. My fingers are crossed for them (and my other friends in contention, but mostly for deDraft).
Family Tree /
This summer was my mum and dad's golden wedding anniversary. With the whole family gathered in Liverpool to celebrate I took advantage of the moment and photographed all their sons, daughter-in-laws and grandchildren. Here's a little selection.
Photography on a Postcard /
Photography on a Postcard is opening tomorrow at The Printspace and this image from my series Space Baby is going to be part of the show. For £50 you can buy a lottery ticket which guarantees you one of the prints, you just don't know which one. It could be this photo of Jack or it could be a Wolfgang Tillmans image.
All proceeds are going to the Hepatitis C Trust’s campaign to eliminate hepatitis C from the UK by the year 2030.
You can get your lottery ticket here.
ToyDrop is on a mission /
After months of hard work and careful planning, my sister-in-law launched her shop of wonderful toys earlier this week.
Quoting her website verbatim, she says,
“ToyDrop is on a mission and that mission is simple: to raise a generation of kind, happy, sociable kids who grow up appreciating their things and the world around them. It's why all our toys are chosen to transcend age, gender and trends to form a collection of heirloom pieces that create conscious consumers from the very start.”
Not a bad mission to have, I’m sure you’ll agree!
For all the discerning architects amongst you, this jigsaw puzzle looks great! Perfect for a small child or an architects’ office secret Santa? I get the Bank of China building, Hong Kong, and the Gerkin, London, but after that I need a little help. Any suggestions?
What Paul Daniels told me about halos /
Paul Daniels was a really lovely guy to photograph. He was warm and friendly, and incredibly generous with his time. I met him in his dressing room before a show and Debbie McGee was there, repairing his jacket. There was the obligatory magician's rabbit hoping around. It was everything I could have hoped for from a meeting with the celebrity TV magician of my childhood.
As we walked down the street to where I wanted to take the portrait Paul started to explain to me the origin of the halo. He explained that back in the day sculptors started to add disks above the heads of their famous subjects to prevent their face from becoming awash with bird poo. With time this purpose was forgotten and the discs were simply associated with important people, and then in turn saints.
Now, a lot of my knowledge comes from stories like this. Often the stories are told to me in the pub where alcohol may have been consumed. Despite the world wide web being on my phone, in my pocket, I don't fact check these things. Wikipedia is not consulted. Had I referred to Google I would have found countless articles about the origins of the halo, almost none of which refer to bird excrement. But then why let facts stand in the way of a good story?
When I Grow Up /
I want to be...
Did you ever daydream when you were little? Over the last couple of months I've been whittling away on these images for Getty, exploring the day dreaming of a toddler (our Jack). Working on them between commissions has meant progress has been quite slow and there are more images to produce for the series, but I thought I'd share the progress so far.
WVWG Summer Exhibition /
Around the corner from where we live there's a little shop that runs a gallery of local artists' work in their window - Walthamstow Village Window Gallery. On Friday their summer exhibition is opening and Toddler with bucket and spade is going to be part of it. It's running until 3 September so there's plenty of time to see it while picking up your sourdough loaf from the shop opposite.
I am selling limited edition prints of Toddler with bucket and spade here.