I am really happy to announce that Ed James is back, with me representing him in London.

Although he has been shooting for some two decades, he continues to be interested, understand and utilise all the contemporary techniques now available, with the result that he produces work that focuses on his particular brand of still life photography: faultless execution and lighting but that is also heavy on the “ideas” side.

With him you get more than just a still life photographer, you also get an “ideas” man and a problem solver…. Someone with whom you can truly collaborate.

His work, as ever and always, looks believable and effortless, simple, stripped down with a particular clarity so that the viewer immediately understands the concept and the idea.

Take a look at my home page to find a link to more of Ed’s work.

Clive Booth is in the news again.

This time it is because a new film has been released on which he worked as the director of photography.

It is called “Attacking the Devil” and is a heart rending documentary, about the quest of our greatest living newspaper man, Sir Harry Evans, to publicise the plight and bring justice to those people who suffered because of the Thalidomide scandal of the 1950’s and 1960’s

Here is a link to a piece where Clive Booth explains how he approached the work. And how he had to adapt to the very different criteria and style of working whilst shooting a documentary, as opposed to that of shooting the more commercially driven enterprises, with which he is used to being involved. This same link will allow you to see a trailer for the film as well  :  http://cpn.canon-europe.com/content/education/technical/canon_explorer_clive_booth_on_being_dop_on_attacking_the_devil_film.do

To all those of you who would love to own a Don McCullin print but cannot afford to do so, and to those of you who just like owning great books on photography, Don has produced a massive tome!

It has within its covers, 1,300 pages of print and over 700 images, spread over three boxed volumes. Many images have never before been published.

For me, the really interesting aspect of the work is the remarkable quality and level of its printing. I have never (and I own hundreds of photographic books) seen such amazing production.

I return to how I started this piece… the print quality of the images in this book, will bring you closer to owning an original print than you will ever be able to achieve besides actually buying one.
Especially true of those images those that are bled to the edge of the page.

The downside is that there will be only 1000 of these printed. After that its all over.

Here is the link to the site where you can buy a copy: http://donmccullin.com/

A news story today is about a 35 year old Russian, requiring rescue off the stormy coast at the south end of Tiree. Which is way North in the Highlands.

This is interesting to us because the crew that had the “shout” to go onto these extremely dangerous waters and effect the rescue, were the same crew with whom Clive Booth has been working for this past year.

Clive has produced a book and exhibition on the people of Islay, with particular focus of the day to day lives of this RLNI crew.

Having shot the images, he was invited by Canon to re-trace his steps with a film crew in tow, and so have a documentary made of his journey.

Canon are the only camera manufacturer that produce cameras, lenses, printers, papers, inks and software that share technology, and that are designed to work together and so create a synergy not found elsewhere.

This film of Clive was made to promote this aspect of the Canon products, with a focus on the printing process.

Back to the Russian….. it seems he had stolen a yacht to effect an escape and had taken it into very harsh waters, in extremely bad conditions and as he was not a sailor, he had to call for help. Having been rescued, he is now in deeper waters, as he has been arrested and is facing charges under international law.

The brave men and women who risk their lives to attempt to save people in danger out at sea, do not question the back-story to who or why the situation in which they are involved has arisen; they just go out day or night, calm or rough and do it.

And here is a link to the whole Canon piece. There are three films featuring Clive taking pictures, processing them and printing them. For anyone out there keen to improve the final output of their photographic work, this is a must see series :

http://www.canon-europe.com/printers/inkjet/pro-photo-printers/imageprograf-pro-1000/

Here is a link to the news story :

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-35595289

It all started with a pair of Chelsea boots. Internationally renowned top male model, David Gandy liked his Chelsea boots so much that one thing lead to another and he ended up buying Daniel Preston, the London based shoe designer/manufacturer.  David and Rich have collaborated a lot in the past so it was natural that he should ask Rich to photograph him and his new products.

Life Books have produced a Special Commemorative Edition ‘Bookazine’ to celebrate the TV show Downton Abbey.

The edition features a large selection of images taken by Clive Booth from his work with the cast.

Life was an iconic magazine as far as its ability to edit and select interesting and relevant photography, and up until its demise (as a weekly magazine) in 1972, it never failed to deliver.

Although Life Magazine as it was, has not been published for many a year, these books are all put together with the same spirit and care for the sourcing of original, little seen images, relevant to the subject.

Check the one on Dylan or those on each of the Beatles…….

The motto of the first issue of Life was: “While there’s Life, there’s hope.”

And at the time when it took to publishing photography instead of illustration, its philosophy could well be taken up by publishers of today’s lack lustre media :

“”To see life; to see the world; to eyewitness great events; to watch the faces of the poor and the gestures of the proud; to see strange things — machines, armies, multitudes, shadows in the jungle and on the moon; to see man’s work — his paintings, towers and discoveries; to see things thousands of miles away, things hidden behind walls and within rooms, things dangerous to come to; the women that men love and many children; to see and take pleasure in seeing; to see and be amazed; to see and be instructed…”

Over time it featured the work of Margaret Bourke-White, Robert Capa, Cartier Bresson, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Andrea Feininger, Dorothea Lange, Lee Miller, Gordon Parks, Eugene Smith, Steichen and many, many more greats.

It was great collaborating with the team at Life Books in New York City. They were a breath of fresh air to work with.

This year sees the release of McCullins updated Autobiography ‘Unreasonable Behaviour’ and ‘The New Definitive Edition’ coffee table book. In joint honour of these new releases & McCullins 80th birthday his long standing relationship with Hamiltons Gallery has culminated in a collaboration to exhibit some of his most loved and personal favourite images in oversized prints, never before seen on such a scale.

More information about the exhibition, running until the 3rd October at Hamiltons Gallery can be found here – http://www.hamiltonsgallery.com/exhibitions/104/overview/

It is absolutely worth a visit.

John Offenbach has recently shot the newly erected 15th Serpentine Pavilion. Designed by the Selgascano studio which is headed up by José Selgas and Lucía Cano; The Pavilion is an amorphous, double-skinned, polygonal structure consisting of panels of a translucent, multi-coloured fluorine-based polymer (ETFE) woven through and wrapped like webbing.

If  you want a complicated shoot it doesn’t get much more involved than this…..

The guys at Wieden and Kennedy came up with this concept for a  T.V. commercial (which you have probably seen by now?) and wanted it captured on stills.

So off went John to Kiev and up a cherry picker that looked like it was built in the 50’s and was ready for scrapping.

After two days shooting with a bunch of special effects guys, a few days doing CGI at The Mill and then putting it all together at Stanley’s Post, here is the result.

When shooting such a project, where there are so many different elements, it takes someone as skilled and attentive to detail as John Offenbach to produce images that ultimately help the post production houses put it altogether seamlessly.

Some credits :

Agency Producer : Mark D’Abreo

Agency Designer : Sanket Avlani

Creative Director : Scott Dungate

Production : Radioaktive (in Kiev) & Mark George

Post Production : The Mill & Stanley’s Post

Here are some behind the scenes for you to get an insight to the ‘hight’ of this production!

Clive has spent many months working closely with the people of Islay to produce his wonderful ongoing project ‘Iileachs’.

Canon featured an article by CPN writer Ian Farrell based on Clive’s time spent documenting Islay using the Canon EOS-1D X and EOS 5DS.

 Read Canon’s article on Clive’s project here