40 page preview - Flipbook - Page 7
THE EARLY YEARS OF FILM & NEW EMERGING
MUSICAL TALENT
My journey started in 1994 when I decided I wanted to work for music magazines, as music
was an important part of my life. I couldn’t sing or play an instrument, so photography was my
way into the music scene and ultimately my creative outlet. I had been working as a fashion
photographer up to this point, having graduated from Middlesex University with a degree in
Fashion Design before turning my hand to the camera. So, when I showed up at the Touch
magazine offices with a predominantly fashion photography portfolio, the editor looked a
little bemused and asked me how I was going to make images of DJs look interesting, as my
subjects would not be beautiful models that I could manipulate. Most DJs, in his words, were
“dull-looking”. At that point the challenge was set and I convinced him to let me have a try.
With my trusty Nikon F3 camera, wide-angle lenses and a few rolls of Fuji transparency film, I
set off to North London to shoot my first music portrait – of British artist General Levy. I didn’t
really know much about his music at the time but had discovered that his tune “Incredible” had
reached No.8 in the UK Singles Chart and was the track that had taken Jungle, or Drum & Bass,
from its underground roots to having its first commercial recognition.To my surprise and delight,
the images were used on the cover of Touch and my career snowballed from there, bringing
me to the attention of a journalist at DJ Magazine who got me on board photographing artists
in the Jungle scene.
A month after my first music related job and front cover, a stylist I knew asked me to photograph
a friend of hers who was going to be in a girl group and in her words “were going to be huge”. I
agreed to the shoot, but to be perfectly honest I didn’t believe the hype. As a photographer, you
hear this sort of ambitious claim all the time and you become a little sceptical after seeing how
many artists don’t make it. The young woman came to my home, we completed a successful
shoot, and afterwards she saw some tarot cards on my desk. She asked me to predict her future
,I predicted absolutely nothing, but mercifully I’m a lousy fortune teller, as the young woman was
Geri Halliwell of the Spice Girls, only a member of the most famous and successful girl group a
couple of years later. It’s good to know, however, that some dreams do come true!
I continued to work for DJ magazine, but had also started working for Mixmag. An early
commision from Mixmag took me to Brighton to photograph Norman Cook (formely of the
Housemartins) whoes recent incarnation as Pizzaman consisted of himself and JC Reid. It was
on this trip the journalist discovered that Norman Cook was also Fatboy Slim who went on to
popularise the emerging Big Beat genre. As my reputation grew I began getting trips all over
the world, these are some of my highlight moments of my career thus far. I started receiving a
few commisions from Select magazine one of which resulted in an amazing trip, which I'll never
forget, to Seattle to photograph Nirvana bassist Krist Novaselic's new band Sweet 75.