Joy to the World...

I'm marking May, the 30th Anniversary of the death of Ian Curtis, with a new set of my Joy Division photographs. This new offer includes a booklet containing 26 of my images from their 1979 Bowdon Vale gig, a pack of four postcards, and a poster from the original exhibition of these photographs. (Signed if you want..!) The first 100 purchases will also receive a free signed invitation from the opening exhibition.

£20 including postage within the UK ! Get 'em here...

Silent Movie...

Well, it was until I put that rock music over the top....
Anyway..tell everyone...My new advert...now showing at a Registry Office in Warrington near you..unless you're not near Warrington in which case..oh, bugger it..watch it here...!

Money, money, money.....

..Yeah, it MUST be funny in a Rich Man's World !

Holy Swearing..I've just had two pecuniary frights in the space of half an hour !!

Fright One...my car tax...(Ok..it's not about photography but stick with it...)
It said on the form that 6 month's tax is £118.25. I go to pay said amount and am told it's now £134.75.
"But it says on the form £118.25" I say...."Hmmm" says Post Office lady...(Actually, I hope she wasn't just humming out of boredom or something!)   Anyway...turns out, the Government can charge whatever it likes, despite what it's put down on its forms....Grrrrrrrr!!!!

Fright Two...Aaah..photography! So, I amble past my local Max Speilley's  and see...THIS!
PhotoShoot ... (Ok, read that with the wry smile it deserves!) and TEN prints, including an 8x6 in a mount, for....£5.99 !!!! (Is that enough !'s ?)

Holy S.H.I.T dear snappers.....There goes yer passin' trade..your impulse buyer.....your career!!!!

Jeez..Could you demean the status of photographer any more than this??
Mind you, I only need to shoot 22 and a half babies and I'll keep the wheels on the road for a six month !!!

Now hear this....

Wise words from brill photographer Larry Fink...??

What advice do you have for young photographers?
"If you are smitten with obsession then you will survive and the world will be larger for it...
If not, you might simply make a living or simply go broke."

Simples!

Ode to Joy Division

Nice use of one of my Joy Division photographs in today's Independent on Sunday.
Amazing (shocking!) to think it was 30 years ago that Ian Curtis died, and amazing (fantastic!) that Joy Division are being re-discovered by new generations all the time.

Timely too, as my Joy Division range of T-shirts is being launched at the beginning of May by Tokyo designer clothes range Lad Musician. Very Exciting!

The morning after the night before...

Morning dear readers...! Fluffy head today as it was the opening of my new exhibition last night.
( This is me with Lord and Lady Grey of Codnor....I'm shooting their daughter's wedding in September! )
Thanks to everyone else who came to see it/me....was good to catch up...(Yes, YOU Mr Boden..and thanks for the shot!)
Florescence, my flower photography, is now up for a four week run at High Legh Garden Centre...catch it whilst you can! (Hic!)

Oh, and happy St George's Day !!

Ooooh....

The signs are all there....there's a new set of my photographs online.
Shot with my Olympus XA, a lovely 35mm compact, in the 1980's..these are shots that didn't make it into my book 'Don't Miss This'..but have warranted a new look and an airing to the public!

Check 'em out...

It's Life, Gym!

Two nice pictures used in this week's Crain's Manchester Business.
Coupla great guys who've set up a gym 'with a difference' in Stockport.
(Think you can guess that by the bloody great tyre!)

Smile, flower!

The Manager at High Legh Garden Centre hams it up as he heads past my exhibition..yes, it's on the wall at last!
Go see it, or check out the images here......

I've worked hard on this..I hope you like it!

I'm on TV, ma....

Well, my new advert is!
I've got a small commercial running on a new plasma screen TV within Warrington Registry Office, so check me out if you're popping in to register your forthcoming marriage or the arrival of little Freddie...

Bloomin' Amazin' !!

Ladies and Gentlemen..I give you....My New Exhibition !!

Wow!

No words needed...Well done that snapper!
(Marco Fulle...)

Tentative link...

...and bugger all to do with anything, but I just got Facebook'd this link, and had to share it.
I shot this photo of poor old Steve Wotsit, from that old Vets programme (I obviously paid attention!) for OK! Magazine about a zillion years ago. It fits in nicely 'cos it's all to do with animals and Steve looks like...the great JAKE THACKRAY!

Goin' Nowhere....

My mate went shopping at Iceland the other day..he was asked if he wanted "ash back"...hahahah...

Sorry, I guess it's not funny if this whole Mother Nature Moment is affecting you, but at least it gives me another chance to show an old shot of Manchester Airport, with a good ol' Pan-Am 727 in the foreground, and a British Airways VC-10 behind.

Anyways..back to the comp to get my Florescence show finished...two days before it goes up at High Legh Garden Centre....

Following the white trails of planes...

 ..except..they've gone!

I wanted to do a shot to show the skies sans con-trails, now that flying's banned over the UK.
But, let's face it..a picture of clear blue sky is just a picture of clear blue sky..even when shot by an artist like wot I am !!!
Then...the sun went down last night and...da daaaaaaa....the new moon, with Venus just below it...and not a jet-trail in sight!

(Following the white trails of planes, by the way, is an album by Chris Rainbow from about 1978 !)
Far out, maaaan!

Up the wall, flower!

Oooh , good news! My photographs of flowers and leaves - Florescence - is going up on de walls...!
High Legh Garden centre, near Lymm, is giving me a space to show my "art" from Tuesday 20th, for four weeks. Drop by, buy snowdrops...see my snaps.....Sneak Preview here....!!

Anything interesting happen at work today, dear..?

Oh, the usual........NOT!

(This shot taken from my Eccles series...)

Just put it there...

Shot a portrait for a newspaper yesterday that involved this hunky guy that runs his own gym in Stockport. Had fun arranging the flash to light a man in black sitting in a black tyre on a black mat in a dark room...but I think I did alright!!

Boardom!

Right...I'm all blogged out so here we go with the last one of the day...

Well..it's another of my projects that I want you to see....

It's called BOARDOM...not a spelling mistake as you'll see when you click.....

Lift Off!

So..time to pile into the old negs again...and further to my blog the other day about the difficulties/dangers of street photography today..take a look at these.
Shot at Manchester Airport in the '70's...or Ringway, as it was called then! Man, you could walk around anywhere and it didn't cross your mind to lob a grenade off the terrace, or pick off a pilot with your Gat gun....(Or maybe it's just 'cos I was 17 and more interested in the photography 'n planes!!!) Just look at the crowds above the jet! Ah, innocent times...but hey, Laker, Dan-Air...great memories for the plane-spotters amongst you (Me included, obviously!)
One or two more here...

Hello Flower!

It's finished!
Just in time for Spring...Florescence is my fantastic new collection of 142 flower and plant photographs, designed as a set of amazingly vivid 48 inch montages...So pleased to have finally finished this project, and thrilled with how it looks! Even better news is it looks like I've got somewhere to show 'em, too!
Stay tooned....I might even invite you to the opening!!

Sun's Out !

Well..it was briefly, and it reminded me of one of my recently re-discovered photographs...sun-bathers in Manchester. Look again..the whole of that square is now built on and unrecognisable...the shot's over 20 years old! A fine example of a simple snap now describing history...something it's becoming more and more difficult to do with the growth of the public paranoia over photography...correction, the paranoia over public photography. It's bloody nerve-wracking to point a camera in the street these days. One steels oneself for an angry investigation and undeserved suspicion. In the 'old days' I could quite confidendently walk up to people, camera in hand, and be rewarded with a smile and a thank-you..people were flattered to be photographed! Gone are the days when I could merrily shoot shots like these....The irony being, of course, that we live in a digital world...where EVERYONE is a photographer and they're taking public photographs all the time!
Without being stored though, never mind being printed...those photographs/memories/slices of history just disappear into the Flickrsphere, never to be seen again.

Now, where's my sunscreen?...and don't even get me started on sunshine being bad for us....!

Commercial Photography

Ha ha ha...Commercial Photography...So THAT'S how you do it !!!
This is so funny.... It's all about Light..you need it from a direction !!

Out on the town..

..for an photographic exhibition opening at the Royal Exchange in Manchester.  Old and New City is a show by a coupla pals of mine. Howard Barlow and David Dunnico have had their vastly differing shots thrown together by the theatre for the run of their current performance, A Comedy of Errors (Don't read anything into that, guys!!)
Great pix..go check 'em out...

RIP Dude.....

So, Malcolm McLaren has left the building...sad day.
Photographed him at an 'In the City' event in Manchester many moons ago, and he was really lovely.
How bland would the music world have been without his genius??

Dream on.....

One in, one out...???

Looks like curtains for our Lenny & Dawn, but as one marriage sadly fades, an exciting new one pops up on the horizon. Hey guys..looking for a photographer??

Tough Times....

No, not petrol at £1.20 a litre...I'm talking about the hard times that Professional Photographers are currently enduring. Currently? Hmmm...I see it going on after the recession is over, because we've been hit by a double-whammy! The recession AND the fact that, with digital cameras, everyone suddenly thinks they can do our job! An article in the New York Times, as well as one in Sunday's Observer, spelt it out....

To the pub...Raise your glasses!

An odd sight at my local last Saturday...a whole room full of people wearing dark glasses. Not a mass hang-over, but the 3D showing of the Manchester United game! Clever stuff how these new spex work..gone are the old green and red days and in comes polarisiation..or something !
Technology moves on...just need to work on the scoreline now!

Died on Good Friday....

No..not HIM...this guy! One shot..photographic fame..then the irony of not getting work becasue people thought he'd be too expensive! Pain in the ass!

Back to basics....

Just puttin' out the feelers....a few people have approached me asking if I'd run a tuition event..maybe a full-blown course, or perhaps just a half-day get-together ..just to get folks up to speed with their hi-faluttin' digi cameras...would that be of interest to anyone?

Happy Easter everybody!

Ah, Easter....Spring..Bank Holidays...Relaxation...!

Yeah, right! Well, I guess it's a sign of the hard times we're having, but I will be having a break this Easter, as I don't have a wedding booking...boo hoo! Hell of a change from my Press days at the Manchester Evening News when Easter was always so busy. Four days off? No chance..but I loved every minute and photographed everything from Easter Egg hunts to Spring Fairs and everything in between....(Cutting edge journalism, eh?) Have a good 'un, y'all !