Christmas crackers ..

I somehow managed to drink solidly for 9 hours straight yesterday! I must be Christmas crackers! The occasion was the works' 'Office do' which, as a self-employed freelance photographer, involved hitching up with, in this case, four other freelance snappers for a meal and severalteen gallons of mulled wine. Big 'up' to the Deli-Lama cafe in Salford for a delicious Christmas meal (Turkey and all the trimmings in a plate-sized Yorkshire Pud! Oooh, I could just eat it all over again!) and well done to Manchester Christmas Market, which was as glittery, giddy and exciting as ever. The highlight of the day must have been the sight of five professional photographers fumbling with each others' compact cameras and trying to get the flashes to work as we all took photographs of each other taking photographs of each other .. if you see what I mean! Good news of the day was that we're all still managing to make a living as said professionals .. and the shock of the day was when one of the guys came out as gay and told me he'd fancied me for years! How's that for a Christmas surprise!...

Grub up! ..

Well, here's something to get your teeth into! I seem to be setting a trend here, based around food, glorious food! You've already seen that I spent Monday shooting PR pix in a sausage factory, and last week I was back at Smiths restaurant in Eccles to put up some new food-themed photographs from my Twelve for '13 archive. Today I'm returning to the Deli-Lama Cafe in Salford to put up a banner of Joy Division photographs that will form a backdrop to gigs during the Salford Music festival, but the BIG news is that I've just been selected to shoot the brochure for a new restaurant in Manchester. I can't tell you whose restaurant it is, although my pals James and Martin might be able to drop you the odd hint!! How exciting! Anyone for seconds?..

Stop Press: Had a portrait sitting at the studio this morning. The sitter brought me a bacon butty!!  Foodtastic!!....

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Food for thought ..

I now have two exhibitions going on at the same time in Salford - one in a café and one in a restaurant! At least you won't starve to death if you to see any of my work! I've got Joy Division shots at the Deli-Lama Café, along with a selection of my Twelve for '13 Eccles archive - and I've got 'food' themed photography at Smiths restaurant in Eccles along with a couple of .. er, Smiths shots from 1984! One of these days I'll have to try my luck with an exhibition in a proper grown-up gallery but, as they say, a wall is a wall! Food for thought ..

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The icing on the cake ..

I hadn't even had my breakfast this morning when I got an email from a local gallery asking if I'd be interested in showing some of my work! Erm .. yes, I would! Too bloody right, I would! I've got so many different projects and archives that I'd love to get out there, so it's off to Altrincham for coffee on Tuesday and watch - as they say - this space!

My pal Ed Blaney, the organiser of the Salford Music Festival, rather surprised me when he announced on Facebook last night that my Joy Division exhibition at the Deli-Lama cafe will be a great backdrop to the gigs that are coming up there over the period of the festival. I didn't realise it was actually a venue for the festival! That's handy!

Today sees the publication of Pure Weddings magazine, featuring one of my Weddings from the summertime. Ironically, it's pouring with rain as I write this, and it was the heavy downpours on that June day that made Dee and Ian's Wedding day so .. er .. interesting! Can't wait to see it!

The icing on the cake, though? This message from Lucy, who picked up her Wedding album the other day."Our beautiful wedding album has arrived and it's wonderful... all thanks to Martin O'Neill. Pictures are stunning  - absolutely made up!"

I like that!..


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Download as wallpaper ..

If you're a Joy Division fan you'll have almost certainly seen the Anton Corbijn film 'Control'. It's about the life and times of the band and their lead singer, the late Ian Curtis. Anyway it was, once again, the DVD of choice for Lesley and I over the Bank Holiday although, as usual, she had to plead with me not to cry at the end. I know, I know ..

Much to Lesley's annoyance, though, I still get a kick out of pausing the film when they show the band supposedly playing The Hope and Anchor in London. The top shot is a photograph I took of the screen. Look familiar? Yes, it looks uncannily like my shots from Bowdon Vale, and I'm so flattered! When I went to the film's northern opening at Cornerhouse I met Orian Williams, one of the producers of the film, and he told me that yes, the scene was based on my photographs. Seems the late, great Tony Wilson took him to see my exhibition when it was on at The Rampant Lion pub in South Manchester, and he got his inspiration from my shots! Let's hear it for dodgy wallpaper! ..

(PS: If you'd like to see some of the self-same prints from that Rampant Lion show, they're on at the Deli-Lama cafe in Salford for the next two months!)

#culchethstudio
www.studiofivefour.com

On a high ..

Well, it worked! My pr shoot came off spectacularly yesterday, and we successfully arranged 200 people into the shape of a new company logo on the staff car-park, and had them back in their offices again .. in 15 minutes flat! Happily, the sun came out, as you can see, and I even managed to make a one-minute stop-motion film of the event as it unfolded! Unfortunately I can't show you any of it at the mo, as I've not yet had the ok from the company, so you'll have to make-do with second-best .. a picture of me! I'd given a spare camera to the marketing lady, and asked if she'd pop off a shot or two whilst we were still arranging the group. It's a shame it's framed like it is. It's so nearly a good photograph, and a perfect illustration of how a 'non-photographer' can't see a shot. This would have been great if she'd just worked a little on that reflection in the window, but she cropped it thus and so I'm stuck with it! Anyway, one of me is enough for anyone!...

One of me is all you'll get tonight at the opening of my new exhibition. If you're at a loose end this evening come down to the Deli-Lama cafe in Salford to check out some of my work. I'm showing some of my Joy Division pictures, and a wall of shots from my Eccles archive. There's beer, cheese and crusty bread up for grabs, too!

Off to the studio now! Matthias' parents are coming in to view the work we shot last week. He's the little fella that peed all over my floor, and that's him you can see in the link! Aw!..

God, I'm on a high ...

#culchethstudio
www.studiofivefour.com

Curtain up ..

And so we're back to Monday, and this week sees the curtain-raiser to my latest exhibitions - another chance to view 'I Remember Nothing' - my series of images from the Joy Division Bowdon Vale gig of 1979 -  and 'Down the Line' - a selection of photographs from my archive of 1970s black and white documentary work. They're both on at the funkily-named Deli-Lama cafe in Salford, and are being shown to coincide with Salford Music Festival, coming up in September. I hope you can make it down there!..

Today's picture? Oh, that came from Friday's Wedding at Heaton House Farm, near Leek. A couple of members of staff were just about to part the curtains as the new Mrs and Mrs Angove were announced into their Wedding Breakfast. It was an absolutely brilliant Wedding day! Sunshine, fizz .. cricket! Have a look here! ..

Anyway, off for an afternoon at the studio now and I'll leave you with the worst joke of the century.

Man: Doctor, I keep thinking I'm a pair of curtains!
Doctor: Pull yourself together, man!

Boom, boom ..

(Don't worry, I'm sticking to the photography ...)

#culchethportraitstudio
www.studiofivefour.com

Stamp your mark ..

I passed a derelict Post Office in Salford yesterday. God knows how long it's been closed but look at this .. a book of stamps for 50p! A book! Nowadays a single first class stamp costs 60p! Anyway, I was on my way to the Deli-Lama cafe on Chapel Street, who have said I can have their walls for a mini Music Photography exhibition when they next become available. Don't all rush out at once, though! We're talking this time next year! God knows how much stamps will cost then!..

I'm going to Bradford today to check out the Tom Wood exhibition at the Media Museum though be warned .. I may return an envy-ridden, spiteful twisted snapper! There's just something about his work that makes me think 'Well, if they're showing his, why don't show mine?' The green-eyed monster has risen!..

Great times for PR photography at the mo! This week I'm shooting everything from a plain old cheque presentation to a Teaching Academy event, from winners of a motorbike competition to a new brochure with Gordon Burns, and next week I've a whole day in a cheese-factory to look forward to! I'm really enjoying stamping my style on the work...