In November and December of last year I was asked to take the rehearsal and production photographs for Phyllida Lloyd’s all-female Julius Caesar at the Donmar Warehouse.
The premise is that a women’s prison is staging a production of Julius Caesar, so the theatre was very effectively turned into a stark, dank prison. The cast largely stay in character but occasionally slip back to their prison personas.
I loved the transformation of Cush Jumbo as Mark Anthony, grieving for the slain Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar was played brilliantly by Frances Barber who turned him into a thuggish bully.
Please click on the thumbnails to see larger images, including the excellent Jenny Jules as Cassius.
The play has received some fantastic reviews. I thought it was fascinating to see an all-female production. Like Propeller, which performs all male Shakespeare, just having one gender of actors provides a different insight into the play. Five minutes into the start I stopped thinking of the actors as women, and just saw the characters. The actors themselves were terrific – I thought the cast were uniformly strong. It was one of my favourite shows to have worked on last year, but also one of the best I have seen as well. I understand it has sold out, but if you can beg or borrow a ticket then it is running at the Donmar until the 9th of Feb.
I was pretty busy in the Autumn and didn’t have time to blog as much as I would have liked, so here are some images I took back in September. Soho Theatre asked me to take photographs of the cast of A Clockwork Orange for the show poster and for general PR and marketing purposes.
I started by taking taking some studio images of Martin McCreadie who played Alexander DeLarge
Please click on a thumbnail to see a larger image.
More cast members joined us to take some outdoor images. We used the back streets near the Soho Theatre – always useful for creating a seedy and run down look.
The entire cast were lovely to work with – very charming and relaxed whilst parading about Soho in vests and braces. Directed by Alexandra Spencer-Jones, the show got some great reviews.
Christmas is always a great time to visit with old friends. It certainly felt that way when I stopped in to do another photoshoot for ‘Shrek the Musical’. I was asked to capture more behind the scene photos while they filmed their music video of “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” in support of the charity Crisis.
Dean Chisnall (Shrek) is clearly working the Christmas Magic with Carley Stenson (Princess Fiona) under the mistletoe.
Please click on the thumbnails to see larger images.
Not all grinches are green proven by Neil McDermott performing as the colourful Lord Farquaad.
In true rock and roll style Pinocchio throws his suitcase through the glass window of the recording studio. There was only one pane of “sugar glass” so both the camera man and I had to make sure we got the shot. It is disconcerting to say the least, to have stay still and keep snapping as you are being covered by shards of window. Of course the “glass” could do no damage to me, but it makes a loud noise.
The video was filmed in the Ballet Room within the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, where Shrek continues its highly successful run. Click below to see the music video:
Cerys Matthews recently performed at The Hippodrome Casino in London and the Hippodrome asked me to take some images for promotional use. When I first started out I took a lot of live music photography. As my career has progressed I have specialised in theatre, wedding and corporate photography, and the more work you do in a certain field, the more contacts you build and therefore you continue to do more. But I do really enjoy music photography so I jumped at the chance.
With live music, you are only allowed to take photos for the first two songs, which can be a little limiting. In theatre I often have the whole dress rehearsal so there are a lot more opportunities. But like so much of photography, your job is to work within the constraints and produce the photos. I stayed on to watch Cerys and was surprised by her easy charm and great musicianship. I hadn’t listened to her much since her Catatonia days, but she held the audience captivated and it was a very good evening.
Kirsty and Marcus were showered with confetti as they left the church.
The wedding ceremony
Marcus and Kirsty had decided to get their baby daughter Lily baptised during the church service. The Curate, the Rev’d Peter Wintgens took the three of them to the font where they were joined by God parents, bridesmaids and page boys for the service.
Lily was fast asleep at the beginning of the baptism and was rather startled when the water was poured over her head. She was soon distracted by the candle however and was given a kiss by proud dad Marcus.
It was a relatively short day for me as I was simply covering the wedding, baptism and a few portraits afterwards. The couple then took their family and friends to Ascot where they celebrated their day.
Ali Craig, Stuart Ryan and Keith Fleming as Bobby Burgess
Please click on the thumbnails to see larger images.
I have worked for Frantic Assembly before and I always find them a fascinating company to watch. Their shows have dialogue, but always feature a large amount of movement and dance. Beautiful Burnout is no exception, and the combination of boxing and dance is at times breathtaking. The show is on tour at the moment and I cannot recommend it enough, upcoming dates include Newcastle, Southampton and Hull.
Last weekend I photographed the civil partnership of Mark and Jeremy in London.
Jeremy and Mark
I started at the couple’s home in London where they were getting ready.
The couple have two beautiful rag doll cats, Oscar and Elmo.
The civil partnership and reception were held at The Roof Gardens in Kensington.
Please click on the thumbnails to see larger images.
The couple are Australian and family and friends had flown from all over the world to be with them that day.
The reception was held outside as it was a warm and sunny day. The Roof Gardens are beautiful, and four flamingos live there, an unusual spectacle, six floors up in the centre of Kensington.
Jeremy’s father Bill came over from Canada and was the master of ceremonies for the speeches.
Jeremy’s Best Woman, Liz, flew in from New York and gave a lovely speech.
The couple promised everyone they had the campest cake anyone had ever seen, and they did not disappoint. Note Elmo and Oscar on the top tier, a disco ball and sandcastles.
Agatha Christie’s “The Mousetrap” is the world’s longest running stage production and there is now a 60th Diamond Anniversary Tour starting this fall throughout the UK. I popped in to take a few production photographs for the new touring show.
Andrea’s young nephew Cameron enjoying being thrown into the air by his dad Mike.
Alex had three best men, Mike, Mitt and Barry and all of them gave excellent speeches.
Alex’s sister Carla and the couple’s friend Chris both had birthdays, so after a round of happy birthdays, they both blew out the candles on their birthday cakes.
I was recently asked to go to Bristol to shoot the rehearsals for The Lion King. There is a permanent show at the Lyceum Theatre in London, but demand has been so high for tickets that Disney have created an additional production that tours across the country.
I was asked to capture lots of different aspects of the tour’s creation, from the rehearsals to the make-up and costumes, to the actual building of the set in Bristol’s Hippodrome Theatre.
The photos are being used for press and PR purposes. Here is a tear sheet from an article featuring my photos from the Bristol Post. The show will be in Bristol until November 17th, before moving on to Manchester, Dublin and Birmingham. The tour is getting great reviews and I would definitely recommend it.
