Eleanor Jane

Anna Calvi LIVE - Total Guitar

A couple of weeks back I climbed aboard the Bristol Thekla, an awesome but pokey gig-venue-on-a-boat, and ventured down into the hull to shoot Anna Calvi for Total Guitar magazine. I'll have to wait to show you my favourite photo as it's not in the mag until next month but here's a bigger version of the portrait from this feature. Hurry hurry if you want to read the interview though as the July issue is only out for another week or so.

Anna Calvi has such incredible presence. During the gig I was totally captivated by her performance (& it had nothing to do with the quick lemon cider I'd had further down the river at The Apple - yum!). The entire audience were enchanted... a bit unnerving really!

Links 24.06.11

© Tracey Emin

♥ MusicRadar have just uploaded a video of the Zakk Wylde photoshoot I did for Guitarist magazine waaaaaay back in February. Rawwwwk!

♥ Naughty naughty! Five ways to improve your boudoir photography.

♥ This series of articles by Angus Young is an excellent guide to the world of film stills photography, a vital but often ignored part of the industry. It fascinated me particularly as despite having a few friends who work in film & television I've always found that area of photography completely impenetrable.

♥ Mission Everest: A Tale of Two Brothers is a super inspirational documentary. I wish they were my brothers (along with my regular little brother of course!) so I could join them on their adventures.

♥ Love Is What You Want. I'm eager to see Tracey Emin's major retrospective at London's Hayward Gallery. As your stereotypical female art student, coming of creative age in the later years of Sleazenation, Dazed & Confused, Saatchi mania and mainstream acceptance of the YBAs as credible fine art, Tracey Emin was an inspiration to be bold and true in my own practice. Whether her work will still move me over a year since I fell spectacularly and irreparably (it seems) out of love with the contemporary art scene (an event which I've never really explained on this blog) is something I'm curious to find out.

Aimee & Ashley

I'm always up for a wedding with lots of bright splashes of pink so when Aimee asked me to photograph her wedding I knew it was going to be just my cup of tea! Aimee Marie is a blogger, all round creative sort and advocate of everything girly & glittery - you can check out her website here. Ashley is a musician in multiple metal bands, all of which attended the wedding and made for some interesting group photos!

They were married on the border between Surrey and Hampshire and my early morning drive down was almost stereotypically picturesque. Quaint English villages, thatched roof cottages, gorgeous rolling countryside... I half expected Colin Firth to pop out of a bush in green farmer's wellies and tweed slacks! The venue, Northbrook Park, is such a pretty house with beautiful landscaped gardens (& half crazed peacocks!) but sadly they have imposed many many restrictions on where photography is allowed in the grounds, leaving some the most desirable locations completely out of bounds. Sigh... why do venues do this?!

Not to be put out we still managed to take some fantastic shots, my favourites being Aimee & Ashley in front of the log shed, laying down together on the lawn and walking through the trees in a tiny patch of woodland. Not to mention my most awesome signing-the-register picture ever!