Football, Gigs & Horses

So the World Cup is upon us (in case you hadn’t noticed) which means flags on cars, people bunking off work, and unrealistic hopes and expectations that England might actually win this year (not that I’m being negative – of course I want us to win!).

Came across this fan:

He was reliving his memories of ’66 when England won the World Cup, and explaining the significance of his T-Shirt, which has a print of the front of a magazine from the 70s.

He, like many others, was in Trafalgar Square to watch England’s first match against the USA.  However, there was a slight problem. The big screen that was up the day before, had gone.

Whilst the Mayor of London – Boris Johnson (who I did not vote for I’d like to point out) had a ceremony in Trafalgar Square the day before, to celebrate the opening of the games with a large screen, this was taken down the following day.  Why? Well, apparently it was only up for  South Africa’s first game against Mexico, yet for England’s matches, Boris didn’t give a toss, to put it mildly, and thought it’d attract too many people.

So,  Boris flew to South Africa to experience the World Cup first hand, leaving Londoners without a single outdoor screen in central London.  Whilst other cities in the country and around the world have public screenings, London has nothing – not in any of the large parks, not in Trafalgar Square – nada.  Thanks Boris – what a wonderful Mayor you are.  “3rd world” cities have more provisions for their citizens than we do.  Let’s hope he fixes up for the Olympic Games, although hopefully by then he won’t be Mayor.

I’m not bitter, honest.

England vs Slovenia in the office:

I’m sure many offices around the country looked like that at 3pm on Wednesday, when England had to win to go through to the second round.

Across the road in Broadgate Circle:

(Broadgate Circle is in the City of London – not in central London, and the only open-air public screen in London which is not maintained by the council. I’m sure Boris would have had this taken down if he had the power to!)

The crowd was mainly full of office workers in suits since the area is in the heart of corporate London.

The only vuvuzela in sight!

We did it!  Germany up next..

Shoreditch is an ever evolving hub of street art.

This is by PEN1:

I eventually finished the roll of Ilford Pan 400 that I bought in India but shot in the UK.

A protest opposite Downing Street:

They asked me to take their picture:

The protest was about 17 Sikh men sentenced to death in the UAE.  Pamphlets were being handed out they didn’t explain why they were on death row.

Parliament Square:

I went to Blackpool for work.  The view from the hotel:

The famous Blackpool tower:

Earlier that evening Blackpool Football Club had paraded through the town in celebration of being promoted to the English Premiership.

Some fans saw my camera and one of the girls got excited and wanted a picture, so I asked her friend if she also wanted to be in it.  A guy with them then got aggressive and said to me ‘What the fuck do you want a picture for?  You could be a pervert for all we know!”.  I said ‘Yeah, I could be – do I look like a pervert?  Anyway, no worries.”  I then walked off not wanting to provoke him since he was drunk.

I could hear one of the girls telling him not to be so mean and that she wanted a picture.  I had a feeling he would call me back, and he did.  He said he wanted to be in the picture too.  I joked and said ‘are you suuure?’ and he insisted he really wanted a picture:

At that point I couldn’t care less about the image but just thought it was funny how he switched so dramatically.

This girl wanted a picture too:

The perfect city for me would always be by the sea.

Back in London, I shot Matisyahu at The Borderline:

The venue was pretty small, and shooting was quite awkward since there was no designated photo pit.  The music was brilliant – it was an acoustic set and included beatboxing, which I didn’t know Matisyahu did until then!

From feel-good reggae in a cosy bar to heavy metal at the Forum:

The Haunted and Slayer.

I love the guitar:

His guitar rocks too

Some other random images from gigs I shot months ago.

John Butler Trio at HMV Apollo:

Florence & The Machine at Brixton Academy:

I might do a concert-related blog soon.  How I wish I as at Glastonbury this weekend.. next year I have to go!

A couple of pictures from Royal Ascot, taken with my compact digital:

As always, thanks for looking

Skunk Anansie, Jillian Edelstein & A Sunday Market

At the end of November I shot Skunk Anansie at Brixton Academy which was absolutely epic, to say the least.

Supporting were The Chemists:

They weren’t too bad, considering I’d only heard negative things about them.

Compared to Skunk Anansie though, I think it’s fair to say they were quite bland.

There was a 45 minute wait for the main band, and the atmosphere was pretty immense.  There were around 15 of us in the photo pit and one photographer turned to the crowd and got them to scream for him as he took pics – he really egged them on almost as though he was there performing for them.  I have to say, I was quite impressed with his tactics, and I’d love to find out who he was so I can see how his pics came out.  I spoke to a few photographers who were  really friendly, although one woman who I thought I recognised from a conversation I’d had on Flickr gave me the cold shoulder when I asked her what her Flickr account is  Oh, well!

Skin was dressed up as a giant gold and silver pom pom.

She really performed for the photographers.

I don’t think these images do the gig the justice it deserves.  Skin walked ON the crowd (yes, on) a few times.. eight years after they last toured, it’s like they never left the scene.

Full set: http://www.flickr.com/photos/city_poet/sets/72157622883109734/

Some random pictures over the past couple of months.

:D

Oxford Street Christmas lights:

Along with 60 others, I got selected as part of a competition to be shot by celebrity photographer Jillian Edelstein. Very exciting stuff!  The idea was for her to capture 61 pairs of eyes over 2 days.  When I arrived, there was a makeup artist on hand to emphasise the eyes, and Jillian decided to shoot me with a mask.

I’m not sure if it worked –  I saw some of the other girls’ images and no one else seemed to be wearing a mask.. I wonder if Jillian was trying to tell me something! :P

Anyway, I’m not sure which image she’s going to pick for the online  gallery (it’s not up yet), and I didn’t feel best-placed to voice my opinion, after all, she’s shot the likes of Nelson Mandela so I’m sure she knows what she’s doing!  It was great to meet her and obviously a pleasure to be photographed by her.  I took her portrait : )

The latest Unilever Series installation at the Tate Modern, by Miroslaw Balka:

It’s basically a giant steel container immersed in darkness, except it wasn’t so dark, or much of a giant.  Still, it was definitely something different.  I always look forward to the Turbine Hall installations, although nothing has topped The Weather Project from 2004.

Hoping to see Florence and the Machine this month, fingers crossed..!

I almost got run over by this guard:

He was walking towards me as I stood still, and it was a case of either him moving, or me.  For some reason I stood where I was, taking his picture from the front, until I realised he was half a metre away and was clearly not going to be the one stopping!

Randomness around the Brick Lane/Shoreditch area:

This reminded me of Mumbai, where there are “Bean Bags” signs all over the city:

Some of the many items sold in Brick Lane’s sunday market:

I got shouted at for taking this picture:

There were a lot of hostile people in the market, despite the fact I wasn’t taking pictures of people. I started explaining to the owner that there is nothing wrong with taking the above picture, but she was babbling away saying it was rude I didn’t ask permission.  There was just no point explaining so I walked away.  I mean really.. a picture of cassettes isn’t going to do anyone any harm.

It’s funny – when you’re walking around with a 24-70mm you get hostile reactions, but I’m sure this guy was left to his own devices :P

So, some radical Muslims decided to hold a march to promote the idea of Sharia Law in the UK.

The day came and riots were expected, except the organisers decided to cancel it for that very reason.  Cowards! The English Defence League still showed up.

It occurred to me that I still haven’t posted many images from my last trip to India – hopefully coming soon.

Thanks for looking, as always