Happy Valentines Day!

For Valentine's day, Diva Magazine produced 'The Love Issue' and asked me to shoot the cover and 7 inside pages showing couples in love.

The shoot was fun, I enjoy hearing stories about how couples met and good, happy relationships inspire me.

Thanks to everyone who took part and of course, Happy V Day!

In A Taxi with Hurts

Hurts are an English synthpop duo from Manchester composed of Theo Hutchcraft (originally from North Yorkshire) and Adam Anderson.

I had the pleasure of photographing the boys for You Magazine in November and the article came out last weekend. It was freezing when we shot this (Adam isn't very good with the cold!) but the sun was out and the light was great.

One of my favourite shots is below. I love reflections and how they can be played with through the medium of photography. More out-takes from the shoot to follow shortly.

Anyway, it was great to meet the boys, I'm always extra fond of fellow Northerners, especially ones who have struggled but refused to give up and then found success.
The guys were telling me about years spent on the dole in Manchester trying to get people to listen to their music - I can relate to that as photography can be a similar experience of plugging away and waiting for someone to notice and for your career to finally take off.

Hurts have an unusual sound, I wasn't sure how to describe it (I stole the synthpop quote from wikipedia) but I like it. I'm listening to it now and i'm still not sure who they remind me of, it's quite a mix. Have a listen though. Their debut album 'Happiness' came out in Sept last year.

Sir Ian McKellen talks about homophobic bullying

I had a great afternoon out back in November last year. Attitude magazine sent me to 'The Hundred of Hoo' school in Kent to shoot Sir Ian Mckellen.

He was there as part of anti-bullying week. Specifically his talk was regarding homophobic bullying. Sir Ian was on a very tight schedule. Organised by Stonewall, he was visiting 2 schools a day to speak to pupils.

After the brief 5 minutes allotted to get my shots, I was allowed to sit in at the back of the assembly hall to listen to Sir Ian's talk (the highlight of my day, i might add!).

It was all very moving, Sir Ian talked about how things were in his day and how persecuted people were back then for being gay. He also talked about the term 'gay' being used as another word for something being rubbish or no good and expressed how much that upset him. He asked the pupils to refrain from using the word 'gay' in that negative context.

And finally, 2 boys came out as gay to Sir Ian during his visit.

Phew! What an afternoon. It's not often you get the opportunity to listen to an A-list Hollywood star talk to schoolkids about gay bullying issues!

Guardian Weekend/ Your Pictures, theme: LOSS

I had a nice surprise this weekend when I was informed that one of my photos was in the Guardian Weekend magazine.
I don't usually enter my pics in these things but a couple of weeks when i saw the theme; Loss, I thought I would give it a go.

The image shown (bottom right) is from my 'Memories' series, a selection of images taken in my Grandparents house before and after they passed away. This particular photo was taken just before it sold. Having spent the formative years of my childhood in this house, it was quite an emotional experience and the sense of loss was huge.
When I look at any of the images from this series, I can smell the way it was.

To see more images from this series, visit my website: www.alexgracephoto.com

Ooh la la - Photo Shoot fashion story

A lingerie story I shot in December came out a couple of weeks ago......I don't shoot much fashion these days but i loved shooting this and I'm so pleased with how it looks in the magazine.

MS Society

A few months back I did a preliminary shoot for the MS Society's new website (launching in April) and below are some shots.

I also shot a great series of portrait's which I'm really excited about.
I'm continuing the portraiture shoot in March and want to show it as a full series once retouched so watch this space......

The London Palladium

Yesterday I was shooting at The London Palladium. The Palladium is being refurbished at the moment to prepare for the opening of 'The Wizard of Oz'.

I was shooting a portrait but whilst i was waiting, i took a few shots and below is my favourite.....

New Years Mail-out

Since today is Blue Monday, officially the most depressing day of the year, I had a New Year's card made to follow on from my e-mail video and to make people smile.
Posted out on Friday, it should be on desks this morning.

In case you are wondering where this was taken, it's the dead tree stump in Clissold park, Stoke Newington. I'm sure anyone around that area will know it....

Luckily the park was fairly quiet during our shoot (probably because it was freezing and snowy) but we did get a few amused passers-by.
Wouldn't it be great if an angel did live on this tree stump all year round?!

Thanks to my model, David for braving the cold!

Andy Butler from Hercules & The Love Affair

A few months back I shot Andy Butler from the band, 'Hercules and Love Affair'.

Being a fan of the band, it was great to meet Andy and the shoot was fun.

It was also good to be back in a studio and have some time to set up my lights etc.

The celebrity shoots I've done recently seem to have been a lot quicker, think on your feet affairs, where I get sent to an unknown location and have to make things work within that environment. There is no time for around in that kind of situation and the last thing I want is people waiting for me to figure out what I'm going to do.
I just need to make quick decisions and do it.

Working in a studio is therefore different because I can get there and set up before the subject arrives and I know exactly how it's all going to work and what it will look like beforehand.

So I was pleased with how this turned out. Andy was sweet, he told me afterwards he had been quite nervous but he was awesome and the shots turned out great.

I'll post some out-takes later.....

Boy George and Mark Ronson out-takes

First post of the New Year and it's Boy George and Mark Ronson, the out-takes!

Happy 2011, let's hope it's a good 'un!

Professor Brian Cox - You Magazine

At the end of Summer I shot Professor Brian Cox for You Magazine. The article came out on 12th December and the tearsheet is below.

Professor Brian Cox is probably best known these days for presenting the hit TV series 'Wonders of The Solar System', soon to be followed by a second series 'Wonders of The Universe', and accompanied by his book, of the same name.

And if by any chance, you haven't seen the book or watched the TV show (where have you been?!), you may remember him from the 90's band D:Ream (Things Can Only Get Better) or prior to that, the soft rock band, Dare.

Brian was a delight to meet and i was thrilled that we had such a strong foreboding sky as a backdrop for our shoot, it seemed very apt considering Brian's work as a Physicist.

To read more, here is the article:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/you/article-1336823/Brian-Cox-s-glad-swapped-chart-success-science.html

Some angel out takes

And here are some angel out-takes as promised.....I like it when he's laughing - it was quite an hilarious shoot, we had lots of interest from passer's by. Oh and it was also 0 degrees. I think the laughter is slightly hysterical. David said he was so cold he had lost the ability to think.....oops!

The Christmas Angel Takes a Break

Merry Christmas! I finally got around to making a Christmas card (well, a Christmas e-greeting) and here it is......

A very naughty angel taking a break from the Christmas tree to look at some filth. Scroll down to the video and see what happens when you do that.....

Nb/ buying the Daily Sport from my local newsagent was one of the more embarrassing things I have had to do of late. I even tried to fold it over to hide the shame but of course he had to look at the front to get the price. And yes, he then gave me one of those looks of surprise and amusement whilst i went a finer shade of purple.

Louie Spence in The Sunday Express

I just received this from my syndication agent, Camera Press. It seems one of my shots of Louie was featured last weekend in the Sunday Express and here it is.......

The Drums

Finally I got around to going through the Summer shoot I did with the Drums back in August.

I say Summer, I think there was actually a spot of rain during shooting, hence the umbrella.... Typical English Summer - a photographers nightmare.

Anyway, we still managed to get a few set ups that I was pleased with and here they are.......

Boy George & Mark Ronson exclusive!

Mark Ronson's new album, 'The Business Int' features Boy George singing (with Andrew Wyatt) on the single 'Somebody To Love Me' This is a great track..... Check out Mark's website to hear the song and see the video, featuring old footage of Boy George.

I was lucky enough to get George and Mark in the same room for an exclusive photo-shoot back in October and here are the tearsheets from December's Attitude Magazine.

Mark Ronson

I recently shot Mark Ronson at Sony HQ.....below are some of the out-takes, recently submitted to Camera Press, who are my new syndication agency.