In A Taxi with Christian Cooke

So this was out back in February but only just got around to scanning it....My In a Taxi with.... Christian Cooke tearsheet.......

Ruby Ruby Ruby Ruby!!!

Recently I shot Ruby Wax at Julie's coffee shop in Holland Park, London and here is the article......it was fun to meet Ruby and also fun to visit Julie's!

Happy International Women's Day

Today is International Women's Day and I was asked by Oxfam to shoot some celebrity portraits for the Equals Campaign.

This involved photographing Annie Lennox, Miranda Richardson, Jane Shepherdson, Mariella Frostrup, Beverly Knight and VV Brown holding up the Equals placard with their own statements on Equality for women and what the world will be like when we have this.

More on the Equals Campaign here: http://www.weareequals.org

International Women's Day (8 March) is a global day celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future. In some places like China, Russia, Vietnam and Bulgaria, International Women's Day is a national holiday.

It is important and relevant because in many parts of the World women still do not have Equality, are not safe and face discrimination and injustice, which is quite simply NOT ACCEPTABLE!

More on International Women's Day here: http://www.internationalwomensday.com

Mariella Frostrup wrote a great article for Sunday's Observer and if you are in any doubt as to why we need International Women's Day, please take some time to read it:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/mar/06/feminism-global-challenge-one-voice

Langkawi boat

Here is something which caught my eye over the weekend in Langkawi, Malaysia......they are just snapshots but I really like the simplicity of them...

Christian Cooke

Christian Cooke is a talented young actor from Yorkshire and I shot him back in December for You magazine's 'In A Taxi with....' page. The shoot was featured in the mag on 6th Feb (i think!).

Anyway it was a last minute request from You mag and Christian was dashing off to a Channel 4 photoshoot for 'The Promise', the 4 part series recently broadcast on Channel 4 in the UK (last episode airs this Sunday).

Paul Keating @ The London Palladium

Paul Keating is a British actor currently starring as the Scarecrow in 'The Wizard of Oz' which is previewing at the London Palladium right now.

The show opens to the public on 1st March and reviews thus far have been promising. I plan to go see it next month.

I shot Paul during a rehearsal break at the Palladium so I didn't have him for very long.

The Palladium was also upside down as they were just finishing off refurbishments in time for the show opening.

Check out Paul's t-shirt - it's a dog made of buttons. I liked it a lot!

Toby

Today I would like to introduce you to Toby. Toby is very special as he is my Grandmother's dog, therefore he is loved dearly.

Toby entered my Grandparents life's about 9 years ago when he was discovered, a bit worse for wear, wandering aimlessly around a field. A settlement of gypsy's had just left and he was presumed abandoned/ lost. I think it was my Aunty Kath who found him and initially my Grandparents said no, having been heartbroken by the loss of their first dog, Jess a few years earlier.

Anyway, Toby soon won their hearts and he now happily resides with my Grandma who refers to him as her 'little love', cooks him special meals and generally spoils him rotten.

I like Toby a lot, he's a right little character. And I love these pictures as they are so full of expression. I would like to know what Toby was thinking about as I was shooting......

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!