With all of the added madness that the Capital of Culture events were going to bring to Liverpool in 2008, I always expected the year to be over quite quickly but the speed with which this year has actually passed has been frightening. One minute I was taking the first photographs, on January 1st, for the 0151 366 2008 project on Crosby Beach and then suddenly it's the end of the year and I'm back on Crosby beach! However in between I've photographed everybody from Macca to the Queen, finally had my Popcultured book published, worked with loads of new people, took as many 'photos a day' for the 366 project as I could and kept up with the usual commercial work. And as some sort of end of year roundup I've decided to try and pick out a 'small' selection of favourites from throughout the year though I reckon this ain't gonna be too easy.
This was taken specifically for 0151 366 2008 and it's a photo of Lyn 'I'd Like To teach The World To Sing' Paul backstage at The Empire preparing for her role in Willy Russell's Blood Brothers. The other highlight for the month would no doubt be the launch of the Capital of Culture event as I got to photograph Ringo as well as getting to see him perform a concert for American breakfast TV.
This was taken for Rare fashion and was shot on a freezing cold January afternoon in between snowstorms so all praise goes to the model on this one. Make up was by
Debbie Lezemore.
As of January 1st, Carling Academy is now an O2 Academy and I'll be continuing as in house photographer in 2009 with the first big gig of the year being The Streets in a couple of weeks. This is from Justice's show back in March '08. Other favourites last year included Primal Scream, Nouvelle Vague and The Pale Fountains!
More fashion but a bit more commercial this time. I did a lot of work earlier on in the year for Ethel Austin and this was taken for a window campaign to feature in the run up to St.Valentine's Day.
I reckon photographing Ken Dodd was always going to be a personal highlight whatever the result but it ended up turning out to be one of my favourite portraits ever. This again was done specifically for the 366 project.
This is Bootworks Theatre's Un Boite Anadalou being performed at the launch of Metal on Edge Hill Station, the idea being that they perform plays to an audience of one. And I was the audience of one.
More fashion, only a bit warmer this time. Make up is again by Debbie Lezemore and the model is Domonique from
Impact. The photographs were for a cover feature for Living Edge magazine.
I've done a lot of work this year for the Liverpool Phil and their events have ended up being some of my best memories of '08 so when the Queen visited the city in May, I got to be the official photographer for her visit to the hall.
2008 was the first year of
Liverpool Sound City, a 3 day event of music business conferences and live music which took over loads of city centre venues. This was the big closing party at St.George's Hall and features local heroes The Wombats. And the good news is that the event is back in 2009 and it's going to be much bigger!
Highlight of the year, without a shadow of a doubt, was getting to meet Macca when I was asked to document him taking The Phil through their rehearsals of his work Ecco Cor Meum at Liverpool Cathedral. And I reckon second highlight was the Liverpool Sound concert itself a month later which I also got to photograph on the same day that I documented Stella McCartney's show at LIPA.
Stella McCartney's charity fashion show at LIPA, for which I got the job of being official photographer, was a great event which included a performance by Candie Payne as well as the show itself which was based around a game of musical chairs taken to the final moment where only one model was left standing.
I reckon I must have photographed The Ting Tings about 4 times over the last year or so but 2008 is without doubt their year. This was also taken at Carling Academy.
August bank holiday was a long one in '08 as I covered both Creamfields and the Mathew Street festival. I've done Creamfields off and on since it started and this was one of my favourites as I went on my own (ie without distraction) and just got stuck into to taking stacks of photographs over it's first two day event.
I've already mentioned that I've done a lot of work with the Liverpool Phil this year and the difficulty is choosing which has been my favourite. I did a new portrait campaign with Vasily Petrenko earlier on in the year, stacks of events in both cathedrals and the hall itself, a very nice summer's day spent out in Victoria Park in Southport photographing the Proms as well as doing portraits of many of the visiting musicians including Elvis Costello, Bryn Terfel and even Mavis Staples! I also got to go down to London a couple of times with the orchestra , this time being on their visit to the BBC Proms at The Albert Hall. I was well stuck on choosing one for my work with The Phil this year as other highlights included the John Lennon Songbook, Sir Simon Rattle's performances, The Fresh Festival back in January and the Rightful Owners Of The Song event in November.
Another one from my work with The Phil and this time's it's Elvis Costello backstage just before he went on to perform both new work and old classics with the full orchestra.
I reckon the highlight for a lot of people in 2008 was the appearance of Superlambanas all over the city and it was great just seeing people around with maps that they were using as checklists so make sure they'd seen them all. I'd like to see how many made it to the top of Moel Famau in North Wales to see the one at the summit!
And I reckon that the other highlight for the majority was always going to be the arrival of the 50ft spider that had people in tears when it left after three days of wandering around the city. I took a lot
of photographs of the spider but my favourite is this kid's reaction on the Friday night down at the Albert Dock.
From one Princese to another I'll never forget this day as I ended up getting up at like 5am or something to see the Grand Princess arrive in Liverpool on a very overcast morning before going back the same evening in the drizzling rain to watch her leave.
I thought after the summer that things might start to calm down slightly but it just seemed to get busier and busier with more and more events happening. There was Homotopia and The Biennial and then there was Power Plant which turned out to be one of the surprise hits of the year. This was the light and sound installations event that took place over 5 days in Calderstones park.
Some of the best events that happened in '08 were so great because they happened right in the centre of town, they were free and to many people they came as a complete surprise. Streets Ahead was my favourite of these as it took over most of the city centre and it featured everything from giant fighting dragons to human fountains with a whole lot of sideshows along the way. Other favourites were The Hope Street Festvial and the Imgaine Children's festival.
Another fashion shoot for Living Edge magazine and this was taken in a hotel in Manchester with the cast of a TV reality show that was also called Living On The Edge. The edge in their case being that of Alderley. Geek moment, I shot this on a 50mm at 1.4, something I've been doing a lot since I bought the lens just before Creamfields last August.
I reckon I could go on finding highlights for hours but it has to stop somewhere so I'll finish with Echo & The Bunnymen's performance of the whole of their Ocean Rain album at the Echo Arena as a nice way to round off the year.
So what's next? As well as the usual commissioned work, I've got a few book projects at different stages of development. Firstly we've now got to work on the edit for
0151 366 2008 which is the photo a day project that myself and 5 other photographers have been working on throughout 2008. Second up is a book I've contributed to a lot over the last year which is the first history of The Liverpool Phil. A lot of that content has at times been on this site but I've also done a series of portraits with members of the orchestra as well as a cover shot that I'm made up with. There's also talk of an exhibition to accompany the launch. More on that soon but it should be published in the next two months. There's also talk of two more book projects for publication in 2010 so things are looking busy enough and I don't reckon I'll be bored for a while.
So roll on 2009 and thanks to everybody who gave me the opportunity to photograph everything I did in 2008!
