"I’m also a photographer" – Andy Summers and the release of Can’t Stand Losing You

In a week that sees a Valentine’s Day U.S release for Andy Summers’ Can’t Stand Losing You, the film based on Police guitarists’ best-selling memoir One Train Later (we in the UK have to wait until 20^th March), it is also worth remembering that Summers is also a very accomplished photographer in his own right. Remember? You didn’t know in the first place? Well, that’s ok as the phrase “don’t give up your daytime job” seems to be invented for people who become renowned in one area, and because of that are given free reign in another: musicians who think they can act (remember Rihanna’s star-making turn in Battleship? Me neither) and worse still, actors who think they should sing (there are exceptions of course: people as disparate as Peter Falk and Derren Brown are also gifted painters). So upon hearing that a musician has been taking photographs, you’d be forgiven for thinking they’re not necessarily going to be world-beating.

 

Happily, Summers’ work stands apart from his record-breaking time with The Police. In fact, had he not answered Steward Copeland’s ad, he quite possibly could’ve become a bigger name in the photography world without the baggage of being “a rock guy” as well. I came across his work by being a fan of The Police, and enjoying his back-stage shots and candid moments in the studio, but very quickly discovered that there was more to them (and my interest in them) than that, and a keen eye for composition and drama was evident in all of his work, as well as evidence of inspiration from Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Frank, Ralph Gibson and even Edward Hopper.

 
He exclusively used B&W 35mm film (generally favouring a high contrast printing style), and all the rock-band-on-tour clichés are captured, with a much greater sense of intimacy. The self-portrait above for example couldn’t have been taken by a Jill Furmanovsky or a Mick Rock, because the trademark Police grins would come out, and as a result Summers’ Police world is vastly different than the Technicolor blond hair shots we’re used to seeing.
  

All bands now have a behind-the-scenes photographer, and we know what to expect. Summers captures those moments of wiping a post-gig brow with a towel, and an over-flowing craft service table, but includes the moments that any sensible editor wouldn’t: behind all the grinning fans, there’s promiscuity, which while it’s makes for a beautiful photograph, Summers cynically highlights the shallow nature of that relationship, while still indulging.

There’s also drug use, and the jet set myth-busting moments of looking miserable in airports (as well as an abundance of shots on buses, and later, their own private plane), and a notable absence of forced mugging and joshing, which is the staple of band shots when taken by an outsider.
 In the film, Summers shares memories and photos from the band’s career, leading up to their much-hyped 2007 reunion tour. Even those of us that don’t own any of the music, we all know the words to Roxanne when it still regularly pops up on the radio, and we all know the ironic misconception behind the lyrics to Every Breath You Take, so whether you are a casual or die-hard fan, prepare to have another world opened up to you in the form of Andy Summers’ photography, and perhaps never again will you be cynically sceptical when you hear that a musician is also a photographer.

"There is a moment when you want to read a magazine, not a novel" - Bono

Current listening: Jon & Vangelis – Private Collection

I’m going to do some shooting at London Fashion Week at the end of the month, and some of the images can be uploaded in to a competition run by Canon, with the stipulation that they be submitted at a maximum of 45 minutes after the shoot. The subtext is surely then that they should be unedited, or at the very least, without days of manipulation to create something almost wholly unrecognisable from the reality they claim to be depicting.

With this in mind, I decided to submit some work to the brilliant Dreamingless magazine, who only accepts photography that has had no editing on the models. I found them on Twitter after taking part in #sbhour (from 8-9pm on a Sunday) and sent off 2 projects of mine, both of which included little (or no) editing at all.
I’ve had some work in an online magazine before, as well as my own (Magpie), and that’s fantastic and of course I’m very grateful, but for me there’s something much more satisfying about having my work in an actual printed magazine, as that was what I fell in love with in the first place (both magazines as a genre, and my work that had magazines as a final destination in mind). The experience of being able to sit down and flick through the magazine, which, as the title of this blog (which was stolen from Zoo TV era Bono) references, there’s also a lightness to them (in comparison to a book) that I love. Even though they are essentially the same format, it made me think of the way Stephen Shore compared the difference in feel between Polaroid SX-70 prints and then trying to recreate the square look on the Hassleblad: “it always felt weightier; it never had that light touch”.
Anyway, I’m very flattered that Zoe Michelle at Dreamingless (who is also a talented photographer) liked my work and my writing, so here is a little snippet of each project before they come out in their March and April issues respectively:

The Space Between

This first shot of Tia was taken without the following notions, but now I can see they were present in my subconscious thinking: The use of pure, white high key light to reflect a youthful, enthusiastic innocence I wanted to capture, and her looking up at us and drawing us in like a doe-eyed Jean Shrimpton-esque character, and the tousle-haired, black lipstick look that hints at (with a little subtlety) sex, but not in an overly gratuitous way.

However, this second shot shows a more real, unbiased view of Tia: Both have our eye contact, but with very different connotations, more relaxed and a picture of someone who loved being around her friends and laughing.

This is the Tia I know, and by having these friendships with the people I shoot, I can capture this, much more indicative of her personality than this shot, which is a construct of the male gaze.

I think it shines even brighter amidst the trash

With these shots, I jumped in head-first with an “everything and the kitchen sink” approach, influenced in particular by a quote from sitcom, Frasier. Upon Frasier Crane deciding he needed an orchestra for his radio station jingle, his brother Niles asks "Haven't you heard of less is more?" to which he responds "ah yes, but if less is more, just think how more more will be!"

When using a piece of equipment for the first time, I like to be as experimental as possible; to use everything at the very peak of its ability so I know what it's capable of, before dialling it down for the desired effect.

This time my intention was to take things that I usually gave a wide berth (saturated colours that blew out detail, melodramatic wind machines, cheap plastic gems etc.) and keep everything on “full”.

The title comes from an interview with Bono in Rolling Stone from 1992 (“There is a lot of soul - I think it shines even brighter amidst the trash and the junk”) in regards to their fantastic Zoo TV tour of that year, which eschewed the earnest B&W Joshua Tree image in favour of a widescreen colour makeover, in which they embraced all the contradictions of the rock world, and Bono’s new onstage persona became a leather and shades-clad lounge lizard, sans sincerity.

I didn’t want to manipulate the images afterwards, so another reason of turning the colour up as far as it would go is that I didn’t want to boost the saturation digitally after the fact, so the colours you see here are what the room looked like: I liked the idea that they looked so drenched in colour your hand would turn pink if you touched them.

These are images that won't be featured in the magazine features (but from the same projects, respectively) so keep a look out for the brilliant Dreamingless magazine!

 

Jennifer Lawrence in Vanity Fair - or "What The Serpent Said"

As a photographer, I find myself often thinking about pastiche and (in this case, referred to as) homage; what hasn’t already been done? Especially in the world of fashion and portraiture, where every “edgy” glossy advert owes a substantial debt to Guy Bourdin, and any portrait with a white high key background had better be taken by David Bailey otherwise you are almost certainly going to fall fowl of what John Szarkowski noted as (when talking about the early experimentation in colour photography in William Eggleston’s Guide) “their sad fate to remind us of something similar, but better”.

However, referencing something that has already happened gets you a foot in the door when trying to get attention, or put a persuasive message across. It can be used in the interests of power: if you’re referencing something that is already legendary, you’re already a step up.

On the back of the phone hacking scandal late last year, it’s hard to think of another public figure that had more coverage because of this hacking (which affected a fair few names of course) than Jennifer Lawrence, and the majority of the mainstream media seemed intent at taking her down a peg or two. She was an outspoken and rapidly rising star, and here was a scandal that in the right (or rather, wrong) hands, could finish her career for good. The fact that they were personal, naked self-portraits that were leaked in an act than Lawrence herself referred to as abuse was largely ignored, and the mention of her name now had the footnote “who was the main target of the recent hacking scandal”.

In a recent issue of Vanity Fair, it featured an in-depth interview about the incident, as well as an exclusive photo shoot with Patrick Demarchelier.

Any quotes from the interview hoping to set the record straight were lost in the flotsam and jetsam of Twitter trends; however one photograph in particular from the shoot stuck out and immediately swung the balance of power back in her favour, and referencing an already famous shot. Although her leaked photos were more explicit, they now seem obsolete in light of this.
 

Nastassja Kinski and the Serpent - Richard Avedon (1981)

It was an attempt to reclaim her position after the scandal, and show her in a position of power, and the simple and attention-grabbing visual message that she wasn’t against posing naked (or at least, implied), but that it should be on her terms. More implicit in the Avedon image are overtones of religion (specifically Christianity) with the "serpent" speaking in her ear. Lawrence uses the subtext of sin with an element of humour. It’s not necessarily an attempt at an original piece, but shows that not all homage is derivative or to be taken as a copy at face value.
  

Jennifer Lawrence - Patrick Demarchelier (2014)

So in this case, the homage is part of the narrative, something we can look back at in years to come to visually tell the story of how Lawrence responded with dignity, class; a check mate made as public as possible. This image has now become shorthand for the scandal, and how she regained control of her image.