Creatures of Manchester

Wow, what a great shoot! The Reforma Movement Theatre on a cold Sunday afternoon on wasteland with the City of Manchester as a backdrop. Cold enough that we compressed a four hour shoot into two hours but with this group of performance artists, this was easily done. As the Artistic Director, Heather said "we aren't really Dance or Theatre; we are something different. But we are grounded in Manchester" The overarching brief was to produce new website and tour and promotional images. Reforma have an interesting Summer ahead of them, including the Edinburgh Festival. I had a great assistant for the shoot, Vicky Anderson of Victoria Anderson Photography. The light was poor and to bring the artists into the foreground but also keep the city backdrop, most of the images needed fill-flash. This is where Vicky came into her own; without the light being right, the images just would not have worked. She even managed that multi-tasking thing of assisting and managing to take her own shots at the same time :-)

As for the artists, they were professional and patient. I had them show me a lift or a hold and then repeat it for the shot and then repeat it and repeat it and........ you get the picture? And not a question of 'no' or a shrug, they just got on with it. Have a look at the page on here under Exhibitions and Projects and look at the Attitude they managed to project whilst holding a pose - really terrific. Better than looking at these still images I have added a link on the page of images to their own webiste. There you can see the full impact of their energetic performance. Go on - have a look. And try to see them live.

Other stuff this week? Turned down a trip to Libya because it clashes with other stuff. A pity because it is on my list of places to get to. A couple of hectic days work in London on non-photog work - really good. And I am typing this in the Virgin Atlantic Lounge at Heathrow, waiting for flight VS 900 to Tokyo. Should be fun :-)