Bartolomy’s Diary

Here are the UNRETOUCHED! Lazenby shots from the 23rd. Lazenby @ The Soho Review Bar-230507 the live shots are mwah, simply coz of the dreadfull lightshow (typical unmotivated lot at the Soho Revue Bar).

I am up for a few things but they are a few weeks away, also Terri and I are going to Barcelona soon, looking forward to that.

Today Angel Magazine came out with “The Girl Who Fell To Earth” story, which you can see earlier this mth or at my PORTFOLIO site.

I have added some slideshows to it (it was in need of a lil’ refurb so to speak), 5 sofar and probably 3 more to follow (the-kiss, flowers, Brian Haw).
DIY galore in the house while it is raining cats & dogs, I have pretty much finished downstairs, I need to do little bits to touch up, put exchange wall sockets and then can start conentrating on finishing the stairs off which wont take more than a day in total.

Last Wedneday eve I visited the Soho Review Bar to see Lazenby, I catch up during their soundcheck which doesn’t go to well for them, whether I think they sound good, the soundman knows what he is doing.
After this we retreat towards Wagamama for a quick mail, shortly after that I shoot Sarah Lazenby while she is doing her make-up, cool thing is she pretty much ignores me, and I get some great shots, one of them is fucking priceless. This is what makes it worthwhile…..probably my fave shot of the year sofar.
Later on when she is all dressed up we go to the corridor @ The Soho Review Bar. The shoot which last about 10 minutes is good, very good actually, I start her off with a pose and she alternates between shots well, but at the same time she likes to muck about and wanna pull funny faces, sometimes she ignores me and sometimes we laugh…..
In general I am very happy with the results, strong set of pix.

The gig itself was good, they have more oompf now as Nick has gone electric. I hated the lighting though and I know they have a lot better kit there, they just didn’t care and put on a few lights and that’s that……

Yesterday Terri and I went to see Taking Liberties the film which is on general release on June 8th. I expected loads of ill dressed pikies and what not instead it was a very civilized affair I was there as the peeps who made the film used one of my shots and was kinda intrigued what they had made of it (I don’t know what they did to my pic, but it looked like anything I had given them….).
The film itself is good, very good as a matter of fact, I would have cut 5/10 mins (the Guantanamo Bay thing went on for a bit….) but other than that it was a very concise flick and it ought to be seen by as many people as possible, power to the people as they say………

This afternoon I shall grace Andre Schlagowski @ Bryan Morel a visit, have not seen him in ages…..

I wasn’t sure whether I was allowed to shoot Stephen Bayley who is one of the world’s best known commentators on modern culture until a couple of hours beforehand and when he turned up he was all charm and easy to shoot….like walking in the park
I like the smiling portrait, it is filled with cheekiness…….

Not done much photography wise, just been out and about, doing DIY and buying more bits for the house. And prepare for a few things, I was supposed to shoot a few bands this week but it has all been delayed etc…..I wont bore you with the details.
By Wednesday I got so bored with DIY that I even took a call from Chips Chipping who asked me if I wanted to work on a TV drama, Channel Four’s City Of Vice, it is being shot in Hertford on a cool looking estate which has been used a lot for period pieces, I was helping the prop department and it was actually a good laugh, some of the sets were really nicely done and two of them would have been wicked for fashion shoots (the whole thing is set 250 years ago), thing is the turn around is fast, very fast. In a way it was nice not to think about photography for a couple of days
Next week looks promising with some portraits (Stephen Bayley) and shows (Lazenby for instance). There is also a screening of “Talking Liberties” a film about Brian Haw which has a shot of mine in it.
In the weekend The Rays are playing their first gig in Covent Garden, maybe I catch them doing rehearsals during the week….you’ll see.
And it is also time for some portfolio runs and finish the damn stairs of, Terri and I bought the wood and spindles so when Nick Jones arrives this chapter will hopefully close….

Last night Terri and I went to see the Boy Kill Boy (Chris -Vocals/Guitar, Shaz-Drums, Pete-Keyboards, Kev-Bass/Vocals)
show in Shorts Gardens (just of the 7 dials) where the Curious Generation boys had commandeered an office, the place was filled with 150 odd media types, I felt old looking around, but what was more shocking was that the boys were thinner than the girls…………….
The set they played was sorta semi acoustic and very good, I recognised “Suzie” and “Back Again”. Lightwise (better than the average pub) and soundwise it was all nice until the neighbour passed by and started to unplug the monitors, it happened right in front of me and it baffled me, coz at first I thought he was crew, even though he looked l8 50’s………….so Boy Kill Boy’s crew frogmarched him out, it was amusing to say the least. It was captured on film so it ought to be on youtube @ some point.
I remember meeting Chris in the Hoxton Bar and Grill when Apartment were playing there and David Caggiari introed me to him and explaining that he was “My Brother Chris”.

Some shots, I started with flash but after a while dropped that and shot without on one camera with some pleasing results.

Had a right laugh hanging about Halycon Studios (belongs to Jools Holland) for about 6 hours shooting Jason Kelly and his band The Rays.
They have been busy recording and are near the end, I caught them going through acoustic versions to get familiar with their material and later on doing backing vocals for one of their tracks, a few simple ladidas taking about 2 hours to do……whoever said studio stuff is easy etc needs his head checked that’s for sure.

It was good to catch up with the man and hear his new stuff (it’s more organic than Stroke and very catchy too as I was satanized after an hour or so ).

Here are some shots:

All shots can be seen here: The Rays @ Halycon Studio-090507
Tonight Boy Kill Boy are playing in Covent garden so making my way to that…….

I am leaving for the dentist quite early which is in Barnet and then have to get all the way to Greenwhich where Jason Kelly’s band Rays are rehearsing, they just got themselves a new bassplayer and getting ready for their proper first gig in Covent Garden in 2 weeks time.
Gonna shoot all afternoon while they are at it basically…..

Tomorrow I am finishing the Dungeness shoot as I am meeting Mark Kebble the next day. I am also supposed to hook up with Shyla Hassan who I have not been in touch with for two years. And this weekend I intend to do some more DIY.

Hooked up with Ben and Sally Bruges and their 3 year (going for 5 no probs) old son Tom. Had pub lunch in Shoreham @ Ye Old George Inne a place well, I wish I could write good words about it but I can’t, we were shown our table and it still was filthy from the guests before us, the food itself was soso, when it came to deserts they took our order three times and still managed to fuck it up (and that’s after taking notes 2x !!!), an experience that ought to be forgotten….or better said AVOID AT ALL COSTS
Here are two shots of me and Terri taken by Ben Bruges, the shot of Tom was done by me, the camera was lagging like no other while trying to take the shot….very frustrating when you are used to using pro stuff…..

Also here are some shots of John Maeda during his talk last week on Wednesday.

Shot yesterday in Dungeness
Styling: Alicia Aimee
Hair: Goro
Make-up: Teiji
Model: Autumn Holly @ Next

We left at 7 am and after a 2 hour drive found out that the local cafe was not open till ten am. So Autumn, the model, kipped in the back of the car while we looked for spots to shoot at.
The lighthouse was open and we went up there to shoot but the shot did not turn out good as the wind was full on and Autumn Holly literally frooze, things did not improve much later on with no sun ’til 4 pm and it was hard for Autumn Holly to stay warm.

UNRETOUCHED BTW!!!!

I see that the Def Leppard fan sites have been lifting and cropping my pix and linking to them, same thing I read about on the Ross Halfin site a few months ago as well….

Today just prep for the shoot tomorrow, which already is a bit of a downer as the car that I booked suddenly has been blocked by the current “owners” who decided to keep the car for a few days longer, imagine you book something and the previous owners wish to hold on to it for longer, it just defies belief and it just smells of a typical Hackney style sales thing. I have never experienced anything like this ever before…..but upon checking their website their terms and conditions are largely absent so why am I not suprised…….definately a first and a last.

I get the message that John Maeda wont be able to do the portrait at the Design Museum, I am not told why at all. I decide to look up a way of contacting him directly and in 30 seconds I have found his email address. Knowing he is into his technology I assume he will check his email frequently, what I did not expect was a reply within 20 minutes, we exchange a few mails and I make sure I am there way ahead of time.
The people at The Design Museum are setting up early as well, as a matter of fact the whole thing is ready to rock more than an hour before start.
John Maeda arrives early too, and I get him to pose for me for roughly 3 minutes (I did not need more anyways), it was easy.
Some early results, I still need to “play” more with them.

I watched his talk for about 20 minutes as I had to shoot of to Putney which took me almost an hour to get there. The Mexicolas were in town and I had missed them on the Kerrang! tour a month ago (I happened to fly back from Holland the same night they played in the Barfly in Camden). I meet the band in the pub and have brief chats with all three members, I follow them to their dressing room, and take some shots and besides capturing their prep. before going onstage there’s a lot of joking and mucking about, a good laugh.
The gig itself is excellent, tight set, great sound and I love the light, you see some pubs have it figured out right!!!! I am happy with the pix as well, a productive day.

Mexicolas-Half Moon, Putney-020507

I am a tad hungover and today there’s not a lot coming out of me, Saturday it is of to Dungeness for the Angel Mag. shoot, an early start (we are leaving at 6)

I have been contacted by Jason Kelly from Stroke fame, a band I shot a few times in the late nineties and partied with. Here is the man himself at Reading 1998.

His current band is Rays, check them out through MySpace
he has seen the pic above and claims to look loads better than 9 years ago, I did the wrong drugs back then yeah yeah….

I hope to hook up with him later this week.

I managed to get hold of John Maeda through his email, and have exchanged a few notes, it looks a maybe, all I can do is hope he has the time to do it, I shall be there and be ready…..we’ll know later on if I have been lucky or not.

Last night I took Jan Kaplicky’s portrait (born 1937), he is an architect and started Future Systems roughly 18 years ago. Some of the buildings he has designed should ring a bell or two, such as Selfridges in Birmingham, The New Look store on Oxford St., the Press accomodation at lord’s Cricket ground and then of course the Maserati building in Modena, Italy and a kick arse library in Prague. His presentation, strangely through Acrobat instead of Powerpoint was interesting to watch but I more or less was expecting things from 30/40 years ago instead we got served with his portfolio from the past decade…..
I managed to shoot his portrait for about 5 mins before the presentation, he sort of indicated when he wanted to finish, but I did have enough at that time, it was easy……
Here are a few shots, more work to be done on them for sure.
John Maeda is next, Wed. eve.

I left before the end as the sky over Tower Bridge and Canary Wharf was just simply awesome and I caught a few “London” shots.

This morning I was back there for 8 am as The Actionettes (a 60’s style dancing troupe) were there to be shot for some promo for the up and coming Luigi Collani talk in June, I had very little time, here are two rough shots, not photoshopped etc.

I have just come back from seeing Alicia Aimee and tried to cast a model for the up and comingt shoot this Saturday for Angel mag., and all we get is a bunch of girls who are in dire need of pix, my contempt for bookers @ model agencies grows more by the day…….

I have also just been informed that the people who are around John Maeda while he is in the UK have made it known they are not keen on him having his photo taken……….maybe I can tell you why by tomorrow…….