An Appointment with Greg Hemphill

I had the great pleasure of shooting Greg Hemphill for the pre-production poster of the National Theatre of Scotland's new show that launched in Aberdeen on Tuesday. I am biding my time and praying to my diary for the chance to get my tickets for its visit to Glasgow.

The show is a heart-felt adaptation of the cult film starring Christopher Lee and Edward Woodward. If our portrait shoot is anything to go on, then the production looks set to be a total howl. I was asked to coax the Lord Summerisle from Greg so the designers could later dress and drop in front of a towering wicker inferno. Needless to say there was little coaxing needed.

It has been great to see the poster spread out across the local and national media. It has made the headlines a couple of times! I keep bumping into it inadvertently when I turn the pages of magazines and the papers. The company are broadcasting their production trials and tribulations from the NTS blog and in some top notch videos.

Book your appointment!

Lame pun. Sorry.

e

Play

  

Put the brakes on and ask yourself this - What would you do if you were given one day? Not a workday or a holiday. Not a Monday, not a Thursday, not any day of the week. A day from the blue, all to yourself. A limited 24 hours. Would you go out and play?

Big problems with play the older you get. We get to where we want to, we live the dream, but we start to switch off the subsidiary senses that kept us from starving. We are no longer desperate for anything and we stop following our impulses. Real creatures of habit we become, and we start to expect everyone else to be the same. We get more and more excited at the prospect of doughier, sinkier sofas, a bottle of red, a moo-vie? Bed at 10 for an early start?
   
But imagine this one impossible day. With no plan, with no wild programme. Waking up in your own bed with only your world and your resources. Do nothing? Do everything?? In our mad rush to make the most of our time we end up leaving ourselves no space to play. There can be no doubt, good play is half spontaneity, half activity. But how can you be spontaneous in your own back yard??

Well, very if you let yourself rediscover it. I am no master, don't get me wrong. I am blessed by where and how I live, but 6 out of 7 I am fully asleep to it. So, I had a visitor! For the first time in nearly 2 years, I had fresh eyes on my porch. Go through the motions all you like, see the spots and hit the views, but Edinburgh is unbelievable fun. I am no tour guide and Aidan is no tourist, but we basically stormed the city up and down and still only managed to scratch the surface.

In a single 24 hour swoop we beheld beauty, rewrote the rules of Guess Who, shopped a ludicrous hat, looked down from a mountain, blinded ourselves in World of Illusions, rewrote the lyrics to R.E.M, got chased by a street cleaner, swallowed Edinburgh's finest coffee, doubled over laughing, watched a random 17piece jazz band, went for noodles, unleashed a Kraken, sang in a trad bar at the top of our lungs,  and invented only a hundred puns on everything in-between.

Its the weekend again. Give yourself a day to play

e

Sublime

2012 Campaign for Sublime shot last year, finally unveiled.

We sat down in September to talk about a way of bringing that elusive more across through Sublime's photography for 2012. A unisex salon with diversity coming out its ears, we wanted to keep the mixture as the top priority without straying too far into beauty or glamour. So how did we do that?

We asked the customers to model! We kept things light and fun in the studio as the guys powered through styles and cuts. A bit of a perfect recipe of lifestyle and energy. We mixed and matched clothing and lighting and got down to basics over and over. 

We are all mega delighted with the results (and the free haircuts for our generous posers!) Another little creative kick for the new year, enjoy!

Hair by Lesley
Make-up by Ola
Assisting and tunes by Grace

e

"Where do you think you've been?"

A good question! Hello and happy new year at last. I would like to offer alibis about being wrapped up in projects and work and shoots and equipment and lists and images, but I'll hold off. My 2012 has had a much humbler start with 3 weeks back home in lovely Cork for Christmas and a week shredding up the powder on the pistes in Andorra. Take a look at the Dude Gang adventures from Soldeu, and our mad skills:


Soldeu 2012 from eoin carey on Vimeo.


So no excuses really! Though I am well rested and recharged and ready for a whole year of work and totally new things.

The first exciting news is that it is eoincareyphoto.com  O' Clock! I have finally launched my website and I am well excited. It is nice to have a slick online space to showcase myself commercially which opens up this ol' blog to more of my tricks and foolery. A nice spring clean on the visuals of the blogspot should also ensure a little more creative posting than the last months have seen. So step inside my office.

It is a standard to make some sweeping optimistic statement at the start of the year, but I have more on my side than generics. It is not only the year of the Dragon and the London Olympics, but most importantly, the Year of Creative Scotland. It is an exciting and energetic time to be living in Scotland for a plethora of reasons. Since we got our major cataclysms out of the way in 2009,  I plan on making the most of the events and art on show this year, travelling around the country and absorbing as much inspiration as I can. Any ideas? I would like to hear them!

Happy to leave work and plans until next time. Fun for now, it is still Winter.

e