Found at Sea

Spring-time, and I am still sharing images from Winter!

The first production of the year from the Traverse Theatre will be opening this week as a work in progress.

Me and the Traverse worked together on the poster before Christmas to tease Andy Greig's visually rich and euphonic poetry into a working image. I always work off a script for visuals, but this time I had to measure my reading. Written as a poem, the prose crashes like waves, heavy and atmospheric of Orkney. Each line was so nuanced and connotative I kept finding myself re-reading passages just for pleasure.
We took the shoot to my own local The King's Wark, in Edinburgh's traditional Shore, for a genuine seafarer's vintage. No strangers to Leith, Tam and Lewis knew the venue and charmed coffee out of the staff for us to warm up with.

Since the temperature hasn't changed a great deal since December, I am looking forward to cosying up to the show and seeing how it has developed from two glasses of whisky and some old maps.

e

Frightened Rabbit

February at last. Its nice to get back to business as usual but with the lavish illusion of impending spring.

Back last month it was very much business as unusual. Bouncing over Edinburgh cobbles in rush hour, our headlights on a freezing dusk, I found myself very unexpectedly riding shotgun in a hearse. A situation made all the stranger by the company of Frightened Rabbit, riding coffin in the back. The Skinny managed to pluck them from a very intense media day of interviews and photocalls in a local bar, so we could bundle them in the back of Ed's hearse and chauffeur them around to a soundtrack of heavy metal.

We did have a slightly larger agenda though. For their forthcoming release of Pedestrian Verse, we wanted to accompany Darren's feature with images of death. Not the graveyard and lightening bolts type, but death that mirrored the solemn and mature journey of the band's transformation to now - a glowing portrait of expressive and rooted Scottish songwriting on a world stage.

Forboding and dark, especially for January, our shoot was actually very light-hearted by the absurdity of it all. Thanks to the band for laughing off the cold, Ed for the civility of an undertaker and big thanks to Matt for helping out so last minute.

e

New year, new you,etc....CHIPS.

Only the 8th of January and I've already ticked off an entire new year's resolution. Oh dear.

I promised myself last year to shoot a cover and hold a solo exhibition in 2013. And Hark, I had the pleasure of shooting The Skinny's January cover, before the year was even underway.

You'll notice I say that I had the pleasure. For the man at the other end of the camera, the pleasure was fast transforming into a gastro feat of stodgy stoicism. Rick Redbeard basically ate all the chips.

Better get working on that exhibition then, I might even be able to knock off 6 months early!

e

2012

As the sun sets on another year, I am as ever mining through my archive of the last twelve months. Through the full seasonal spectrum I still make time to document the trivial little signals in the world around me.

 Here is 2012 and here's to 2013.

Happy new year

e