A face paints a thousand words

Just delivered the finished images for Manchester Camerata's season print.

This is two of them and I'm very pleased with how it's worked out.

It's back to the core of my work. People. Faces. Form and space. It was a strange and intense experience at times but reminded me of the things I love about photography and about photographing people in a studio. It was of course about music and emotional connection. Simple and difficult at the same time. 

The search for belly models #2

In an interesting twist a fellow photographer, AoP member and Tweeter contacted me having seen my Tweet. It was a with a link to their site for belly dancers.

http://www.tasteofcairo.com/

Now there's a resource I hadn't thought of. So now we have a great mix of tweeters, models and a belly dancers.

Client has decided to do a short shoot Friday with a couple of people then do more on Monday 18th so if anyone has come to this late there's still time to get in.

This is usual for this kind of thing...rush...now...rush..oh...hang on we need time to figure out a few things...suddenly there is time to organise after all.

We've toughened up the entry now as we are getting spoilt for choice. Everyone must send a photograph. Nothing fancy, just a pic off your phone is fine. For the other criteria see my post from earlier today.

Thanks to everyone who's been in touch so far. Amazing.

The search for belly models

I have a quick photographic job on. It's for a pharmaceutical company who want to advertise to doctors the wonders of a drug they have to help women undergoing Chemotherapy.

I'm involved in a quick search for models to bare their midriff for the camera. I started with the usual agencies before hitting upon the idea of opening it out to a wider audience, via my Twitter feed @JonathanKeenan . A Twitter experiment.

We need women happy to spare no more than around 40 mins (maybe much less) and get their tummy out for £50. Simple as that.

It's in my Northern Quarter studio in Manchester this Friday 15th July. You'll be photographed individually and maybe even get a brew and biscuit as well (if you're lucky). Only your nearest and dearest would know it's you and they're not likely to see it anyway, unless they are a doctor. Unfortunately it's not likely to end up on billboards around the globe but may be a fun way to spend 1/2 hour.

Here's the details of the type of women we need;

30s to 50s.
Body shape with a waistline but size up to around 14.
No piercings, tattoos or scars as this could confuse what the image is about.

If you're up for it email me

studio@jkphotography.com

It would be great if you could also send a pic, any quality phone pic is fine.

Other contact details are on my web site.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

As You Like It

by William Shakespeare

I have to work on containing a slight internal groan when actors start singing in any play. It's just a personal thing, like I hate it when the Simpsons start doing a musical set piece or those big production numbers in Mel Brooks films which are funny but also leave me wanting them to stop.

This Royal Exchange Theatre production, directed by Greg Hersov, is one of those occasions which prove me wrong.

James Day plays the Balladeer creating a fascinating musical thread through the whole production and is occasionally joined by the cast, punctuating the piece wonderfully. I was mesmerised from the start and it added a great soundtrack to the general weirdness.

Some really outstanding performances in this but it was especially good to photograph Cush Jumbo again. She just looks so good. I loved the way she played Rosalind as a boy. There's something about the street attitude and body language that just worked really well with the dialogue. I haven't yet seen this production with an audience ( just a few crew and staff in when I was shooting) but the humour in this will work even better. Throw in a little wrestling and a rabbit and you've got a top night out.

Cush Jumbo as Rosalind

James Day

Well, what can I say. It worked.