New Website...

My main site is having a rebuild. It will now function both as a window on my work, and an archive and image delivery system. It also allows for automatic on-line licensing of images. Currently their is an automatic redirect page, which will disappear when I sort out the CName. Comments about usability and any problems encountered with different systems and browsers are most welcome.

To go to site, click here.
The old site is here.

The Loss of a Friend...

A little while ago I photographed author, Stephen Foster, with his dogs for a Daily Mail feature on his life with these faithful companions. The session was a little hurried due to Ollie (on the right in the above photograph) having just returned from the vets and obviously being in need of rest.

A few days after the article ran Stephen called me to ask for some prints of Ollie as sadly he had been diagnosed with cancer and only had a few days left.

I dropped some prints at Stephen's and came across the melancholy sight of Ollie seemingly awaiting his fate, looking at me in the way that dogs always manage to when something is out of the ordinary.

There is something about the passing of a dog that affects people in a profound way. Cat owners don't seem to suffer the same fate. Maybe it's a cat's independence as opposed to a dog being totally dependent on it's owner. As a boy I too, like Stephen held my dog as the vet performed the final act to end it's suffering and it is something you never forget.

Stephen has since written a piece for the Times about the passing of Ollie. He writes that everybody has a story about the passing of a pet dog. It's true; they do.


Daily Mail article here.
Times article here.
Licence Stephen Foster photographs here.
Buy Walking Ollie here.
Buy Along Came Dylan here.

Holding Back the Years....

Sarah Burge, the self-styled Human Barbie has spent over £1/2millon on cosmetic treatments and surgery according to the Daily Express. The mother of three has racked up over 100 treatments in an effort to halt the aging process and now has the rather dubious honour of being a world record holder for cosmetic surgery.

She has admitted that she find going under the knife addictive and claims that she is not unhappy with her looks.

Over the years I have photographed a number of women who have had cosmetic surgery, and have to say that I find the whole thing very odd. Quite why anybody does it is beyond me. I've never seen anybody that looks natural or is entirely happy with the end result. (Stylists that I work with will agree; they have to hide the scars.) Usually there is an underlying unhappiness that they are trying to compensate for with the aid of surgery.

My advice..... don't do it.

Daily Mail article here.
Previous Daily Mail article here.
Licence Sarah Burge photographs here.

Last of the Family Silver...

Today, it has been announced that French state owned power company, EDF has bought British Energy PLC. EDF are planning to build another four power stations over the next decade. Not many years ago the selling off of Britain's nuclear industry to a foreign power would have been unthinkable, but considering every other utility and national industry has some element of foreign ownership, we should perhaps not be surprised.

One thing you can be sure of is that energy prices will not fall; currently EDF's UK customers pay £100 per year more for their energy than the French.

You may think it is odd that neither of the main political parties have raised questions over the bid. Perhaps this is due to EDF and related nuclear lobbying firms making donations to both Labour and the Conservative parties.

Interestingly it has also been noted that Andrew Brown, younger broth of Prime Minister, Gordon Brown is Director of Communications for EDF in the UK. One of Brown's key advisors is Ed Balls, whose father in law Tony Cooper, is a long standing nuclear lobbyist.

License British Energy photographs here

Wine, Women and Song...

Europe's oldest man, Henry Allingham is 112 today. He has jokingly said that the secret to his longevity is "cigarettes, whisky and wild women". His life has spanned six monarchs and has taken in 21 prime ministers.

Now partially deaf and almost blind, Mr Allingham, who was born in Clapham, London, now lives at St Dunstan's home for blind ex-servicemen, in Ovingdean.

Mr Allingham is the oldest surviving World War I British veteran, a founding member of the Royal Air Force and the last known survivor of the Battle of Jutland. In August 2005 he led the nation in the Lord's Prayer at the Cenotaph in London to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the outbreak of World War 1. In 2003 he was awarded the French Legion d'Honneur.

Licence Henry Allingham portraits here.

The Cat Man....

As a rule men and dogs go together; women and cats go together. You may find the odd single chap who lives with a cat or two but it is generally not the case. And we've all come across the mad old dear who is surrounded by the things!

However, author, Tom Cox lives with six felines, and I should add, one woman. His latest book is titled, "Under the Paw, Confessions of a Cat Man" and is the subject of a feature in the Times. Nothing unusual in this you may think. The tricky bit of this assignment was that the Times2 section of the paper has recently undergone a redesign and I was asked to photograph said cats with studio lights and Tom incidental within the frame.

Now, getting six cats together in one place is difficult enough, let alone freaking them out with high powered strobes. Luckily, Tom hadn't fed them that day, so a group feed was decided on.  With food in the bowls the six were gathered together, remaining in place for long enough to get off half a dozen frames before deciding they'd had enough and disappeared back into the garden.

Getting it right was in all honesty, more by luck than judgement and enforced the old adage; never work with children or animals.

See Times article here.
Licence Tom Cox portraits here.

Salt and Vinegar with that...

For most of her life, Faye Campbell has eaten nothing but chips. One bowl a day washed down with glasses of milk.

For years it was just assumed that she was an extremely faddy eater, but Barts Hospital in London discovered that Faye was suffering from gastrooesophageal reflux. Reflux problems are common, affecting 18 per cent of otherwise healthy babies. 90 per cent of those affected will grow out of it naturally within the first year.

For sufferers such as Faye the condition is more distressing - the stomach sends strong acids back up the gullet and into the mouth. Faye had learned as a baby that food caused pain, and decided to do without. The only food she found acceptable was chips, although no one is sure why.


Daily Mail article here.
License Faye Campbell photographs here.