The Poland Wrench Massacre

This shoot, I conducted in the mechanic's workshop at the cycle shop I work in. These portraits are more simplistic in their construction. I knew taking photos of such an aesthetically intimidating guy in the place that is effectively his second home, would leave me with interesting images whether I had a good idea or not. Therefore there is no pretentious prologue to these shots this time, yet they are equally as affecting as my previous portrait shoots which of course share many of the same traits of construction. I am referring to my adoration for spatial noise of course.

The first shot is a personal highlight as it reminds me so vividly of a scene from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, just only without the hilarious mask. The mechanic is polish and also boasts nearly all the requirements of an alpha male. He is nothing short of an absolute legend around the shop for his frank and to the point demeanour, whether that's in your face or not. In fact he's so much of an L.A.D it almost scares me with envy. Needless to say he is not allowed anywhere near customers on the shop floor outside of the windowless workshop!

Having said all of that, the last image of the trio I am posting, I stumbled across an hour later when the shoot was long over, catching him in a period of boredom. It totally negates everything I have said and makes him look just over five years old. It's for this reason that I love it... Timblography's Cliche of the week: "Is this more angelic image, the real guy hidden deep behind the steel facade of masculinity?" I am pretty sure I wont be suggesting this to his face though.

Here's what I've been up to lately.

The Mansion christmas meal. It's all about friends.

We were so lucky to have special guest Friar Tuck.

Clinic on Tour.

Last night Clinic Presents hosted yet another flawless night of creative debauchery. Teaming up with Bear Gami and a selection of the usual Clinic friends namely the Samizdat poets, Owen Lucas & Jamie 'N' Commons. Impressive alternative musical talent from live bands, Tangled Hair and Tall Ships were also showcased. The whole event was held in Camden in the Lock Tavern and was tighter then usual for space, being the first official night away from the comfort of home territory. Despite this the room was, as always, packed from start to finish with folk relishing in the Zine production workshop and of course the live entertainment. Contrary to the usual gallery set up, work submitted to the Clinic Fear exhibition was sporadically hung around the room, which did well in framing the creative hub I thought. I have to say a personal thank you to the guys for letting me showcase two of my own images at the night. I secretly listened out for reactions and comments and throughly enjoyed what was being whispered. Being judged by your peers is a wonderful experience.

Personal notes of the night I wish to make are: firstly the fact that only extremely dim, orange and red lights were available. No amount of adjustment could bring them out of that hue. However this proved to be an accurate documentation of both the mood & atmosphere the night held. Secondly the indescribable bedlam that was Tall Ships' set. Their Synths, loops and samples intertwining with indie-math rock, and the participation of the entire audience drumming and hitting generally anything they could, resulted in a solidarity of passion that is rare these days in live music. The final crowd shots pay little or no justice to that poetic chaos.

Kigu Playpen

As a natural progression from my family portraits, I am now starting to mix things up. I plan to maintain my composition style that includes loaded, set-up portraits, often encompassing large amounts of spatial noise. However, from this point on, including more then one person in the shot and reaching further into my relationships then just close family. So I'm starting with my friends and housemates to see what I can find and curate any affects they exert into my portfolio.

These shots of my housemates were taken last night, & although they have been composed carefully by me (with the aid of a very glamourous assistant, who shall we say is taller then the average bear) for the purposes of framing and reflecting etc, they are essentially in a genuine state of relaxation. This is what they do after a hard days graft... The Kigus (animal fleece suits) are comfy and damn warm. The annihilation of online warfare opponents is egotistically rewarding & I toyed with reflections in the screen in an attempt to instil said point. The environment of a well spec'd media-playpen is also an ideal retreat for any person to regress to an age where things were simple and stresses were sparse.

What's not to enjoy?

Sibling Collaboration.

So this weekend, Studio TimBo was fired up ready for portraits of the immaculate variety. The shoot was to produce portfolio images for make-up artist hopeful and general knower of all things stylish and fashionable, Evie Goodman (my sister). The images are testament to weeks of style planning in work books and research collages. Put together for an enrichment art award in between AS Levels at school. Using herself and her friend Vanessa Norton as models, she personally styled everything, and I mean everything as I am thoroughly useless at this particular activity. A strange experience to have to sit around and do so much idle waiting I have to say. However, the rewards for what I was then presented with to shoot was absolutely worth it.

Whether you like this commercial aesthetic or the respective styles is neither here nor there, the qualities to be recognised here are the transformation and contrasting effects in the styles in each set of portraits. Using Make up tones and application levels to alter structure, definition and contours in the name of feminine beauty. For more details on the inspiration and aims for each look, regarding her project, you can contact her via facebook here.

Shooting this project was extremely rewarding as I'm sure the shots will help to portray and as a whole, the project does great justice to the investment I put into acquiring the Studio TimBo equipment. Once again though, I wish to express my concern for the colour calibration on certain screens. My heart sinks when I see the colour saturation of these images on certain monitors. If you are finding them slightly odd, take into consideration they are all best viewed on Apple Mac screens (Print Calibrated).

Style 1:

Style 2:

Style 3:

Style 4:

These last two were my personal adaptation of style 4. Retracting just slightly from the warmer glows in skin tone and blonde hair in favour of a more porcelain aesthetic. See what you think...

My Mate Dave

So this weekend I hooked up with one of Kent's finest up-and-coming dubstep DJs. He mixes some of the best oldschool bassy tunes with funky hiphop, triphop and generally anything fresh with big, cutting edge dubstep vibes that melt your ears. Currently the resident DJ for the famous 666 nights held at The Loft nightclub in Maidstone & more recently at CHILL in Canterbury, he has had the opportunity, along with fellow Twisted DJs, to showcase his turntablistic skill & trickery with some pretty heavy names. These include the likes of Zane Lowe, Pendulum, Rusko, Caspa, Erol Alkan, Kissy Sellout, Calvin Harris, Nero, 16 bit & the list goes on.

Now I can't hype this guy up enough, if you like your Bass. He's got some serious, serious talent and is now part of of the dj collective, Midnight Flight. There's djs left, right and centre these days, using mixing software and a whole array of digital aids. I see my fair share of them living around London but My Mate Dave is a straight up vinyl mixer with a pure passion that isn't numbers-through-the-door, based aka a club banger rapist. You've got to love your Dub to be fair. I had to get him to completely shut it all off at one point as I couldn't stop myself, nor him, from screw face rocking which was distracting me from the task at hand. The task being to promo shoot this badman in his own mixing palace. It was a proper laugh and I really enjoyed it to the extent that I felt guilty having to rush off.

You can catch My Mate Dave every Tuesday @ Twisted down at the Loft, Maidstone. Or alternatively every Wednesday down @ CHILL in Canterbury. If you can't make it down in the week, I advise you make the effort to get down to one of the twice monthly 666 'Dubbed Out' nights, which showcase drum&bass and dubstep's most famous talents.

To get a much better feel for him, check out his myspace or for booking information, e-mail him on djishuk@aol.com.