reProduction: set it off on the dancefloor

Liz Collins The Face January 2000 (reProduction: set if off on the dancefloor)

Pauline Black

 Pauline Black is the lead singer of The Selector. I love her style.

(photo Lynn Goldsmith) c.1980?

British Summertime Starts Here

Daisy has been teaching me about double exposure on my new camera so below are some experimental shots but I can't stop there otherwise I'll end up always taking photos of the same things all the time. Twice.

Self Portraits

Party

At Le Maison Derriere

Summer Time Friends

August 2010, Wales

Desktop, Leeds

Louis Vuitton

If I'm honest, my opinion of Louis Vuitton is slightly irrational (?) as I can't help assuming it's a label, like Burberry, that's been adopted as a uniform through their logos by the cheap and the nasty, serving as a disguise to their actually rotten lives, or the middle class who wear it clumsily with country casuals and pretend they go shooting on the weekend. But when you look beyond the obvious, the mainlines are very nice. I don't follow womenswear that closely but it was cool to see Kate Moss on the catwalk, smoking on National No Smoking Day, sporting a Croydon Facelift. And Kim Jones has taken over menswear, which is very good news. I'm excited to see what he produces.

Hometown Shots

I would probably say I prefer to take photos of people, particularly young men like myself, in a fashion context. Next down I would say any type of people, interesting people and people with history and background, that represent certain cultures and subcultures, ways and walks of life, nationalities, classes, systems...

Then I would say I find my other inspirations in the sky, how it changes and shifts during the year. And lastly in buildings and architecture. So here are some shots of Birmingham - where I live - on the first sunny spring like day of the year.

Happy Valentines BTW - hope you all had as much fun as I did.

schrapnell

Zora

Last Year, Last Week

Happy New Year

David LaChapelle

2001: Anouck Lepere by Miles Aldridge for The Face - Dead on Arrival

2001: Amy Wesson

I've always had my favourite models from time to time, Kate Moss being an all time favourite, as I believe models are just as crucial as the photographer in producing pieces of art. However, unlike Kate Moss, who is a very good and diverse model, Amy Wesson wasn't generally all that fantastic, but I became fascinated with her after reading her story in one of the first issues of Teen Vogue nearly 10 years ago when I was in Florida. She was part of the breed of supermodel that mixed with the supers and the super-waifs, and was on the team that ushered in the heroin chic aesthetic during the mid 1990s. Ironically, Amy Wesson, a small town girl in her teens, developed a severe drug addiction and suffered a steep downward spiral which drastically effected her career. I sometimes felt, that in some of her pictures, I could see the spiral.

To me she was one of the first, influential models of the turn of the century, alongside the Angela's, Maria Carla's and An Oost and Anouck Lepere, and the ones I'd hope to see on the catwalk and in new editorials when the seasons changed.

Since then, her face has popped up here and there, and surprisingly has fronted the odd big campaign (MaxMara perfume was her most recent), but what touched me the most was an editorial for hipster-wank rag Vice Magazine, called 'The Bitter Tears of Amy Wesson'. Now 33, the editorial summed up to me the painful journey this woman endured, and the history she was infamous for within the fashion industry.

 

Despite not being a household name, she worked some high profile campaigns and was photogrpahed by famous photographers such as Mario Testino, Bruce Weber and David LaChapelle, so her diversity was there. But some people will recongise her purely as the odd looking girl on the cover of the album and singles from Adore by Smashing Pumpkins.