Memory Lane

‘Petal Drop’ from Frantic Assembly’s ‘Dirty Wonderland’, Brighton Festival 2005. Timing is everything – and so is trust. I returned to The Grand Ocean Hotel on nine occasions in order to cover the get in, rehearsals, tech runs and having gained the confidence of the company actual performances. The petal drop was awkward to photograph and rehearsals lacked the frisson of a real show with audience present. After this run I was thrilled because I knew I finally had the petal drop in the can but was gently and graciously deflated by Imogen Knight who whispered between scenes that she’d held that position for just a fraction longer than usual.

Porridge

The second of my picture sessions for 2007 Festival produced shows was for A New World Order. The title given to a selection of late Harold Pinter plays to be staged as promenade/site specific pieces in the bowels of the Town Hall at Bartholemew Square. The lower ground floor and basement levels of the building at one time housed a Police Station and cells which were in use as recently as the 1960’s.

First performed at the Royal Court in 1991 The New World Order lasts 10 nerve wracking minutes and was described by the Independent as getting “closer to the nerve of torture than any play I know”.

I photographed Harold Pinter during Brighton Festival 2004. Below are two photographs from the session at the Town Hall.

Room Service

My yearly assignment for Brighton Festival began just before Christmas with two sessions making production photographs for Festival produced shows. The first session was for ‘Maids’ by Jean Genet which is to be staged and directed by Neil Bartlett.

Neil & designer Jonathan Swain discuss the work of Photographer John Deakin during a break. I worked closely with Jonathan in the run up to this assignment and we discovered we shared an interest in Deakin who was sent to see out his final days at the Old Ship by the painter Francis Bacon in 1972. Deakins portraits are among the most significant (and overlooked) in the history of 20th Century photography. Bacon was fascinated by his bleak vision and wrote of him “His portraits to me are the best since Nadar & Julia Margaret Cameron”.

We placed an image of Jean Genet on the wall in quiet homage.

Neil was great to work with. Here he directs Mademoiselle Magali.

The final image before cropping to fit the brochure format.

It’s a wrap, Neil helps Magali out of her over the top out fit. The Maids in the show are fantasists and dress in their employers clothes and jewels before eventually murdering her. For this session Magali wore an absolutely stunning 1950’s Dior dress, furs and a total of 17 strings of pearls! In a passionate interview recently published in the Independent, he talks to Paul Burston about the fur trade, fairy tales, and gay writers (and rights).