My BIGGEST Exhibition!!

I think this must be the 'biggest' exhibition of my work I'm ever likely to have.

I was asked to photograph Adlington Hall for a huge banner to disguise the scaffolding that has been erected whilst renovation work is completed.

And here it is...My work, 30ft high, the size of a two storey building.  It might not be the image I would have chosen to blow up, but its sure good for posterity!!

...the only problem now is...where do I go from here??!!!

Lake Windermere Fashion Story

I would never have imagined when I first decided to get my photography business up and running, that one of my first paid jobs would see me with such a big team, up in the Lake District, shooting a fashion story, and riding aboard a luxury powerboat but thats what's gone and happened.

The shoot was to promote the new Harris Tweed Handbags, and as such our brief was to create a number of different scenarios, which would make up the day-in-the-life of a beautiful woman, and show the versatility/diversity of the bags.

It was a long day of shooting, as we had to try to cover around 12 different scenarios.  However, we had the best weather imaginable, our first blast of summer!

The story was shot around Storrs Hall, a beautiful country hotel with stunning surroundings, on the edge of Lake Windermere.  Now this would have been pretty impressive alone, with the history and the views and the possible different locations.  But everybody's highlight of the day was to come in the afternoon, when we went to shoot aboard a powerboat.

Now I had a feeling this thing was going to be nice, but when we arrived, it was liking rolling up in St. Tropez, this boat was huge and it got everybody obviously excited, thinking, 'Now this is why I got into this business'.  Needless to say, a fun day was had by all... Exhausting, but fun nonetheless.

Now bring on more!!!

The team photo, aboard the luxury powerboat.

From left: Me, Jim (The Client), Jenny (My Assistant), Andrea (Hair & Make-Up), Martina (Model) and Tom (Model for the day!)

Pet Sounds vs. Sergeant Pepper

I want to take this opportunity to congratulate my good friend and long-time collaborator, Tim Hunt, on the success of his most recent short film making endeavour.

In partnership with Adrian Pinsent, Tim has won the Brighton Festival 24 Hour Film Challenge.  The boys were set the task of making a 2 minute documentary about the Brighton Beach Boys, and in particular their one-off gig, which pitted two of the best ever albums against each other.  The Beach Boys' 'Pet Sounds' vs. the Beatles' 'Sergeant Pepper'.

Its seems that their conclusion was that there can be no outright winner, but it is a great little film and well worth a watch.  And having been a part of 24 hour film challenges in the past, I know all too well how hard it is to produce such a professional looking piece, when at 3 am all you want to do is sleep!!!

Take a look at the film here

and

Read about the experience here

Signed Print Auction

I recently worked with an assistant, Jennifer Clayton, who is coming to the end of her Photography Degree at Blackpool College.

The students are having a degree show down in London in June, and are trying to raise money for it.

The reason I'm writing this is they are holding an online auction for signed prints from some big name photographers, such as Stephen Gill and Gered Mankowitz...and they start cheap...£30!!  So if you are interested in photography, get yourself onto their site and see if you can snap one up.

'One Night In London Print Auction'

...P.S.  If you can't find something you like there, why not take a look at my prints!

Christopher Perkins Artwork

Sophie Shoot

Another shoot on the list, and a few more images for your viewing pleasure!

Model: Sophie Kutay

Make-Up: Fiona Shaw

I thought I'd try some montages of the images we made showing different expressions.  I really like them, but please feel free to let me know what you think. (You can click on the image for a bigger view.)

Dancing Inspiration

On the invitation of my friend, Sabine, I last night visited the 'Dance For Camera' event in Manchester, which is part of the 'moves08' festival.

Now I love dancing in the 'regular' sense, I'm even learning 3 different styles at the moment, but dance for art and performance art is something I've never managed to fully get my head around.  The world in which it revolves seemed to me to be quite elitist and less accessible than the genres in which I usually work.  A world where you had to know about and understand the whole history of where a performance has developed from.

However, this brief event has been somewhat of a revelation to me, and today I have found myself listening intently to the sounds I make as I wander round the house, opening and closing doors, tapping away on this keyboard, and its like the quiet but powerful rhythm that we all move to.

During the evening we were able to see snippets of some finished work by a couple of artists, Simon Ellis and Rachel Davies, and be part of a discussion about their work and how it was viewed.  This got me to thinking about my own work, particularly our early film, 'The Lonely Walk', and the way some people loved it but others were quickly bored, which I had always understood but found slightly frustrating.

What really interested me though, was the second half of the event, when things became much more heated and debate ensued.  Andy Wood was showing some rough cuts of a dance piece he had filmed a year previous and wanted to get feedback from the audience on how they viewed it.

These short sections of film brought strong debate on factors that had completely passed me by a first viewing...  How the characters interact with the camera and with each other, whether they even acknowledged it existence, the clothes that they wore, the style of the dance (which was compared to a style from the 70's that hadn't progressed), the views of the author and his methodology of working, and his ideological stance (or lack thereof).

This stuff surprised me and yet I could value all of the points that were being made.  It just goes to prove that in our creative fields there is always so much that can be read into an image or a piece, whether it was consciously injected by the author or not.

I would also like to present a beautiful piece of work by my friend, Sabine Klaus, and invite you to view more of her work at www.creationeditor.co.uk

New Shoot - Michelle

Some new images from a shoot with Michelle Robinson.

Self Portrait Tests: DIY Ringflash

Here are a few self portrait images from one of my first test shoots with the home-made Ringflash.

As you can see, it works, and pretty damn well at that.

For the photography geeks amongst you, I can get up to f/16 out of it at 1/125 sec. (Not bad, eh?)