NME awards...

Last Wednesday was the NME awards at the Brixton Academy, and I was lucky enough to be there shooting for IPC Media along with Red Bull and Carling.  It was an absolutely amazing night, and got me all "fangirl" over PJ Harvey, Warpaint, Liela Moss, Juliette Lewis and of course, the incredible Dave Grohl.
Actually I did thankfully managed to suppress my excitement so as not to embarrass myself, but, it was a room full of greatness in my eyes!

I was able to have access to the tables where all the guests were sitting which ensured a good view of the stage when there were performances - great to see PJ, Crystal Castles and The Foos playing - it also meant getting crushed in amongst a heaving mass of sweaty musicians - everyone was having a great time and it was good to see a distinct lack of egos in the room, everyone was just there to party and have fun.

The best moments had to be getting a great shot of Juliette Lewis and Dave Grohl together - both of whom are incredibly nice people, and of course watching the Foos play an enormous 2 hour set and seeing every body going crazy dancing on tables.  I was shattered by the end of a 6 hour photography stint but it was well worth it, here are some shots from the night...

ALL IMAGES © ANNABEL STAFF PHOTOGRAPHY 2011.  NO REPRODUCTION PERMITTED.  Thanks!

Rob Zombie...

Well, could work get more varied than this?!  Last week shooting a brilliant and beautiful night for All Walks at the National Portrait Gallery, this week huddling up with 30 other photographers in the pit at the Brixton Academy to shoot Rob Zombie!

After a 12 year UK hiatus Rob returned to England for a sell out show, not only that, I believe that this was the first time that Rob had brought over his entire stage - which was, frankly, a mind-blowing spectacle!

The stage, and all us photographers, were in a heavy cloak of smoke from the start - which was simply impossible to shoot through, but somehow it didn't matter since I was in awe of the whole thing!  We were warned prior to the show that Rob loves red lighting - and he didn't disappoint - which was another hurdle to over come, as anyone knows who has to shoot under red (or blue) gels, it does not translate well in camera...

The pyrotechnics were so fierce I could feel the heat permeating around me, the whole set up was really incredible - the outfits, the make-up, the stage, the GIANT metal robot with glowing blue eyes - which Rob came out of to start the show, the grotesque skeleton mic stands, video projections... I could go on for ages.

But, as they say, a picture can tell a thousand words...

(oh and Arsenal beat Barca - what a night!)

ALL IMAGES COPYRIGHT ANNABEL STAFF / REDFERNS / GETTY IMAGES 

All Walks Beyond The Catwalk...

A few months ago I was invited to be the documentary photographer for a huge event at The National Portrait Gallery, that was being curated by the wonderful women at All Walks - namely Debra Bourne, Caryn Franklin and Erin O'Connor.  At the time it was still in the planning stages, but time flew by and before I knew it the day had arrived.  I was the only photographer who was officially allowed to document the entire event, apart from some photo calls, the rest was all down to me - a roaming one woman camera toter sweating my way through three huge floors of gorgeousness!

If you are not aware (and you should be - I jest, but really, you should be) of who All Walks Beyond The Catwalk are I will explain a little.  Set up in 2009 they are an initiative focused on changing the attitude and face of the fashion industry, to put it in a nutshell there needs to be a more realistic interpretation and representation of women in fashion media - be it race, size or age, there is currently little diversity, but All Walks are trying, and successfully so, to change this.

The event at the Portrait Gallery was somewhat a showcase to bring about awareness - in true All Walks spirit it was open to the public, everyone being welcome to see and enjoy what was on offer.  Rankin, a personally inspiring photographer, unveiled nine (beautiful) images that he had taken exclusively for All Walks, which were displayed around the gallery on the Rankin trail, juxtaposed next to old masters and varying degrees of perceptions of female beauty through the ages.  They portray wildly beautiful women of all colours and ages - one of my favourites being Valerie Pain who I had a little chat with, what a wonderful person she is, how I would love to do a real shoot with her, such a gorgeous woman!

Also, i-D had a pop-up studio set up with photographer Alistair Guy (nice bloke!), with members of the public queuing to have their portrait taken by him - which was great, such a buzz everyone was so excited. Josephine Chime had a brilliant installation for Vogue - like a seaside head-through-the-hole attraction, loved it.

All in all the night was a great success, with the All Walks founders and the likes of Lorraine Candy and Linda Papadopoulos joining a packed out debate in the lecture theatre, there was a lot to talk about.

I had a really great time and am so honoured to have been a part of it, below are some of my shots from the night, I hope you enjoy and here's to more great success to my favourite ladies at All Walks, keep it up!

ROLLING STONE keeps on rolling...!

Without taking away from the excitement of seeing my Duke Spirit shot on the Rolling Stone website, here is another - this time of Kele from a few months back, bumper!

ROLLING STONE!

SO COOL, very happy about this! 

Testing times with Vivienne...

I decided to go down to the studio with Vivienne (my gorgeous girlfriend and willing muse) for a totally impromptu test shoot... it was a case of wondering what to do with yet another cold dark winter evening, and deciding there was no better way to ignore the greyness outside than to grab a load of clothes, some tacky costume make-up and hairspray and get Viv to do ridiculous poses in front of my camera!

But actually those seemingly ridiculous poses have really worked out quite well.  I much prefer to go to a shoot and not have a solid idea of what I want, but rather experiment, it's way more fun that way and leads to more creative results, and I really think it worked!  It was a lot of fun, and now Viv now has the bug and wants to get down to the studio with me every weekend, so, expect more photos soon...

New studio test...

It's been a while since I've updated anything, it's time I picked up the slack and got on with everything....that's not to say that January was a total write off, but, it was pretty quite as it traditionally always is!  Anyway, apart from a few gigs (including Elton John - what a scramble that was) and small jobs, there has been one main thing I have been working on - opening up and running a new studio!

It's very exciting, and I am still in the process of getting it all together for launch this month, but needless to say I can't wait - not only to get clients in through the doors but to get on with a complete portfolio revamp which I need to.  I want to move in a different direction this year and there are a lot of plans in the making.

For now though, here's a couple of shots from a tiny test I did today to demonstrate lighting to some good photographer friends - one of whom, Paul Toeman (seen here doing his best Godfather 2 impression), is the man in charge of this whole operation and who has put all the funding forward to get this project off the ground, and has entrusted me with the consultation, launching and running of the studio as well as project management and general good stuff that's all studio based.  More information on this soon...