Features
Cafe Royal Books
Sheriff Street Dublin 1989
Café Royal Books is a family-run publishing house, comprising Craig, Joanne, Oscar, Hugo, and the dog-ish, Coco. We’re very fortunate to live and work between the woods and the sea, in Ainsdale, a village on the North West coast of England.
We publish at least one new book each week — dedicated to showcasing work that documents people, the environment and aspects of change, particularly from 1960 to 2010, with ties to Britain and Ireland. Additionally, our ‘World Series’ broadens our scope, embracing work that wouldn’t fall into the documentary series. We extend an open invitation for submissions from all corners of society, we would love more submissions of work from disadvantaged and underrepresented communities
Pascal Calzada
for Stratagies Magazine
So this was for Statagies Magazine which was a magazine for the advertising world in France. Simple portrait in an office, as boring as it gets! Before a shoot I’d find myself leafing through catalogues I’d bought at the Musee Dapper. It was a marvellous little place and they had these amazing African arts exhibitions.
I remember seeing Kota and Dogoon masks and thinking maybe I could do something like that in my photography. So for this shoot with Pascal Calzada I wanted his face surrounded by feathers. I was using a Pentax 6×7 and only had about 10 shots on a roll. I think I slowed down the shutter speed to about ¼ sec and when I saw the flash fire I pulled the camera away from him. The good old days of film!
Shigeru Miyamoto
for Le Point Magazine
Miyamoto is the world famous creator of Super Mario. This shoot took place in the Hotel Costes swimming pool on Rue Faubourg, Saint Honore in Paris and was a commission from Le Point Magazine. More often than not these hotels are nice, but make for boring locations for photoshoots. After scouting the hotel for some time, I decided we should shoot in the swimming pool because it had nice lighting.
Shigeru couldn’t speak a word of English, but it was just a picture piece so the words didn’t matter. I remember laughing a lot. I shot this on a big Pentax 6×7 medium format with one light at the back and asked the Le Point journalist I was with to hold the curtains together. I did have the journalist’s hand holding the curtains together in the original shot but the layout editor took it out. What a shame!
Serge Lutens
for Elle Magazine
I walked into this huge studio where the celebrated French designer Serge Lutens was working for Shiseido, a Japanese skincare company. Serge was an avid photographer too, so everything was in place for the shoot already, and it was fantastic to be able to shoot him in his own studio.
The atmosphere was very relaxed, as far as I can remember. I don’t do fashion photography but I admire what they do. Fashion photographers are not street guys, I think their job is harder.
Loos Prison
for Micro Hebdo Magazine
When I lived in Paris I didn’t have much money so my equipment was very basic. I remember other photographers who had great equipment. To compete with those guys, I would come with my own story idea and push it to the picture desk, with the condition that I’d be the one to shoot the photos.
Loos Prison is one of my “pushed stories”. I’d met a retired teacher who was working in the prison, where the prisoners were learning how to make webpages. I really enjoyed this part of my life in Paris.
