Blues & Reds

And no, I don't know the lady on the right.

Turning Pro

Turning Pro from magnusphotog on Vimeo.

OK, the self imposed blog holiday is now over. It was good while it lasted but it is now time to start posting again. As a treat I give you the finished audio slide show on promising young boxer Darryll Williams, which I mentioned here earlier. He's fighting again next week, May 3rd at The Troxy in east London, if you fancy checking him out in the ring for yourself.

2011 Sideways Summary

A brand new year is just around the corner so I'll try and summarise 2011 with some of my favourites shots/shoots along with some pictures that never ended up going on the blog. I'll be the first one to admit that blogging has become a bit of a burden this year. The black hole of never ending good stuff that is Twitter overtook the sharing of online content. The planning of my wedding took up an enormous amount of time too, but lets be honest, laziness is at the heart of the problem. Enough with the excuses, here we go.

The moment my now wife said 'yes' to me on top of a castle overlooking the sea, with friends and family from all over the world gathered in one spot, was definitely the highlight of the year (and my life!), and these two pictures are from our resulting mini-honeymoon to Dorset, where amongst other things, we took in the delight that is Durdle Door.

One the funniest and most rewarding of my own projects that I worked on was the phenomenon of same-sex dancing. This picture is from an event at The Rivoli in Brockley, where couples from all over the world come to compete in ballroom dancing. An audio slide show will hopefully be complete in time for next years competition.

Sitting beneath West Norwood Cemetery is one of the country's few large-scale catacombs. Known as the Millionaire's Cemetery, it was one of the most fashionable places in the city to be buried during Victorian times, when death was commemorated in the most indulgent way a family could afford, and catacomb burial was seen as the pinnacle of high status. Chipped and moulding coffins are on plain display. There are approximately 1,500 coffins down here, with capacity for about 2,000.

The first thing to greet you when you enter the catacombs is the old hydraulic catafalque (above), aka coffin lift. At the end of a funeral, as something of a dramatic conclusion, this would have been used to lower the coffin straight into the catacombs from the old chapel above (which was destroyed by a bomb in the Second World War). Waiting below would have been a team of pall bearers, who would have then unloaded the coffin and taken it to its allocated space. An awesome place, which really gave me the creeps.

Since 2010, I've had the pleasure of working with Kick It Out. This shot is from one of their many coaching sessions for black and Asian managers, where England U19 manager Noel Blake (R) and Chelsea FC's Michael Emenalo (L) took part. The work they do is much needed, with only two black managers involved in top-level football in this country, and as racism charges against John Terry and Luis Suarez have proved, there is still a lot to do to stamp out racism from the game.

More sports, this time a nice portrait. I was sent down to Ladywell Fields in Lewisham to get a site shot as they had just had a new surface laid down on the athletics track. A chap which I vaguely recognised was about to start training and I got chatting to him. Turns out it was Conrad Williams, a Team GB athlete training for next years London Olympics, and he was more than happy to pose for a few shots.

A final sports pic, this one from Wimbledon, where sadly I only had time to go for one afternoon. This is ultimate champion Novak Djokovic twisting his arm unbelievably as he serves. I love how this looks and have a whole series of these.

A couple of shots from the flash mob outside City Hall in May, where security guards have made it into a sport to stop photographers from getting their cameras out. Getting creative with the message are Leah Borromeo (top) and NUJ's Jess Hurd. More on all things related at PHNAT.

The Royal wedding was fun! The nation went into hyper drive and got a day off for their troubles. Little girls dressed as princesses and neighbours threw street parties in a seldom seen show of friendliness. For me, it was a extremely busy day, but luckily I didn't have to go into Buckingham Palace, where photographers have been speaking of the job from hell. I was well fed and watered all day. This shot is from East Greenwich Pleasaunce.

More royalty, here's Camilla getting a stiff upper lip from an equestrian friend as she visited Ebony Horse Club in the middle of Brixton.

The biggest story in London was probably the August riots. I came back from work just as Hackney was erupting. I went down to have a look and within 10 minutes I'd seen three people being robbed of their cameras. There was no police in sight, people were committing robbery right left and centre, and as I wasn't covering it for the paper, I decided it wasn't worth the risk. Numerous photographers got beat up and robbed, and I'm kind of glad that I stayed away. The above pic's are of the aftermath in Woolwich and Lewisham, but, the riots also brought some good things. How about these (below) riot inspired custom finger nails from an art exhibition in Peckham?

Finally, here's a round up of links to some of the numerous 'Pictures of the Year' out there:

Tom Jenkins of The Guardian, AFP's Leon Neal, Time, The Guardian, BBC, Greenpeace, The New York Times, The Telegraph, MSNBC, The Big Picture parts I, II and III, Reuters UK and global, Flickr, The Daily Beast, British Red Cross, to name but a few, and of course the pictures of the year in LEGO.

Happy New Year to all of you!

A heathen message

Darryll (above) is helping me with a photo story on how a young boxer is about to turn pro. He is having his first professional bout next month and I'm hoping to be there with him for his first of many victories.

More to follow next year, but right now, 'Christmas' is upon us, so I bid all and sundry a nice break from the working life. I am not a religious person, but spare a thought for the less fortunate, eat and be merry, just like the heathens did long before those Christians arrived! ;)

See you all in 2012!

Behind the scenes

Daredevil Danny riding shotgun. © Magnus Andersson

Just a little heads up that on this Friday there will be another free screening of our documentary The Best Seat In The World and you're invited! Its at Look Mum No Hands at 7pm, but before you go, check out our daredevil Danny (above) as he mounts a motorcycle reverse in order to film some track action.

If you happen to live somewhere else than London and still want to watch it, perhaps you know of a cool venue that might want to host it? If so, do get in touch in the comments.

Stiff upper lip

The Duchess of Cornwall, Camilla Parker-Bowles, paid a visit to the Ebony Horse Club in Brixton a few days ago and as always with a Royal visit, you never take your eye off the target and pray that magic will happen. I cant say that this visit presented vintage opportunities, but at least it gave the subs a chance to roll out old clichés like 'Saddle do nicely', 'Stiff upper lip', 'Why the long face?', 'Feeling a bit hoarse' etc.

In all fairness, Camilla was great, but I suppose a girl like her will always feel at home around horsey people, even though it is in deepest Brixton. The Ebony initiative itself is amazing though, and the kids that come here clearly benefit from the place. The fact that horse riding can be found in the midst of this urban jungle is no mean feat, so stand up and be proud, Ebony Horse Club, and keep on saying yay in the (long) face of the neigh sayers...

Cambridge slice of light

Full house

Standing room only (+serious face) at our second screening.

Here's some pix from last Saturday when we did the second screening of our documentary The Best Seat In The World at Look Mum No Hands.

Danny does his bike imitation while setting up.

We knew that we we were preaching to the converted when we accepted a viewing at the bicycle Mecca of London. We thought that a few people might turn up, but we didn't expect a full house. The extended applause at the end made it all worth it!

Full house.

If you were there, thank you for taking time out of your weekend to check our work, and if you missed it, there will be more screenings soon.

In other good news, Herne Hill Velodrome received a whooping £400k to safeguard its future!

 Thank you to Look Mum No Hands for the screening!

 We are nearly at 6000 views for the trailer and we appreciate the sharing! As always, stay tuned on twitter and the blog. Merci beau coup.

Welcome to the cheap seats

The bike-powered première screening of The Best Seat In The World at Herne Hill Velodrome, Sunday 11 Sep, 2011.

Last month I invited you to the sneak-première of a documentary that I have been involved in with some friends. That première day here in London started out a little bit wetter than we had hoped, which was especially bad since it was an outdoor screening....but the weather gods stayed on our side! If you stayed at home, you missed a belter!

And I'm not just saying this because it was a film that I was involved in. The rain was solid for most of the day but by sunset there were clear blue skies over London, including a nice big moon on the rise.

This was a bike powered screening held inside the very subject of our documentary - the Herne Hill Velodrome - and I would guesstimate that we had around 40-60 brave souls in attendance. Judging by their reactions it was a success, but if you missed it, why don't you judge for yourself this weekend?

Yes, there will be another free screening at Look Mum No Hands! here in London this Saturday (8th Oct 2011) at 7pm. Address: 49 Old Street, London EC1V 9HX.

Here's the trailer, hope to see you there!


The Best Seat In The World TRAILER from The Best Seat In The World on Vimeo.
A documentary about Herne Hill Velodrome. The track has known some hard times with its main building now closed-down due to deterioration and political feuds that stopped any long term redevelopment. This is the back drop to a series of moving interviews with cycling enthusiasts that range from a 1948 Olympic medallist to eight-year-old track users who all want the track to stay open.


You can also check out our tumblr for updates on future screenings and perhaps some behind-the-scenes footage from The Best Seat In The World.

Perpignan

 Marcus, Mattias and fellow visitor.
 
Now that the cuts and bruises that I got at Visa Pour L'Image are starting to go away, I thought I'd briefly take you through the trip to Perpignan in Aug/Sep. I stayed with my friend Mattias Johansson and his mate Marcus Funke in a swanky new hotel, much closer to the town centre than in previous years, meaning that we managed to walk a lot less and drink a lot more than usual. Bad tings.

Perpignan street.

Anyway, the streets of Perpignan are beautiful and in previous years my go-to-camera has always been the LX3 but it now sits in the most-boring-camera-ever category and therefore most of these are iPhone pictures using mainly Hipstamatic (Nick Turpin is excused from looking at this post*).

Mmm, wine.

This being my third year, I was determined to actually see ALL the exhibitions on show, something we hadn't managed previously. You'd think in a small town like Perpignan it isn't a big problem, but when you factor in 1) we're on holiday, 2) its south of France and full of restaurants and cafes and 3) phojofatigue** and 4) all the free drinks, etc, it becomes a problem. In theory you can probably see all the exhibitions in one day, but for the above stated reasons, we paced ourselves and tried to make the most of it.

Dedicated photojournalists as we are, we always start the week with a champagne breakfast and this year was no different. I flew straight from London to Perpignan while the rest of the 100 or so Scandinavian PJ's flew to Barcelona and then caught a bus to Perpignan, leaving me to do the shopping for my room mates, below.

The traditional champagne breakfast.

When it comes to the exhibitions, the one that really stuck with me was Martina Bacigalupo's 'My Name Is Filda Adoch'. An essay about one woman's daily experiences of life in the Ugandan civil war. Heartbreaking yet tender, not to mention humbling, but what set this work apart from everything else on show was the handwritten captions on the frames, direct quotes from Filda herself, with short succinct sentences about her daily struggle, making an immediate impact and giving a strong voice to the person depicted, something that felt distinctly lacking in almost every other exhibition; the voice of the subject/s.

My Name Is Filda Adoch exhibition.

My second favourite was LA Times Barbara Davidson and her work of Los Angeles residents who have been caught in the crossfire of gang warfare. Again, low key and intimate photography with lots of voices from the people affected by stray bullets.

It comes as no surprise that the two best exhibitions are by female photographers with stories away from breaking news, instead focusing on long-term projects, Davidson spending over four years on hers, initially in her own time, then having to nag her editors to let her continue.

Caught In The Crossfire exhibition.

We of course wanted more of the same and, against better reasoning, got up early one morning to see Brian Storm and hear more about the multimedia converts in our business. It wasn't until about 50 minutes of watching slide show after slide show that we realised that we had misread the schedule, today was only a showcase of MediaStorm's work, yesterday was the actual talk. Brian was only in the room to cue up the projects, one after the other. Photojournalism 0 - 1 Alcohol. :(

Some of the drinkers.

Also worth a mention was Joceylyn Bain Hogg and his work about the London underworld families who are now slowly fading away, a continuation of his work The Firm from 2001.

Again, we never made it to Campo Santo, the place where they do amazing outdoor screenings, but the screen in the main square; Place de la Republique, where you have the added benefit of eating and drinking at the same time, is just as good. Its even better if you can view it from a rooftop overlooking the square, with some champagne and nibbles. Thank you Christina!

The view from Christina's  rooftop.

My friend Maciej Dakowicz also had his 'Cardiff After Dark' series shown at the big screen (the day before we arrived) and when we bumped into each other outside Cafe de la Poste where he told me that it had gone down really well. Last week The Daily Mail decided to run a series of the pictures with bad crops (their own, not Maciej's crops), misleading caption information and of course the word 'foreign' in the headline, cue a shit storm. To date there are over 2200 comments from 'outraged' readers, and Maciej apparently saw a spike of more than 500.000 hits in one day on his flickr pages. His work is great, just sad to see the Daily Fail use it for its own scaremongering purposes. Luckily The New York Times and The Guardian took a more measured approach.

A lone musician on a corner on the last evening.

All in all a great week but slightly exhausting, luckily we made it to the beach on the last day for some much needed frolicking in the sea. A special thank you to the Scandinavian organisers Christina (SFF), Per (Canon Sweden) and Jamil (Canon Denmark) for pulling out all the stops, especially on the last dinner at L'Arago! :)

The beach.

* to be fair, Nick was talking about not sending Hipstamatic shots to his in-public mag, his tweet here
** the feeling of deja vu after each new image, and/or succumbing to depression of seeing too much photojournalism in one day.