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Elite Model Look Ireland 2010

IMTV  HOST IRELAND’S FIRST VIDEO MUSIC AWARDS
Online Music Channel IMTV will host the very first exclusively Irish Video Music Awards.

Irish Music Television (IMTV)  announced the inaugural IMTV Video Music Awards to take place on the 27th November at The Sugar Club, Dublin.

The IMTV Video Music Awards are a music awards show recognising the creative endeavours and talents of filmmakers in creating music videos for Irish bands, musicians and DJs. Aiming to encourage Irish bands to collaborate with video directors and producers, combining these two art forms and reinforce a visual presence of Irish Music both online and on TV.

Its the first time music videos by Irish artist are being recognised by an Irish awards show. This unique, invite only event will be a glamorous night of award giving, live music, and entertainment for approx. 300 music industry professionals, including music journalists, bloggers, PR companies, record labels, producers and musicians.

There will be 8 categories of prizes. Six winners will be selected by the panel of music industry experts including: Sinéad Ní Mhórdha of Phantom FM, Angela Dorgan of First Music Contact, David Coffey Director, Stephen McCormack of IMTV, Niall Byrne of music blog Nialler9, and Dan Hergarty of 2fm. The best newcomer award categories will be chosen by public vote.

Categories will be:

1. Best Live Video
2. Best Styled Video
3. Most Innovative idea for a music video.
4. Best Dance video
5. Best Video by a Solo Artist
6. Best Video by a Newcomer (public vote)
7. Music Video of the Year
8. The Music Video Director of the Year

IMTV producer and presenter, Helen O’Reilly, will host the show and a selection of famous and not so famous personalities will present the awards.

I was invited to photograph the event by IMTV, my job was to capture the spirit and atmosphere of the night in my own reportage style and as a regular photographer at the Sugar club I mingled amongst the crowd and shot the event at my leisure wandering backstage, front of house and throughout the audience keeping a watchful eye on the viewfinder and one finger on the shutter…….Enjoy the shots in my Gallery.

Neil Hannon of The Devine Comedy

Gemma Hayes & Julie Feeney

Julie Feeney

]]> http://firstfocusphotography.com/2009/12/03/imtv-irish-music-television-awards-09/feed/ 0 http://firstfocusphotography.com/2009/11/04/venetian-masks-natalie-da-costa/ http://firstfocusphotography.com/2009/11/04/venetian-masks-natalie-da-costa/#comments Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:18:04 +0000 Rick http://firstfocusphotography.com/?p=909

I have just finished part one of my latest project on Venitian masks featuring model and performer Natalie Da Costa, the shoot has both dark and beautiful elements at it’s hart and the first set of images are now available for viewing in my Gallery.

My latest photo editorial has been three months of research, planning, prop sourcing , designing and organization. Based around the graphic novel “Tank Girl” the shoot features two very talented and creative models and performers Emily Aoibheann & Natalie Da Costa who are both fans of the cult comic book.

Tank Girl is a British comic created by Jamie Hewlett and Alan Martin. Originally drawn by Jamie Hewlett.

As the name suggests, the titular character Tank Girl drives a tank, which is also her home. She undertakes a series of missions for a nebulous organization before making a serious mistake and being declared an outlaw for her sexual inclinations and her substance abuse. The comic centers on her misadventures with her boyfriend, Booga, a mutant kangaroo. The comic’s style was heavily influenced by punk visual art, and strips were frequently deeply disorganized, anarchic, absurdest, and psychedelic. The strip features various elements with origins in surrealist techniques, fanzines, collage, cut-up technique, stream of consciousness, and meta-fiction, with very little regard or interest for conventional plot or committed narrative.

So it was this eclectic, random and anarchic punk comic book feel that I wanted to interpret and to achieve visually. I thought about locations involving disused factory settings, forest elements and even got into contact with a military vehicle group who had a member that owned a Sherman WW2 tank (too expensive to hire!).

I eventually went with a studio option, Hi-Key combined lighting technique (flash, Tungsten and daylight) and created a comic book background using enlarged comic book illustration panels that I had blown up to A1 size to create a kind of “Living comic book” feel. Also subconscious inspiration came from the photo shoot that was done as promotion for the film Trainspotting this shoot has always stuck in my mind as a very strong , visually effective character driven shoot  in stark black and white shot from a high angle.

The props used were a combination of different props we had sourced and accumulated over the past while such as my bullet belt (that I had to consider taking through customs but eventually oped for the postal service), the weaponry was kindly on loan to me from a good mate Garret. Emily and Natalie did a great job on their own styling and make-up also.

Here is a sneaky peak at a select few shots from the shoot.

Emily Aoibheann

The selected shots ar now available for viewing in my main Gallery

I was shooting again in the Sugar Club this week, It is becoming a regular home from home!. The event in question was Living TV’s “Britain’s Next Top Model” media event and catwalk show.

Featuring models Annaliese Dayes and Madeleine Wheatley from the show.

The event was styled by Amie Hayes of Fran & Jane.

Full gallery of images now available for viewing.

Britain’s Next Top Model

Click on the link below for access

Ambassador’s Reception 2009

The idea of a specific time reserved for leisure originated in the1930’s. Contemporary medical theories believing in the benefits of fresh air and sunlight encouraged the pursuit of open-air pursuits and led to the establishment of a number of outdoor pools with amenities. The more elaborate examples were called Lidos, a term borrowed from the famous bathing resort at Venice. The South Bay Pool at Scarborough was designed by Harry W. Smith, Borough Engineer (1893-1930). It was the largest outdoor pool in Europe, construction was begun in 1914 and completed the following year. The changing rooms with their pillars, tiles and circular windows, the pool fountains and various associated bungalows were added in the 1930’s.

The pool reached it’s heyday in the 1930’s, 40’s, and 50’s. School swimming Galas were still held there in the 1970’s.

The pool was finally closed in 1989. It lay derelict, festooned in barbed wire throughout the 1990’s, an obsolete reminder of a different way of life.

Hand developed black and white photographs taken during the summers of 1997-2000 show the pool and it’s surrounding buildings in the last throws of disintegration. Festooned with barbed wire and Keep Off notices the water is black and oily.

I took photographs at the Scarborough South Bay pool whilst it lay derelict in 1997, in fact they were amongst some of the first photographs I had ever taken with an SLR, which at the time was a Pentax K1000 and shot on Ilford HP5 black & white film, hand processed and printed, the photographs here have been created with digital scans from those negatives.

The site had been closed off to the public and upon my visit there was a large amount of graffiti and the roof of the old locker room had been partially ripped off exposing the lockers you see in my shots in the main gallery, also the old cafe door had been broken into by vandals and was left open for exploration.

I could also gain access to the changing room which led to a staircase going down to the entrance of the main pool, which is the photograph of the metal gate seen below. The place had a very eerie feel to it as it was yet another place that used to be full of life and laughter from my childhood and my parents childhood that now lay in ruin’s.

As a child I remember spending the best part of the summer swimming there, the water was always highly chlorine filled because of all the sea water that flooded the pool and I will always remember cutting my feet in the paddling pool from all the broken tiles at the bottom.

Listing for the South Bay Pool was turned down in the summer of 2002, and the pool filled with rubble and sand in the summer of 2003.

This is how the area looks Today.