Feature on Tattooed Art Historian Matt Lodder

The gentleman in the above magazine spread is Matt Lodder. He has been getting a lot of attention in academia, not because of his tattoos, but because he is one of the few people who has been writing about tattoos from an art perspective and has first hand knowledge of the culture. Having just been awarded his doctorate for examining and challenging the role of tattoos and the tattooist in history and art, I had an interview lined up with him. For the mood and styling of the photo-session we took inspiration from 1950's police files.

Tattoo Revolution, a new non-profit tattoo lifestyle magazine, just ran this as a 5 page feature and we are both really pleased with how it came out.

If you find out more about the magazine, and buy a digital or print copy, so you can read the article just click this link tattoorevolutionmagazine.


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Terrorizer Cover Shoot in Texas Revealed.

One morning I got a phone call asking me if I wanted to do a cover shoot with metal band 'Evile', I said, "Sure, where is it?", they said, "Texas". So a week later I packed my gear into shipping cases, took my i-visa and my sleepy self down to the airport and flew to the USA for another work based adventure.

I spent several days with the band and managed to get a variety of great shots despite the band's reputation for bad luck. Even before we met up with them in Texas they had already worn out one van and were halfway through another. To see more photos and read about them almost getting arrested at the Alamo click the link  here.

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County Wedding Magazine - featured work

This morning I received a copy of the latest County Wedding Magazine, which had a four page spread on one of my weddings from earlier in the year. I'm really pleased with how the magazine laid my images out and the general content of the magazine. If you are a Bride-to-be, this is a magazine worth checking out !

Thanks again to Craig and Michelle for being interviewed for the magazine and for inviting me to shoot their day.

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Ozzy Osbourne - Rock Sound Magazine

Last month Rock Sound sent me to Ozzfest in London, I was also one of the lucky photographers to be approved and accredited to shoot the Prince of Darkness himself. When shooting I had no idea the magazine wanted to run the image as a double page spread, so it was a nice surprise to see the above image jump out at me when I opened the magazine. I'm also pretty happy with the inserts they used.

I'm now back from my shooting in the States and Canada, so expect to see updates from this when the magazines are out.

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New Kreepsville 666 campaign.

The above poster is the first of a series I recently shot with horror-inspired cult brand Kreepsville 666 (you might have seen their "I [anatomical heart] monsters" tote bags being carried around by everyone from stylish rockers through to kitsch fashionistas). As ever, they chose us a great location (and old castle in Aberdeen) and brought in great models.

You can check out the new range at their website.  Or visit the fashion section of my portfolio to check out some of the photographs I took of their new 'rest in peace' jewellery range.

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Lal Hardy Cover feature for Tattoo Master

Last month I was invited to visit legendary tattooist Lal Hardy at his studio to shoot a several page feature and cover image for Tattoo Master. If you are involved in tattooing you will already know Lal and his work, for those of you who are not, you may recognise him from the popular TV show London Ink. When we arrived at the studio we were greeted with a warm welcome and a cup of tea (note: this is always a good way to get in my good books ;). Lal himself was very accomodating and a pleasure to shoot, as you can see from the below image, his faithful pet also wanted to get in on the excitement.


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Wedding feature in Photopro magazine

Phew, I'm back from shooting another music festival and the latest Photopro magazine had dropped on my doormat. A while ago I did an interview with them about my Wedding work and how it fits in with my other work (people are often suprised to hear I enjoy shooting Weddings). So thanks again to Photopro for taking the time to interview me, and thanks too Craig & Michelle and Ash & Michelle for letting me use the photos from their weddings in the feature.

If you are interested in finding out more about the wedding work I do, please visit here



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Iggy Pop and Glamour

I had the honour of shooting the legendary Iggy, who was playing with the Stooges at Sonisphere festival, just over a week ago. More photographs  can be found on Rocksound.tv

I also shot some material for fashion magazine Glamour, who were doing a feature on festival fashions. This can be found at glamourmagazine.co.uk

I've a few more updates backlogged so keep checking back if you haven't already subscribed to my RSS feed.

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100 Models in one afternoon

Things have been hectic here - I've several shoots which I am itching to share with you, but have to wait until they have been published first.

Last week I was asked to shoot 50 models as part of a casting for the big-name client of a big-name photographer (yes, it's all very hush-hush til the campaign is live, but that's how it is). It turned out that someone got a litte over-zealous with sending us models.... we ended up having 100 girls to cast. Double what we expected. We had one arrive late, but where's the fun in only shooting 99 models when 100 sounds so much better? Of course we squeezed the last model in before packing up.

An interesting challenge, but one I am very pleased to say we met without breaking a sweat. By running a tight ship we were able to do the full casting and review the images with the client on-site, all in time to get home before the sun started to set!

To give you an idea of the scale, the above image is a contact sheet of 50 images. We shot twice as many girls as in the image (each girl in various poses too).
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Winner : UK Tattoo Industry Best Photographer 2010.

I was working at a convention on Sunday when I was told that I had won the UK tattoo industry 'Best Tattoo Photographer 2010'. I was honoured to be on the shortlist, but to have had the majority share of the public vote is even cooler. So if you are reading this and you voted for me, thank you very much, this does mean a lot to me!


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Pictures from the Bizarre Ball

You can see the galleries from the ball here, or wait to see the event in print in the next issue of Bizarre magazine.

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Rock n Roll Bride features the Ghoulmore Wedding

The awesome Wedding blog "Rock N Roll Bride" featured a gallery from the Ghoulmore wedding, to see it click here.

Pink Cadillac : Best prop ever ?

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Michelle and Craig Lewis emailed me a few months ago asking if I'd be happy to shoot their 1950's themed Wedding in Wales. They told me they had hired a pink Cadillac, so how could I refuse? The couple have a great sense of humour and wanted something a bit 'different' for their session after the ceremony (which took place just over a week ago). So we took the car down to the Beach and the above is just one of the fun shots we came up with.

Live and Loud ; Andrew WK

Phew, I'v been involved in several projects and exciting shoots recently, unfortuantly none which I can release until after the magazines have hit the shelves.
So to keep you going, I've included a link to a series of shots I was asked to do by RockSoun magazine for their recent Andrew WK live show. clicking on the above links you to their site and from there you can also see the photos I took of the 'meet and sweet' Q/A session he had with his fans (based on the theme of sweets).

Shotlisted for 'Tattoo Photographer of the year' Industry award.

I've just been told that I have made it to the shortlist of the final 5 photographers for the 'Tattoo Photographer of the Year' Award to be held at the Liverpool tattoo convetion in June. Which is a nice suprise as I didn't even know I had been nominated. I'm excited as I obviously have a great interest in tattoo related photography and try to add something new to the mix, and them competition is firece these days, so even being shortlisted is cool :)



More can be found out about the competition here:
http://www.tattooconvention.co.uk/Tattoo_industry.html

Thanks for your support !

And here is some info about the Liverpool convention :

"The Liverpool Tattoo Convention as a truly independent tattoo show, will this year be introducing a series of new industry awards with the intention of doing what we can to raise standards in the tattoo industry, give credit where it is due and let the tattoo artists and tattoo enthusiasts voices be heard.

We consider that Journalists, Photographers, Publications and online resources do an invaluable job in promoting the industry, and the Tattoo scene in general, so it is only right that achievement in these areas should be acknowledged."

Alternative culture through a lens : guardian.co.uk Gallery

There are a couple of portrait shots I really want to share with you, but I have to be patient as the client may be using these in a magazine feature too. Once we know if these images are going to be used in the magazine as well as for the client then I can post them.

Instead I'm going to post you a link to the Guardian.co.uk website where they have put together a gallery of images from my photobook, 'No Commercial Value'.



"Photographer Al Overdrive has spent years capturing alternative culture, whether it be at live shows, tattoo parlours or Roller Derbies. His first book, No Commercial Value, assembles the best of these images".

Which is a pretty nice intro from anywhere, let alone a publication with such a good reputation. Out of the shots they picked, it is interesting to see they chose one of Florence Welch (yes, of Florence and the Machine) who has gone on to have great 'Commercial Value' in the two (three?) years since I first met her.

Zapcat Racing and Sports Portraits

I've been itching to put these images up and I've finally got the go-ahead to do so. First off a big thanks to these guys and gals for taking me out on the rig especially to get the shots of the racers at practise. To find out more about Zapcat racing, folow the link above.

The portrait session was broken into two sections : Conventional close up sports portrait and stylised enviromental portrait. The first image was made as a simple but powerful portrait showing Naomi with her Zapcat racing boat. The second shot went for a darker mood, probably inspired in part by a late night session of Tarantino's Deathproof a few days earlier ;)

Feature in PhotoPro Magazine

I had to keep quiet about it until it was out, but the May 2010 issue of PhotoPro Magazine has a feature on me. It's four pages of my photographs and an interview including the origin of my name. The magazine is also jam packed with awesome features and I recommend you take the risk and buy a copy here or here.

Jim Marshall (RIP)

I don't usually post stuff here that isn't directly related to my work, but it is sad to hear that legendary music photographer Jim Marshall died in his sleep last night. You have all seen his work (even if you didn't realise it was his) and I found his attitude, viewpoint and work ethic truely inspiring. The above book is something I recommend you buy. Jim, RIP.

Adventures in Live Photography

Currently the trend in live photography seems to be to avoid getting anywhere near the stage, almost as if they are scared to be close to the action. I find that approach useful for documenting fine-art and performance, but rock music is supposed to be loud! I like my photos to reflect this too ;) So do my clients. I've just finished editing the pictures from the Taake show and thought I'd share a couple of them.

Just to be safe, I had better make it clear that I don't endorse hogging one spot for a show, or getting in the way of the fans or blinding the band with camera flash. It's just not cool.

'I'm Thinking of You' - Franko B

World famous and respected performance artist Franko B recently visited the Royal College of Arts to perform the installation version of his piece 'I'm thinking of you'. I was invited by the RCA to be the sole photographer to document the performance. I enjoy working with fine artists as they work closely with the photographer, involving them in the performance, making it a collaborative piece. If you are interested in learning more about this side of the work I recommend you read 'Live art on camera: Performance and Photography' edited by Alice Maude-Roxby.
Now that the artist has approved the images, I am free to post some examples here, To read more about the performance and to see a slideshow gallery of the images, please click here to visit Franko's site.

Interview and feature on thequietus.com

Recently thequietus.com interviewed me about my first book, where I was granted 'behind-the-scenes' access to document much of the modern alternative music scene, suspension performances and tattooing across the UK. I was also asked to compile a list of some of my favourite songs for the feature too. The interview, photographs and soundtrack can be found here : here. While you are there I recommend you look around the whole site as it really is one of the best written pop/culture sites around at the moment.

To find out more about the book, please click this link here.

Tiny Teeth.

Tiny Teeth are a husband and wife team that write, record and produce musical scores for mobile device applications. Generally people in the creative industry don't automatically switch off at the end of a working day and it is often impossible to make a separation between them and their art. I was invited into their home to produce some editorial images which reflect this, as well as capturing some of the chemistry between them . It didn't take me long to come up with the concept of Ed and V sitting on their sofa surrounded by an arsenal of instruments and recording equipment.

These are some of my favourite shots from the session, as they really capture the essence of the partnership. We also shot some images for publicity, this time going for a low-key image focusing purely on the relationship between the two, using only simple props to give context.