I went back to Belgium for a very short but very sweet visit at the beginning of this week, during my 36 hours there I managed to do a shoot with Cindy Frey, here are the shots. This was possibly one of the easiest and most enjoyable shoots I've done recently.
For those of you who don't know, Cindy is not only a fantastic model, she is a wonderful photographer with a still very vibrant and strong career doing it. Over the past couple of years she has also managed to find the time to become a fucking good tattooist and open her own tattoo shop and art gallery! She has tattooed me twice now and I guarantee there will be a third.
Cindy Frey is currently hosting my photography exhibition "Along The Way", at her art gallery in Kortrijk, Belgium. It will be open until new year, so please stop by if you can.
This shot of my friend Oli Bailey was taken at the end of Movember 2011. At the time I published a different photo of him, but when I was looking through photos I wanted in my "Along The Way" exhibition, it was impossible to resist getting this one printed. You can see it at the Cindy Frey Art Gallery until the end of December.
This one I've been meaning to put online for weeks. We shot this just before Halloween with every intension of posting it on the dark day itself, but my schedule was insane and couldn't find the time to even get the photos off my camera. But hey, better late than never right.
Thanks to Leigh Drake for modelling in this one, and doing his own costume/make up to.
I would like to thank everyone who came through to the Cindy Frey Art Gallery for the opening of Along The Way, thoroughly enjoyed meeting you all. I'm so stoked to have had such a good turn out, a great start to the exhibition. An extra special thank you to Cindy Frey and Steve Carette for hosting this and giving me the opportunity to do it. Big thank you to Oliver Croome for performing. And also cheers to those who helped with everything! You're the best! The expo will be up for all of December so please swing by if you can. See you soon. -SB x
Along The Way opens on December 1st at the Cindy Frey Art Gallery, and it gives me great pleasure to announce that Oliver Croome will be coming to perform live. He is a wonderful performer with a unique style. I can't wait to share him with you all in Kortrijk, Belgium.
You can check out Olivers music at the link below...
Here's a cheeky shot I took of my mate Jack, one of the nicest, down to earth people you could hope to meet. He went traveling around the world for a year with his girlfriend, when he left he was as clean shaven as the next man, he made it back in September having not shaved once, best souvenir or what?!!
One of my oldest friends emails me out of the blue to say that she has a new band called Fledglings, they are playing their first ever gig back in Ipswich at the Swan Pub & could I take some photos for them? With pleasure!
Most people will remember Becky from fronting the very much loved band, Making Eyes At Elvis (formerly Charlie Brown). She's been residing in London and studying/working, there fore hasn't done any band stuff for around six years. It was an absolute pleasure to see her back behind the keys and singing her heart out once again.
I'm sure when people will talk about Fledglings they will probably say that there are of course some similarities between this band and Beckys past venture. However this band has an undoubtedly evolved sound, and some serious balls to boot. I couldn't help but hear some Mars Volta type moments in there set, as well as a little Modest Mouse, but mostly so much captivating originality. I genuinely cant wait for their next show.
Here is a couple of shots that overlapped on the most recent 120 film from my Diana F+.
Shot in Menorca on a drive when me and some amigos borrowed a van from a local fisherman to go to this wonderful rock pool for some snorkeling on a hot as hell August day.
Shot on medium format film through my beautiful Mamiya C330. Shot in Ipswich's Swan Pub, Jagermeister, fairy lights, and my homie Joe Halls looking far more serious than normal for a split second. No flash used, dark was the intention. This was on a day when Joe decided to not drink for a month. He made it about two weeks, for Joe this was a valiant effort. Some people are just born to lead the party.
Along The Way will be the very first solo exhibition I have ever done. I am honored to have it hosted in Kortrijk, Belgium at the Cindy Frey Art Gallery.
After Cindy approached me about doing it and me of course saying yes, my first thought was "shit, what should the theme be?" working in many different fields and areas of photography, choosing between them proved to be an impossible task. So I have decided to include my favorite shots I have taken along the way over the past few years. It will be a real mixed selection of photographs from time on the road, time at home, posed shoots and experimental work. You can expect to see a bits of everything, portraits, landscapes, skateboarding, digital, film and so on.
The opening night of Along The Way is on December 1st, and the exhibition will be open for the whole month.
I hope to see as many of you there as possible, I'm real excited for this to say the least!
More on this exhibition soon. Any enquiries about it, please feel free to contact me at sambarker1234@aol.com.
The Fornells fiesta was nothing short of wild, easily one of the best weekends that I ever had. An overdose of music, food, horses & the traditional Menorcan drink called Pomada (gin & lemon), with some crazy Spanish amigos. Here are the photos I took on the Sunday afternoon portion of it, possibly the only time I was sober...
Here is a photo I took whilst walking along the cliffs on the north of the island. Nothing to exciting, just very baron and almost desert like... very calm waters to, a very tranquil day.
He goes to Saffron Walden skate park, an incredible park which pretty much gets rinsed daily, and pulls out an NBD on the thing thats probably hardest to skate there. This time around it was a slightly over vert, pivot to fakie... how? I dont know, it's Raemers, amazing things happen when he's on a board. I shot this at the start of the summer. Enjoi!
So earlier this year around the beginning of march, my friend and Ideals drummer, Ben Ward, asked if I might be interested in making a music video for the band. It was only a few days later talking to my best friend, Nick Williamson, that I realized Ben had approached him about the project as well. We decided to work on something together, not really knowing when it would happen, but knowing it would.
After a lot of talking with Ben, I soon realized the band wanted something home grown, organic and relatively simple. So instead of a fancy studio in London, I arranged to shoot at a couple of locations in the bands (& mine and Nicks) home town of Ipswich.
We shot a big part of it in a friends empty, soon to be open bar/restaurant on the Ipswich docks. This currently nameless and under construction bar/restaurant was the perfect place to shoot, we transformed this huge empty space with lights, projectors and of course the band.
The other big part of the video we shot in Ipswich's renowned Swan Pub, a place where Ideals and many other bands and artists have played over the years. The bar is probably most famous for the Mumford & Sons show right before the band really took off. And also for Ipswich local singer/songwriter, Ed Sheeran, who has played here regularly over the years, and his last gig at the pub as support for Dels at the end of 2010 echos the same story as Mumford & Sons, as it was right before he REALLY took off!
So to pay homage to The Swan and it's deep roots in music, we shot in their infamous attic deep into the night. The small run down and unused room, with wooden floors as old as the building itself oozes character. Again, simply with a couple of lights and some creative sparks, we really made it into something even more special.
I shot a lot of photos over the course of the night to, as well as some sequences which Nick very cleverly incorporated into the video. I will post the photos up later on this week along with some new portraits of the band to.
I'm thrilled to have worked with a band which I'm not only a fan of, but have been friends with since school days. It's also been a great thing for me to get to work on such a good project with my best friend, Nick. This is our first project together since my skate video in 2007, let's hope its not so long until next time.
Any way, here is the finished video. Please watch it, share it and above all enjoy it. It's a great song. In my opinion one of their best.
Ideals- Eyes Open
Thanks to the following people for helping make this happen- Nick Williamson, Joe Halls, Callum Hewitt, Tom Barker & Hannah Maynard.
Ideals are- Andrew Major, Ben Ward, Simon Wilson & Ben Smith.
A photo from my Mamiya C330, good old fashioned medium format film. Fuck Instagram.
Two of my favorite skateboarding amigos, Mark Kendrick (left) and Brendon Brunning (right) before going skating on a nice day in Ipswich last year.
This time of year always offers up beautiful sunsets. Here is one I shot early last summer on my Mamiya C330, just as this sunset burnt out. The contrasting tones make this a particularly moody shot. I love medium format. Fuck instagram.
Here is a little something for the warm weekend ahead to get your skateboarding juices flowing. A handful of shots with Ben Raemers when we went and skated Saffron Walden park last week.
A fs noseblunt slide, a portrait, and a cheeky fs invert. Both these were done in lines, you'll have to hold tight for the footage which should be online sometime in the near future. There is another photo I shot of Ben... Saffron NBD...you're going to have to wait for that to. it's coming. Sit tight.
The second photo from the 120 film I just got back from the developers. A portrait of Ben Raemers. Taken on my Mamiya C330 around a year ago. I really like the depth on this one, the wheels and trucks on Bens board in the foreground are out of focus as well as the background. The natural spring/summer light is a nice touch to, always looks rad on medium format. Fuck instagram.
I just went out with Ben today for a skate and shot some tasty photos with him, watch this space...
I just got a 120 film developed from my Mamiya C330, this was the first shot on there. Used all natural lighting, and a very deep and soft focus. Modeling courtesy of the beautiful Chloe Dale.
Fuck Instagram.
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