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I am currently having a particularly long bout of insomnia. Im on my 16 day/night/whatever of broken/limited/barely any point sleep. So as Im grumpy Im editing some London shots.

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Im not keen on London. I have some lovely friends who are from London, but I just prefer Birmingham as a place. These however are some nice shots I made recently.

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If you squint top right you can see Wembley…..

LittleWing, London, January 2017… Read the rest

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Okey well maybe not midnight and maybe not technically the oasis….but this set is all 3am in my oasis – and pretty close to the actual Oasis in Birmingham 🙂 And when I say Oasis I don’t mean a mildly trendy dress shop – I mean the classic Birmingham shop Oasis where I spent many hours as a youth and where I still wander around now looking for practically the same clothes I bought in the eighties hahahaha.

Beautiful Birmingham City Centre – through my little eye….DSC_1182

 

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Birmingham City Centre, 3am, August 2016, with lots of rats the size of cats – LittleWingLost… Read the rest

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Graffiti has given me a whole lot of experiences both good and bad. Its given me the opportunity to look at the world in a very different way. Ive made many amazing friends and I have been welcomed in every country Ive travelled to to shoot their graffiti. But its the really secret stuff Ive done when Ive travelled, that has only been made possible by, in most cases,  complete strangers who have trusted me and me conversely trusted them – where my real adventures have come from.

In Milan I was really made to feel at home. Im always amazed that when I travel that local contacts take time out of their lives to take me all over their hometowns to share many of their secrets. This particular adventure involved a bit of climbing, a watchman, a whole lot of nettles and the results are below. I said it back then but I will say it again – Milan (and in particular my very lovely hosts)  – you are truly amazing – thankyou xx

Day of the Dead Trams……

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Little Wing Lost, Milan, 2016

 … Read the rest

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Back in the tail end of 2013, whilst up a ladder, a conversation with a writer about the possibility of shooting a celebrity in front of a wall of graffiti came about. It was sort of a dream of theirs. And it started me off to try and make that happen. As a Blues fan we talked about a ‘Zulu’ wall. As in – wouldn’t it be ace if they did a massive wall that said Zulu and then we got loads of original Zulus in front of it. Within a couple of weeks I visited a small shop in Brum having found out through the internet that this was where I could meet a proper old skool Brum lad. What I didn’t know until then was that I was about to meet a bloke who I had actually ‘nearly been mates with’ for thirty years. His name was Todd and between him and me we spent a long time after that first meeting many weeks talking to various other mates collecting what would be one of the largest gatherings of original Zulus in front of a graffiti piece painted specifically for them.

Todd and I came to realise that we had been ‘nearly mates’ because he went to school with my best mate Brett who also went to school with many of the Zulus who I did know but also many of my other school mates who had hung around with all the same people.… Read the rest

Spent a brill morning shooting Mr Dennis Seaton, lead singer from our beloved Musical Youth for a project Im currently working on. We spent a long time chatting about his incredible career and we laughed a lot. It was a brilliant morning and we even made this 🙂 More photos of this project as it develops over the next few weeks or so…but for now…. (n.b. disclaimer yes I can not sing but seriously look what I did!!!)

 

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I firmly believe that Birmingham is the greatest of Cities. Of course the bias is completely there as I am from here, however, even though I have always felt that way, the travelling I have done over the last few years (which stepped up majorly over the last two years) has only confirmed that to me. We have a soul here. There is just something about Brummies that makes us really humble but really gobby at the same time. We don’t bang on about how great we are – but we are a City which has produced legends. And then (and I will come back to my thoughts on legends from this City in future blogs – as I have much to say about that hahaha) we have our beloved canals.

Now as  a very happy little Brummie – I can remember long long ago when the canals – or the cut as I prefer to call them – weren’t anywhere near as ‘trendy’ as they have become now. Its all very delightful seeing these new paths – all smooth and lovely for cyclists – but I remember when you used to have hack your way through brambles..dodge empty Corona bottles and pretty much accept that your legs were going to be covered to nettles (and I COULD NEVER FIND A HOCK LEAF) if you dared to venture along the sides of any path by the cut.… Read the rest

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I spend a great deal of my time researching these days. Im always reading something, talking to someone about something, travelling to look and photography something or writing about something. Its part and parcel of doing a PhD on a part time basis and its very very often a lonely road because I have to do all of this away from my main full time job. But I believe that if you are passionate about something then you should behave passionately about it. This was my bedroom in 1983. This wall was completed by me and my best pal at the time Suzanne – she was an amazing portrait artist and unlike me also did art at school (which by this time I wasn’t attending all that much). I was a nightmare at this time in my life. I was rebelling against everything and everyone and I was also suffering/hiding the beginnings of what was possibly early signs of an eating disorder. But apart from the eating disorder bit – an explanation of which I fully intend to return back to at some point on this blog – I was – quite honestly – having the greatest days of my life.… Read the rest

 

 

 

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Here are a few of the shots from my recent press visit to the AutoSport and Performance Car Show at (it will ALWAYS BE THE NEC TO ME!!) Genting Arena, Birmingham. I do the odd event for Press, its mostly for music events but occasionally I do get something else. It was a bit mad for me to revisit this type of event as when I was in my teens I followed and shot at many car related events and I was even a promotions girl for a few F1 events at Brands Hatch and Silverstone. I shall be sorting out the photos from all those eighties memories at some point and uploading here but for now here is this recent event……DSC_0764 DSC_0771 DSC_0788 DSC_0796 DSC_0759 DSC_0782 DSC_0794 DSC_0800 DSC_0803 DSC_0730 DSC_0765 DSC_0767 DSC_0777 DSC_0806 DSC_0744 DSC_0817 DSC_0779 DSC_0728 DSC_0740 DSC_0754 DSC_0747 DSC_0815 DSC_0838 DSC_0844 DSC_0821 DSC_0831 DSC_0850 DSC_0820 DSC_0848 DSC_0743

 

With massive thanks to I Racing and Racespot TV for the opportunity. IMG_9511 IMG_9518 IMG_9509Read the rest

Crazy beautiful city but the best part of Prague for me when I visited back in 2009 was to visit the graffiti memorial –  John Lennon Wall.

Its mad to think that this wall has been covered in Lennon inspired graffiti since the early 1980s. But it has. Apart from an (ironic) act of vandalism (yeah I said it was ironic) back in 2014 when the wall was painted completely white over night with just the words THE WALL IS OVER written in black spray paint – this wall has been a mecca for Lennon fans and graffiti writers from all over the world for decades. It stayed white for less time than a hall of fame in London so within a few hours it was back to being covered in graffiti inspired by love, friendship, hope and of course Lennon lyrics.

 

This is a brief explanation of why and how the wall is there :

 

John Lennon and the Communist regime

Lennon was a hero to the pacifist youth of Central and Eastern Europe during the totalitarian era. Prior to 1989 when communism ruled, western pop songs were banned by Communist authorities, and especially John Lennon´s songs, because it was praising freedom that didn’t exist here.

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This was such a beautiful day. A real privilege to be asked to be the wedding photographer for a couple that I genuinely admire. I actually get asked a fair bit if I do weddings. I sort of do but sort of don’t. I don’t like wedding photographers as I don’t think they take any risks with the style of photographs they generally produce and I think you should really try and take photographs which are very individual to the personality of the couple you are shooting. So I will, but I’m not your ‘standard’ wedding photographer….

A very beautiful day and a very special couple

 

I will come back to photographs of this day at some point in the future – but when I was trawling through my archives of photos I found this one. Check the sheer shock (and horror in some cases) of the guests as I climbed my trusty ladders in my favourite boots to shout out my instructions to them all.

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On this particular day I arrived at the church and managed to fall out of my car breaking my finger, severely spraining my wrist and ripping both my knees to shreds. I have absolutely no idea how but I managed to shoot the entire wedding even though I did feel like I was going to faint with the pain in my hand several times.… Read the rest

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