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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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Back in 2012 I was shooting all sorts of graffiti, still attending art gallery openings with mates and generally starting to get back to taking photos more regularly again than I had for many years. I had struck up some friendships with various people including Kem who, thanks to what was the big thing we all used back then – Facebook (I don’t use it anymore) although Im fairly sure I had known him back years ago through the mod scene in the eighties. He had lost his dog a few months before and like everyone else I had passed on my condolences. And then he and my boyfriend at the time became mates. I knew of the Inc – I had been following either one or both of them back on the My Space days and a couple of other social media things for photos of graffiti – but I had never really met them until late 2011. My partner at the time was starting to get back into blogging and he started up a website which was all about graffiti and anyway long story – I ended up being invited to go and shoot three Brummies who were about to paint a MASSIVE wall in Blackpool for the Sun Sea and Spray Festival in June 2012.… Read the rest

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.

Ladders and Boots

 

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

Well......

Well……

A random find as Im trawling through hard drives looking at old photos.  I found this painting in what was pretty much a cave in Stoke in 2006. Long story, wont bore you, but the expression on my face is one of relief that I found something interesting to shoot other than trees. Its just also funny 🙂… Read the rest

My first visit to Barcelona was in 2004. Exactly a year after we had lost our Dad, which was exactly two years after we had lost our Mom. Me and my brother decided to get away from the grieving and awfulness for a bit. We just wanted to go anywhere, it didn’t matter where. Barcelona was mega cheap and I was just starting to pick up my camera again after two and half years of not touching one with about five years before that of barely having opportunity because my children were so …well….childreny.

Graffiti spotting wasn’t a major priority to me at this time. I still took the odd shot of tagged up walls, because I always have, but not much of anything was a priority to me at that time. My whole family were still shell shocked by all the events of the previous two years. I had had a lot of additional stuff happen during this time of massive loss, including a divorce and trying to keep my home. Or the roof over the kids heads. I basically was just grateful to get away from Birmingham, and real life.

I did find a few walls I liked the look off and this is one of them.… Read the rest

One of the reasons for this blog is to speak. And speak I shall. I want to share loads of things. I want to talk about good stuff and I want to set a few records right. As much as I love Instagram, and I do, I love looking at the graffiti and making contacts for my travels what I don’t like about this world we live in now is what I think we used to call, ‘chip shop paper mentality’. So what you see someone do today you forget about tomorrow, or what you see on social media allows you to make entire assumptions about that person.  My life isn’t a throw away thing. No ones is. I have some awesome memories and I want to get them written down before I start drooling into a glass looking for my teeth and denture glue.  As I said at the start (keep up – read first blog entry) this is about me hahaha. And Im writing about it for me. So…….

Back in 2009 I travelled down to Bristol with my children to visit the Banksy Exhibition at Bristol Museum. Now this is truly shocking news – wait….its STREET ART! …worse still its BANKSY….… Read the rest

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Over the last couple of years I have travelled quite a lot. Well….an awful lot. I’ve travelled more in 30 months than I did in 30 years. I managed it by savvy bookings – taking the opportunity to book flights when offers came up and by even savvier apps to find hotels. I’ve managed a couple of holidays as well – but even though I have travelled the reason I have gone to the majority of places I have been to was to see and shoot the graffiti. I literally get off a plane – go to the City – start shooting in the taxi – drop off my little red case in the hotel – go straight out to shoot some more. I spend about 48 hours on average in one place and shoot anywhere from a 1000 to 1500 shots. Its HARD work. But its ACE work. I have been really fortunate that I have generally had someone local to meet. And I can not express how grateful I am to the writers who take the time out of their lives to share their cities with me, talk to me about their local graffiti scenes and make me feel so well looked after and above all else – welcome.… Read the rest

The photo galleries on here are a very very small sample of the amount of photography which I do. If you don’t feature in any of them – please don’t think you wont have your beautiful walls up sometime – I have somewhere in the region of 350,000 graffiti photographs alone – it is my intention to write blogs about some of the stories of walls – so check back here soon. But in the meantime please go and have a look through the galleries from 2012 – 2016 which are now up.

For all other photography (portraits, exhibitions and events/concerts) please check my availability through the many ways you can on my contact page.… Read the rest

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So this bit. Well this bit is all about me. Call it narcissism, call it glory seeking – call it whatever the hell you wish – I don’t care. Because this bit is all about me and all about the amazing journey and many adventures I have had, shared, survived and an attempt at explaining my love, and I do mean love, for something which has become such a huge part of my life – graffiti.

There will be no half hearted attempts at caressing any egos here, not that I do that anyway, but this journal is so very important. Earlier this year (2016) I was critically ill. I survived (cheers) but I also changed. I stopped really thinking about everything in ways I had before – without getting overly deep – I did two polar opposites and this created the way I decided to move forward with my life. I STOPPED caring so much but at the same time I STARTED caring so much more. Yes, yes – totally crackers I know. I guess you had to be there…… but it makes sense to me. I like to think of it as my big bang moment. My beloved kids aside one thing has become apparently clear to me over the last few years – that I have an actual silent partner that I turn to whenever I need love, laughter, support, an adrenalin boost, time out, an excuse, a telling off and pretty much any sort of life advice.… Read the rest

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