with the exhibition in its’ final days, bids are still invited for the silent auction of exclusive limited edition signed prints of the 31 musicians that took part in the project this year. in many cases, the minimum bid of £150 would still get a top 5 bid.

the private view at the strand gallery on monday 9th january was well attended and it was great to see a few of this year’s and last year’s sitters turn up to show their support, including dj ollie teeba (the herbaliser) and michelle ryan (actress from last year’s 31thirtyone), shown below. visitors were also privileged to hear some fantastic tunes from the rare african vinyl specialist dj aurel orl palmwine, who made it over from paris especially for the opening. we were treated to a ‘mandingo’ atmosphere featuring funky grooves from the past 50 years from mali, senegal and guinea. it was a perfect match!

a couple of days previous to the opening, i was interviewed by the BBC on BBC Radio London 94.9 by Sunny & Shay. I had only expected to be on for about 10 minutes, but they were keen to get all the gritty details about this year’s and last year’s project, and i ended up being on there for about 40 mins!

i’ve been overwhelmed by the support this year and just want to thank all friends and family, as well as fans for supporting the project and myself over the past few months.

please continue to spread the word, and remember to get your bids in by sunday. GRACIAS!

so, fresh into 2012 and the london exhibition at the strand gallery is about to open. there’s been some great reception of the project so far and the silent auction still has a couple of weeks left. the project received a great write-up by ellen widdup in the evening standard, which you can read here, and has also been featured on a couple of photography websites, hungry eye & digital photographer.

the exhibition will be at the strand gallery from 9th – 22nd january and i shall also be showing the full selection of prints at theLOCALgallery in muswell hill, north london. the silent auction will stay open until close of these two exhibitions on sunday 22nd january.

so there is still time to submit bids, either at the exhibitions in person or by email to auction@31thirtyone.com. the top 5 bids received for each print will win a framed A2 giclee print signed by the musician(s). there are only 5 of each of these, and the minimum bid is £150. please help to spread the word so that we can maximise bids and funds raised for the african workshop.

don’t forget the smaller prints, which are also on sale for a friendly price of £31.31 each directly from this website. just click on SHOP at the top of this page.

big 3131 2012 love to all.

this has been quite an epic week with 2 separate exhibition openings for the 31thirtyone project. the first was at the adam street private members club, where the official 31thirtyone launch party was held on monday 28th november. this is where the exhibition will reside for the month of december, throughout the busy xmas party build-up, hopefully attracting some handsome bids for the silent auction.

on monday morning i set down to the club to start the hang for the evening. the club’s gallery is a great space for the exhibition, and i’m really pleased with the layout for it. the exhibition was only one part of the party though as i had asked a few bands to play too.

good pal carl barat popped down in the afternoon to see how it was going and assess what technical bits and pieces i may be short of for the gigs. by the time doors opened at 7, we were awash with people and everything was in place. i was amazed and humbled by the turnout for the exhibition by friends, colleagues and sitters from the project. it was really touching to see several of the musicians from this year come and show their support including matt thomas (the joy formidable), charley webb (the webb sisters), joel pott (athlete), skye (morcheeba), tim & jana (sweet billy pilgrim), and carl barat.

in addition to this my guests and i were treated to some fantastic live music from young emerging talent seye, the beautiful langley sisters and the sensational joe stilgoe. i was really pleased that all 3 of these artists could play and lent their support to the cause, for which i am truly grateful. the crowd absolutely loved the music, and were suitably merry from our drink sponsor (arte birraia) beer / prosecco drink to place some bids in the silent auction too.

the night would not have been complete without a word from the founder of african workshop, ben holt, who gave an impressive speech about the work that AW is doing and has planned in Bamako, Mali. i’m sure video footage is out there but for now here’s a little text snippet:

“All of the money that comes through this project will go directly to The African Workshop. We run pop up workshops for kids, we run an educational project where they get their school fees paid to take the pressure off their families, we run a drop in primary school so that parents know their kids are somewhere safe, and now we are working with a street kids program so that the kids can engage in a three month residential and are kept away from the bad influences that have been getting them into trouble. So all of the money and all of the support you give will be going directly to those projects. A massive thank you to all the sitters, all the musicians and their management who have kindly donated their time to sit for the pictures and obviously to Matt who has taken the amazing portraits and is going to make a huge difference to the children of Mali.”

i also said a few words:

“I ended up doing the last shoot on Friday with the legendary Buddy Greco, but there have been times over the last couple of months when I thought, I’m just not sure if its going to work or not, but pulling me through that was knowing that the efforts that I and all the musicians have put into it would raise money for this very worthy cause that I wholeheartedly believe in, and that’s what’s kept me going. Thank you to the incredible musicians for giving us their time and to their managements as well for letting us use their photographs. It’s an incredible thing to do.”

all in all it was a great night, incredibly well attended, and hopefully a fun diversion to people’s usual monday night. i want to thank everyone for turning up and in particular to ben for all the hard work he does, to the wonderful musicians that provided stellar entertainment, to tony & teresa and their team at canvas, to tamzin and her team at adam street, to all the musicians who sat for the project, and to all those who support it.

there are 5 limited edition signed, framed prints of each portrait up for grabs in the auction. if you like one, you can place your max bid by emailing auction@31thirtyone.com. (min.bid is £150 and final auction closes on 22nd jan 2012, 22/01/2012)

it was only a week ago that i completed the photography for this project and a lot of people have since been asking me about the shoot with the legendary buddy greco.

i had tentatively organised it through his uk manager that i would photograph buddy at one of his london gigs at the hideaway club in streatham. this was the last shoot, and the exhibition was due to open in less than three days, so it pretty much HAD to happen. turning up at the club at the time that buddy had requested, i was informed by the staff that he had not arrived yet and had been heavily delayed. the staff were also reluctant to let me in to look at the green room and prepare the shoot. i had seen this all before and it was feeling like everything was at play against me. for whatever reason the shoot seemed to be doomed, and no-one was on my side.

i battled my way across the floor of this swanky new jazz club and ventured towards where i had seen the musicians setting up and leaving their instruments. with mild trepidation i knocked on the door of the room that buddy would use. there was no response, so i ventured in. the room was essentially a store cupboard with a table and chairs in it and littered with packing boxes and wooden cut-outs. it was not ideal for what i had hoped would be an iconic portrait shoot.

it’s always a bit tricky when i arrive in these places that i’ve never set foot in to try and find a suitable background, lighting set-up and scenario that will complement the sitter and make for a fitting portrait. i’d just taken a few test shots under the horrible neon ceiling lights and looking at the table and chairs in the centre of the room, had decided that i would use them. at this point, a rather flustered mr greco arrived with half an hour to spare before the concert was due to start, asking what i was doing in his room. feeling appropriately sheepish i made my excuses, tried to explain myself and backed out of the room.

now it really felt like this wouldn’t happen. i patiently waited outside the room for a good quarter of an hour while mr greco got ready for the gig. i saw several people enter his room, only to leave pretty sharpish. i was nervous. on top of this i had to make this shot count as it was the last one. i wanted to do something that would not only be a good portrait of buddy, but be a fitting end to the project and fit in with all the other ones too. finally i was allowed in.

buddy apologised (what for? i was in his room) and said that he was ready for the shoot, and knew all about it. phew! i looked at the table, which i had decided was crucial to the shot that i wanted to get with him sat at one end and empty chairs around him. every square inch of the table was covered with his emptied suitcase and the contents of his wife’s make-up bag. i stuck with the idea and set about clearing the scene. his lovely wife, leslie anders, pitched in to help and i set-up the shot that i was looking for. finally the pieces of the puzzle were coming together and within a few frames i had the shot that i was looking for. the last man standing from the original rat pack, sat at the table in a hidden back room at a jazz club, with a glass of whisky in his hands. perfect.

buddy was really pleased with the shoot, and even delayed the start of the gig for 10 minutes to make sure that we got what we wanted, including some shots of his wife, also a celebrated singer and creative genius behind the peggy lee musical. i could hardly believe my luck and it suddenly came over me that this was indeed the last of the 31 shoots finished! all i had to do tonight was enjoy the gig.

buddy said at the beginning of his gig that he would be telling some stories, but stressed that he was not name-dropping, just talking about his life. as he interspersed classic hits like ‘lady is a tramp‘ and ‘around the world‘ with stories of his hey day in vegas with frank & dean, and sammy & marilyn, i imagined them all sat at that table with him in the back room.

as if it wasn’t enough to have welcomed other mercury prize nominees in kt tunstall, villagers, badly drawn boy, athlete, ghostpoet and metronomy to the 31thirtyone cause i was over the moon to photograph another esteemed musical act and 2009 mercury prize nominees sweet billy pilgrim. recently joined by vocalist jana carpenter, singer-songwriter tim elsenburg and her came to my studio to be photographed for the project. they have a strong look, and their composure and demeanour lent beautifully to a more classic black & white shot.

from there i traversed the capital to photograph the veritable multi-talent that is ashley walters. hot off the heels of the successful, brilliantly acted and produced channel 4 drama topboy, ashley was whistled at, greeted, and stopped for autographs about 15 times in the 5 minute walk to a local south london park. musically he made his name as asher d in the infamous so solid crew, but has recently embarked on several solo music projects alongside a blossoming acting career.

a couple of days later i was lucky enough to meet yet another incredibly gifted musician and acclaimed mercury nominee in ed harcourt. i was invited to his studio which provided a fantastic backdrop for a most intriguing environmental portrait. he surrounds himself with his favourite things; a poster of his favourite film, books, trinkets, old microphones, a plethora of keyboards, organs, and other musical instruments, photos of those that have inspired him from tom waits to bill hicks, pieces of art, an 8-ball, sculptures, candles, lamps, records and other memorabilia. it was a most inspirational place and we soon had our shot.