Phil Fisk - Ramaswami

Part 2 of Phil’s stunning ALLOTMENT series featuring eccentrics found among the vegetable patches… 🌽🥦🥕 📻 🥬🥒🌶

“Ramaswami Krishnan acquired his allotment to save his marriage. Their house was overflowing with electronic equipment that he had saved from the street and car boot sales since the 1980’s. He retired as a physics teacher twenty years ago and started repairing and taking apart early computers. But the small Victorian terrace soon filled up and he was forced to find a shed of some kind, as long as it was “away from the house”…! By chance a family friend offered a share in his allotment and now old technology and horticulture exist side by side. Kris, as he likes to be called, is yet to fully embrace the digging and planting but he is happy in his new home and there is “finally, peace at home.”

Thanks for the wonderful casting Sue Odell, props by the amazing Vic Twyman and awesome job by all the team 👏

 

Phil Fisk - Elena

We’re delighted to share a stunningly beautiful new personal project by Phil Fisk…

“Elena comes to her allotment every day in all weathers. She took over the plot when her son left home and found she had all this time to herself once more. She remembered growing up in Lithuania in the early 1950s and working on the family smallholding. They had pigs and ducks and her father made his own “Namine”, a homemade form of Poitín or moonshine, which was his escape from the hardships and life without a wife and mother. Elena would escape to the woods full of moss and berries that she would collect and dry. She would store these along with feathers, egg shells, seeds and twigs in a jewellery box her mother left. As she grew older, she would create intricate brooches and headdresses and wander the dark forest as someone else, somewhere else. In the quiet, she would dream of leaving and moving west.”

Huge thanks to all the team, not least of all Vic Twyman for the superb prop styling and wardrobe, the incredible Sue Odell for the awesome casting, and of course to model Alex Bruni who brings more than a little magic to these images ✨

Phil Fisk - Joseph Quinn / Stranger Things / Observer

Last week, Phil Fisk had the pleasure of shooting JOSEPH QUINN for OBSERVER.

The British actor is playing “the voluminously haired metalhead (EDDIE MUNSON) who runs the HELLFIRE SOCIETY” in season 4 of NETFLIX’s hit show STRANGER THINGS, “which set Netflix records by reaching no 1 in 83 countries and is more watched than Bridgerton!”

Such a beautiful set of portraits! It’s amazing what you can do, “with an old light box found stashed in a cupboard at the studio!”… 📸 ✨

 

Chris Floyd - Not Just Pictures - coming soon!

We have some VERY exciting news!!!

“NOT JUST PICTURES”, the first monograph dedicated to CHRIS FLOYD’s 30 year career as a photographer, will be released on 11th October 2022.

Featuring over 250 photographs and 60 pieces of written text - including his sessions with David Attenborough, Debbie Harry, David Hockney, David Bowie, Marcus Rashford, Cate Blanchett, Oasis, Iggy Pop and many more including the amazing Paul McCartney (who graces the cover, and) who will be headlining Glastonbury this summer! It was also his 80th birthday on Saturday so we wish you a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY MACCA 🎂!!

We’ll share more details regarding the publication nearer the time but for now you can pre-order direct from the publishers here or order a signed copy through Chris’s local bookshop Jaffe & Neale in Chipping Norton here. It will also be available on Amazon.

In Chris’s words…

“If you know how to do what I do you can make anyone forget why they’re there, and when you reach that moment all kinds of secrets reveal themselves.”

 

Chris Floyd - Dolly Alderton - now and then...

A few weeks ago Chris Floyd photographed the delightful Dolly Alderton, not for the first time…

One of the images will “go hand in hand with a portrait I did of Dolly in 2010 before anyone had ever heard of her”, and will feature in Chris’s forthcoming publication “NOT JUST PICTURES” (due for release later this year).

More on that very soon…! 📸 🎉 👏✨

In Chris’s words…

“Two hours in the company of this woman, or preferably 5 hours at lunch with a lot of gin cocktails, is a tonic for any and all ills. The first time I met her, in 2010, she came to my studio in a miniskirt and crop top. She was 21 and she shone out like a beacon from the off. Dolly Alderton then wrote the memoir to define an era: ‘Everything I Know About Love’ and now it’s been made into a 7-part BBC series starting on 7th June. She’s a hopeless melancholic nostalgic and she has supreme taste in music.”

Dolly Alderton photographed in 2022 at Berry Bros Rudd and 2010 at Chris’s studio in “grotty old Kensal Road”…!

 

Phil Fisk - Catfish / MTV

Here's a peek at Phil's wonderful new creative for MTV for the new series of CATFISH featuring “catfish hunters” Nella Rose 🌹 and Oobah Butler on their quest to investigate the world of online dating deception… 🔍 ✨All post production managed by Flock.

 

Phil Fisk - DDB Remedy

Last year in June, Phil was commissioned by DDB Remedy to shoot a stills and moving image campaign for the worldwide release of a new facial aesthetics product.

Over three days, with eight models and two huge mirrors, we created a positive, modern visual language for the product launch.

We worked with Perma Collective again to ensure we had a sustainable approach to the shoot production, including virtual casting, digitised styling, virtual streaming of the shoot and the repurposing of props at the end of the shoot. Flock managed all post-production.

 

Phil Fisk - Paula Rego

In 2018, Phil Fisk photographed the internationally-celebrated artist Dame Paula Rego, who sadly passed away this week aged 87.

Phil remembered the shoot, commissioned by the Observer, as a very special day. He had the freedom to explore her studio and he recalls that she was willing to take his direction for the portraits…

“I asked her to close her eyes and she just commented that it would give her the opportunity to dream for minute to two. She was very frail and I think tired, but determined to smile and make us welcome.”

Please read her full obituary here.

 

Chris Floyd - Photo North / "The Verve: Inside the Bubble & Half a Lifetime Ago" Exhibition

We wanted to shine a spotlight on "THE VERVE: INSIDE THE BUBBLE & HALF A LIFETIME AGO”, Chris Floyd's headline exhibition at PHOTO NORTH last month (apologies for the late post!).

“It has been 20 years since the colossal global success of The Verve's era-defining Urban Hymns, and it remains one of the biggest-selling British albums of all time. Photographer Chris Floyd was embedded with the band during their meteoric rise from late 1996 to 1997. He documented the recording, touring and promoting of the album in Britain, Ireland and the US--the only photographer to have such access. This is the first time his photographs from that period have been published, with most completely unseen.”

We love this extract from the accompanying text:

“Backstage at The Warfield, San Francisco. The man who designed so many of the great posters of the psychedelic era comes in to meet the band. They discuss the idea of him designing one for The Verve. Richard Ashcroft points at Chris. “If you need any pictures of us to work from then get them from him. He’s on the road with us, taking our souls away every night with his camera.” “Yeah,” adds bassist Simon Jones, “but we get them back on contact sheets.”

Huge thanks to Sharon Price and Peter Dench who organised the festival 👏

And for details about Chris’s publication “The Verve - Photographs by Chris Floyd”, described by Wallpaper magazine as “one nostalgia-filled collectors item not to be missed”, click here.

Shot of Chris Floyd at the exhibition captured by 2021 RPS Documentary Photographer of the Year, David Collyer.

 

Phil Fisk - Robert Eggers / Observer

Robert Eggers, the American film-maker behind arthouse hits The Witch and The Lighthouse and blood-soaked Viking Blockbuster The Northman, photographed by Phil Fisk for Observer.

 

Phil Fisk - Wes Streeting / Observer

Phil Fisk photographs Wes Streeting in Ilford for Observer.

The shadow minster for health and social care is a rising star, touted as a future leader of the Labour Party. Article here.

 

Chris Floyd - Margaret Drabble / Idler

CHRIS FLOYD captures the legendary novelist MARGARET DRABBLE last month for IDLER.

The shoot took place at her home of 50 years in West London, (which was purchased as a separate upstairs and downstairs flat, and remains so to this day - each flat with its own front door!) The decor is also as purchased.

The painting on the wall above her is a portrait of herself, her late daughter Rebecca, and her husband biographer Michael Holroyd (Chris misplaced the name of the artist so if anyone knows please tell us!).

The images accompany a lovely article written by Idler editor Tom Hodgkinson, discussing the art of napping, jigsaws and the particle accelerator at CERN (amongst others things)…!

Chris Floyd - Jennifer Saunders

CHRIS FLOYD captures the awesome JENNIFER SAUNDERS, "quietly subverting everything" for YOU Magazine.

 

Phil Fisk - Abi Morgan / Observer

"Absolutely the same, but profoundly changed".

PHIL FISK photographs screenwriter ABI MORGAN for OBSERVER.

The acclaimed creator of THE SPLIT, SUFRAGETTE and THE IRON LADY has endured three gruelling years of loss and illness - a traumatic tale she shares in her new book THIS IS NOT A PITY MEMOIRE - and here.

 

Phil Fisk - Dylan Llewellyn / Observer

DYLAN LLEWELLYN, (self-titled) 'wee English fella', and star of award-winning comedy DERRY GIRLS, photographed by PHIL FISK for the OBSERVER.

 

Phil Fisk - Renate Reinsve / Observer

Stunning portraits of Norwegian actress RENATE REINSVE captured by PHIL FISK for OBSERVER. The actress currently 'stealing Hollywood's heart', recently starred in the critically acclaimed THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD, with her performance earning her the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress, and a nomination for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role.

 

Chris Floyd - Sir Bradley Wiggins CBE / Men's Health

A few weeks ago, CHRIS FLOYD photographed this amazing series of portraits of SIR BRADLEY WIGGINS CBE for MEN'S HEALTH.

“Sir Wiggo” holds world titles in four disciplines, Olympic gold in three and was knighted in recognition of his achievements in 2013.

The images accompany a brilliant interview with Alastair Campbell.

When asked for the story that often accompanies his images, Chris replied, " Brad is a man of few words! We did it all more or less in silence."

The silence captured in these portraits speaks volumes.

 

Phil Fisk - more Garden Portraits

More of Phil’s beautifully emotive images from his ‘Garden Portraits’ series, captured using carefully controlled natural light in his garden studio featuring neighbours during lockdown.