CHRIS SAUNDERS

 

Bit of catching up to do -  some of the stuff I've been up to...

 

My most momentous news is that my shot of David Lynch has been bought by his company to promote his new album. It took 7 years of me hassling his various assistants to get to photograph him (and ended up being commissioned to do so in the end) which resulted in my favourite shot of mine. To have the shot chosen to promote his work by the man himself is quite a thrill.

 

And one showing it being used in the London Underground, courtesy of Grenville Charles.

 

I also have an exhibition currently running at renowned Sheffield artist Pete Mckee's gallery showing a selection of shots I've taken of Richard Hawley over the last decade.   I took some new shots of Richard just before the show which I'll upload when the show is finished. Ten years of photographing him, we're not quite sick of each other yet..

 

 

Steve Edwards is probably most well known for his vocals/ writing on "World Hold On" by Bob Sinclair which was a worldwide hit a few years ago.  He's currently finishing up his new solo album after many years working on it and I've been doing the album cover & press shots. The cover has been shot in the fabulous Okeh Cafe.  Many thanks to Chris the owner for all his help. Not going to show the one's from there yet so here's some that I like from another shoot we've done around the same time, for the press shots, that aren't going to be used..

 

 

Emma Harrison is becoming a very well known business woman.  As head of the company A4E she's been asked by the Government recently to oversee a project to get long term unemployed families back in to work.  I photographed her in the grounds of her beautiful house, Thornbridge Hall, in Derbyshire which is where Thornbridge Brewery began its operation a few years ago before moving onto a bigger site.  Emma was great to photograph. She'd made a bit of the fact that she views having her photograph taken as pain in the arse (these are not her exact words), but her husband, Jim, mentioned beforehand that the last photographer who'd shot her had taken ages, though if I "didn't tit around" (his exact words) she'd be fine.  I didn't tit around,  I got nine set ups done in 75 mins (a personal record)..

 

 

 

I've been commissioned by Sero to take photographs for an ongoing marketing project.  This entails photographing alumni of Sheffield College for use in promotional films & advertising for the College.
 

Nathan is head chef at the only Michelin starred restaurant in Sheffield. I was treated to a dish there and it was very very nice but very very not cheap.

 

Hannah runs a horse stables.  Gets up at silly o'clock every day, in all kinds of weather, to tend to the horses.

 

Michael is an internet whizz, he's created a site, Frooly,  that brings many different retail sites together in one place.  The retailers on there also hold markets periodically in the location where I photographed him.

 

Afshan is a beauty therapist.  Her salon caters primarily to the Islamic community, ie it is totally private, no windows which random folks can gawp through while the punters are having their hair done.

 

 

Fabio De Paola is an excellent photographer based in Nottingham who shoots regularly for clients like The Guardian. Within a few minutes of us meeting he said to me "I'm sure we've met before, did you come to the college to do a talk about your work about 15 years ago?" He could see my puzzled expression. "You did - you brought in photos of Jack Charlton & Nicolas Parsons, they were great." My memory of doing so is very very vague and I haven't even looked at the shots he mentioned for years, so it was quite flattering that he'd remembered after all this time.  Fabio's work is here, and very good it is too - www.fabpix.co.uk

 

Roo Pigott is also an internet entrepeneur, his company is involved in placing music within other media such as film, advertisments etc

 

More to come from this as & when..

 

Straight Razor Angels are a band I discovered via Yellow Arch Studios where I've shot numerous times.  The band were recording down there so seeing as I really liked the sound of them I went down & took a few photos. From what I heard while I was there the new album will be excellent. Listen/watch here -

 

 

 

 

Alan Smyth is Sheffield's legendary, annoyingly unsung and underrated producer who has his own very busy studio 2Fly. He has worked with numerous bands over the years, including Pulp, Arctic Monkeys, Reverend and The Makers, The Long Blondes, Richard Hawley & 65daysofstatic amongst many, many others.  He famously recorded the original Arctic Monkeys demos that many people, myself included, think surpassed the versions recorded for their first album.  He also recorded this tune by Rumpus,  who I thought were by far the best band to come out of the Sheffield scene in the mid 2000's.  Not only is it a great, twisted tune, I think the sound Alan got on the recording is far better than most rock records, though the production Is sadly knackered in by You Tube compression on this vid.  Rumpus have since morphed into the excellent Loveboat.

 

 

I shot this for an interview & I'll be photographing him again hopefully soon as he has a solo album, long in the making, coming out next year.