Time Out "Sydney Songs" photo update

It's Wednesday which means another issue of Time Out Sydney will be hitting Sydney news stands. This week's magazine is a special Sydney Songs issue with a feature on the top 20 songs connected with Sydney.

The magazine cover is by the exceptionally talented Biddy of We Buy Your Kids. We also had covers designed by the similarly superb Katherine of Greedy Hen and James Bellesini of Love Police. Those covers can be seen across full pages inside the mag. The three designers are the cream of the crop talents working in the music biz, with their artwork gracing many of your favourite band's tour posters and album artwork. It's exciting to get such great people contributing.

There's an invite only gig happening tonight (Wednesday) to celebrate the launch of the issue, with sets by Cloud Control and Wons Phreely. Email me if you want to go.

And now onto some of the photos i've taken for the past couple of issues.

Bridezilla are featured amongst our top 5 bands to watch in 2008.

Actor Clarence John Ryan stars in the new Australian film September.

Naomi Kemmerer and Matt Noffs in what will soon house the 'Street University'. It's a project to support and educate marginalised young people in the Liverpool/Cabramatta area.

Actor Michael C. Hall channeling Dexter. It's the best show on TV (or bittorrent...).

Scottish crime writer Ian Rankin was in town to promote the final book in his Inspector Rebus series.

Taiko drummer Tom Hampton of TaikOz.

Chef Neil Perry looking chuffed, as he might well be after a 6 out of 6 star review for his freshly revamped Rockpool (fish).

Top Young Aussie Music Photographers

I was reading A Photo Editor this week and in a post about finding new photographers she states in the comments, "Blogging about your photography and others that you admire is very helpful to photo editors and art buyers. A photographer recommending a peer is very valuable to me in forming my opinion."

In that spirit, i recommend to you the following photographers. To narrow the field i've chosen photographers who are all Australian, are young (under 30) and who specialise in music photography. Not live music photography but portraits of bands and artists. I'll save the live music shooters for another post.

Angelo Kehagias

I met Angelo a couple of years back shooting a gig and we bump into each other occasionally at shows. But it's not his live stuff that grabs me - it's the portraits. He shoots almost exclusively film and primarily it's square or panoramic black and white. His shots have a lovely classic and nostalgic vibe. He's been shooting Mercy Arms since they first appeared and has got a great catalogue of shots of them.

Cybele Malinowski

I'm hopelessly biased when it comes to Cybele as she's my girlfriend, but i don't include her here out of any obligation. She's always been a great photographer but in the last year or so she's really hit her stride with music portraits. She's shot promo shots for all the hottest local acts: Damn Arms, Catcall, Midnight Juggernauts, Young and Restless, The Cops, Josh Pyke, Pnau and loads more.

She's very inventive and excels at both elaborate studio set ups or a simply lit portrait. She's has a knack for bringing even the most reserved characters out of their shells.

Warwick Baker

Melbourne based photographer Warwick Baker first got my attention when i saw his shots of My Disco. They're a very heavy math rock act, yet he atypically photographed them in colour coordinated clothes amongst pot plants. Odd. He's shot similarly excellent portraits of acts like Children Collide, Sarah Blasko and Temper Trap.

Like Angelo, Warwick is a film junkie. When i met him earlier this year he was raving about this ancient large format camera he'd been using lately and told me he didn't own a digital camera. He's a quiet and humble guy and his stillness and contemplative nature often comes through in his photos.

Nabil Elderkin

Nabil is the wild card here who most people wouldn't know as a young Aussie music snapper, but he's the granddaddy of them all. This Central Coast bred lad now lives in LA and has done portraits for the likes of Kanye West, Snoop Dogg, The Killers and Black Eyed Peas. He still keeps his hand in with Australian acts though, doing photos for Expatriate, Silverchair and Decoder Ring.

Nabil got my attention when i noticed his photo credit on a Silverchair photo and googled him. It wasn't until i chatted with Ben King from Expatriate that i found out that Nabil was an Aussie expat, now working in LA.

He's incredibly versatile and appears as at ease shooting gritty portraits of rock bands as he is the high gloss hip hop artists. One of the best in the business who's risen well above his humble Australian origins.

Good Charlotte @ Paddington Town Hall

Here's some photos from a Good Charlotte gig at Paddington Town Hall last month. It was a special event sponsored by Motorola and Optus and broadcast on Channel V.

There were lots of snappers at the event hoping to catch a shot of the singer Joel Madden's pregnant girlfriend Nicole Richie. I was asked to get photos of her, so i had to go into paparazzi mode to grab a snap as she darted in the back door of the venue.

Lots more photos from the concert in the gallery.

Sexy Sydney

It was a fun issue of Time Out Sydney to photograph this week. It was a themed "Sexy Sydney" issue, so i got to shoot a few saucy things, from strippers to edible underwear to lingerie stores and burlesque stars.

The lead story in the Food and Drink section was about food at strip clubs. For that i visited Twin Peeks in Woolloomooloo to photograph their octopus dish plus shoot a stripper with a fork in her underwear. That was in interesting morning.

The Style section has a story on vintage clothes shopping on Crown Street. Above is some patches from Route 66, below is C's Flash Back.

I dropped into Le Mistress to shoot the lingerie store plus owners Lou and Anthony.

We did a feature on dance classes so i spent some time in a class at the Sydney Dance Company.

The kids section doesn't lend itself to a sexy theme, so we lead with a story on the Day of Difference. It's a very worthy event and organisation founded by Ron Delezio, father of Sophie Delezio.

I photographed Radha Mitchell and Greg McLean for a feature on the film Rogue. That was one of those 30 seconds at the end of the interview with the publicist breathing down your neck jobs.

To celebrate the launch of the issue Time Out held a Sexy Sydney party with burlesque artist Gypsy Wood providing the entertainment.

Legs 11 Concert

Here's some photos from the Legs 11 concert held a couple of weeks ago in the domain.

It's a lovely civilised affair held in the park in the shadow of the city. Acts on the bill included Missy Higgins, The Waifs, Paul Kelly, Blue King Brown and Nathan from Faker playing an acoustic set. Also on the bill was 'No Man's Woman', a collective of artists who appear on the No Man's Woman compilation album.

Proceeds from the concert go to the National Breast Cancer Foundation.

See more photos in the Legs 11 photo gallery.

Time Out November update

The Time Out Sydney juggernaut rolls on with our third weekly edition in newsagents today. It's the magazine with a barbecue chicken with a VB can up it's rear on the cover.

It's hard work putting out a weekly magazine that's so crammed with content, which explains the lack of time and energy to blog so often. But here's a small selection of some of the portraits that have run in the past few issues.

Working on a weekly, with multiple assignments every day you learn to work very quickly, with little time for preparation or fancy lighting set ups. It's all just natural light or my little flash. But i like working like that, fast and spontaneous.

A chat with Anton Corbijn

One of the best parts of my job is meeting fascinating people who do amazing things. One such person is Dutch photographer and director Anton Corbijn who i met a couple of weeks ago during a Time Out Sydney interview.

Anton Corbijn is one of the world's best known music photographers and director of the Joy Division biopic Control. He's also a personal hero of mine, whose work i wonder at and career i'm inspired by.

Time Out Sydney scored 30 minute interview with him while he was in town promoting Control. I was due to take his portrait at the same time, but a few days prior we learned that all photos were off. That was dissapointing, but our film writer Ruth Hessey was kind enough to let me escort her to the interview and ask a few questions of my own.

I'd love to pick his brain for hours, but even the half hour or so we had at his hotel gave a fascinating insight into the way he works.

He's not interested in photographing gigs. He likes to shoot individual portraits, not bands. He doesn't use a tripod. He doesn't like big photoshoots. He still doesn't feel like he's good with lighting, although he recognises good light when he sees it. He wasn't happy with the artwork on the last U2 album and in June this year he started taking pictures of the band in Morocco in preparation for their new album due next year.

Most of the interview was about Control, but i've edited it down to provide this recording where he primarily talks about his photography. It touches on his disinterest in live music photography, his process, his experience doing the artwork for The Killers last record and his work with U2.

Hear Anton Corbijn speak about his photography (mp3 | 5:36secs | 4MB)