BPPA book launched: UNSEEN

I was lucky enough to get time last night to head along to the British Press Photographers' Association (BPPA) launch of their book UNSEEN which showcases work of BPPA photographers that may or may not have been seen before. I was pleasantly surprised to see that I'd got a dps with an old image from the Paris riots - I'd had no idea I'd been selected until I saw a copy of the book on the night. Anyway the BPPA and skateboarding duck did a great job with the publishing of book. Cloth bound, 170x240mm and with 108 photographs it's well worth a look. You can purchase it from a number of places including Fixation, Jacobs, the Flash Centre and even here at Amazon.

That's all for now, I'm off later today, heading back out to France to shoot at Altitude again.

Bruce Gilden stalks the streets

For anyone who hasn't seen this it's well worth a look. Brooklyn born and bred photographer Bruce Gilden shooting in a very Brooklyn manner. I've always been interested in Bruce's work but have never seen him at work before. Favourite line has to be 'I didn't know you owned the street!' Classic viewing for anyone who's ever had inhibitions about street photography.

Video tour: 'cramped but cool studio'

Head over to WTJ to see a video tour around this studio that was featured in PDN's 'cramped but cool studio' feature a few month's back.

The studio is owned and lived in by Jonathon Saunders and you can check it his work here

Recent fashion work

All images © Greg Funnell 2009

Behind the scenes - video shoot

I forgot to mention, but thanks to Danfung you can see a short film of behind the scenes footage from the shoot in the post below. Check it out here

Danfung, who's a photojournalist, shot in on the Canon 5D as he got to grips with his new camera before heading back out to Afghanistan this week. See his other work here

Making a Composite

Photos © Greg Funnell (www.gregfunnell.com)

I was recently tasked with shooting a fictional ad campaign with a group of students from Bedford University. It's not something I'd usually do except when they told me what they were after I thought it sounded like it could be a lot of fun. One of their concepts was to use the slogan 'State of Emergency' whilst having an image that reflected that impression, calling heavily on the genre of the comic book and the concept of superheroes. I referenced films such as Sin City and the Fantastic Four in order to get some ideas.

The Sin City poster follows the graphic novel genre and was therefore a good starting point, showcasing the classic low angle, strong lighting and aggressive urban feel.

The first challenge was where to shoot it. I wanted it to look like it was shot at night and I also wanted a urban backdrop. However to try an find a suitable location and the logistics of shooting on site with our budget meant that I was going to have to cheat it. In order to get an urban look with a slightly grungy feel I wanted residential rather than office blocks in the background. Therefore I started to scour my image archive a found some images I'd taken back in 2006-07 in Hong Kong.

First problem was that were shot in the day, in fairly bright sunshine, so my photoshop skills were tested as I attempted to turn this into a rainy night scene!


With the background sorted I opted to shoot the models on a blueish background as it meant that cutting them out wasn't so important. Each model was shot individually and then comped into the group shot of the three of them. I lit each model with three lights, using a a hairdryer and plant sprayer in a low-tech but completely adequate way of making them look like they were outside in a rain storm (...with a bit of imagination).


Once that comp was completed it was just a case of popping them onto the backdrop of the city and adding the rain and some ambient touches to give it a slightly more graphic novel look in order to get the image you see at the top of this post.

Some recent portraits and a fancy bit of wood...

From the top:
Dr Hunter in the Dissection room at Guy's Hospital London
Aamir Ahmad, Managing Director of Dwell Ltd
Jo, female carpenter, Kings College London
wood scultpure

Recent tearsheet

Some images I shot a few years back in the West Bank getting some reuse which is always nice to see...

Adam Patterson: Audio Interview

© Adam Patterson

So you may remember that at the end of last month I mentioned seeing the work of Adam Patterson at the LCC MA show that was held at the Printspace gallery in London. In the wake of that I decided to make contact with Adam and he very graciously gave up an hour of his time to do an interview which I recorded. He talks in length about his own experiences in the field, his methods of work, equipment and philosphy, along with his own opinions on the industry and the future of photojournalism. You can listen to the piece by clicking on the link below, clicking play should stream the piece through i-tunes.

Audio interview: Adam Patterson in conversation with Greg Funnell

Watch out for Adam's work which will also be appearing in the next issue of eight magazine. If you want to see more of Adam's his website is http://www.adampatterson.net