The man knows his problem, drives a taxi 12 hours a day to satisfy his gambling monkey and seems quite resigned to the dice that fate has thrown him.
I liked the guy a lot.
We arrived at Borders as it was being opened and Ian went to get some Coffee sorted out....I set up the shooting area(with Ian's help) in about 3 minutes and was ready to Rock n Roll!
(Note the two white footprints sellotaped to the floor...a lifesaver so I dont have to instruct people about positioning!)
The diversity of the people who willingly stepped in front of the camera(after listening to my spiel) was really fantastic, students,bankers,managers,druggies,pretty girls,pretty boys,thugs,mugs and knifemen.
I think in the whole day only three people said that the'd prefer not to do it, and in the usual Glasgow manner were very apologetic and kind about it at the same time.
The manager who made all of this possible to do kept Ian and I in a supply of coffee and popped up a few times to see if everything was going fine.
His personal portriat looks very good and will feature in the exhibition.
Right now I'm only posting two shots up here now as I'm well shagged and need to relax a bit (tomorrow will be a mamoth processing day) as I've been on the go all day.
(poor Ian passed out an hour ago...sozzled and addled...bless his wee rubber wellies!)
The first image here is of a man who himself is an excellent photographer...he has photographed many well known Scottish artists and entertainers, he looked at my work hanging up and said "Your work is excellent" which means a lot coming from a guy who knows a lot of the processes involved and cant be fooled by technique masking technical failures.
His name is Iain Clark:
This girl immedietly drew my eyes from across the bookshop(she is a staff member and I have several shots of her in staff uniform that are quite ok as representations of her face and proffession go, but I knew there was much potential here to be explored)
This is Fiona.
So, today was a great experience...I have more than 70 high quality portraits that I know I can pull together as a comprehensive group showing a great range of faces that inhabit various corners of my great city. I also have some words and sentences from these people of why they think our city is great, what makes us (as Glaswegians) such distinctive city inhabitants,reflections from their childhoods and their hopes and dreams.
This collection I will push mightily to be put on public display (backed by the British Embassy in Budapest) in Budapest, London and anywhere I can arrange.
I am delighted to have done this.
This will be my first exhibition.
