Lynched…

I have recently started working on a new photography project. ‘Lynched’ is a project inspired by the work and quirkiness of the brilliant David Lynch and will be live on my website soon.

Lynch has been one of my favourite directors/artist/photographer for years. I adore how he celebrates the horror and the quirks of the ordinary and manages to make statements out of silence.

I started shooting this project last month and so far it includes portraits and images of friends, family and models. I’m loving exploring the themes of the work…

The Guardian in the UK once described Lynch as “the most important filmmaker of the current era”. I think it’s difficult to disagree with that and he’s certainly the most important to me.

FATALE.

New Artwork & Digital Prints.

‘Classic Cola’

The above print is something I worked on last weekend. I had it professionally retouched and I’m really pleased with it…

Today I’v also (finally!) opened an online store selling digital prints of my images. There’s only one on there so far but I promise I’ll be adding more soon…

If you’d like to check out the print(s) please visit my Etsy store by clicking here.

Shoot what you love…

Shoot what you love… That’s what they tell you. Someone told me it when I first started shooting. I’m not sure who told me that, maybe it was one of my lecturers, maybe someone else. Come to think of it, maybe I just read it somewhere. I’m really not sure, but that’s not the point…

In my day to day life, throughout the years I have worked with hundreds of models and actors etc, capturing their portrait. But as much as I have enjoyed every single shoot, my very favourite person to photograph is my wife Emma. I think a lot of it is because, obviously, I now her so well. I already have a connection with and I already know what will work really well and what might not work so well. I think comfort comes into play here too. I’m comfortable enough to ask Emma to do anything for a shoot and she’s comfortable enough with me to do it. It instantly knocks down boundaries. She has seen, and lived with my frustration first hand when I haven’t quite got the “the shot”. She understands how much it plays on my mind, how much it bothers me. That’s why I think she’s always patient with me while I’m shooting her. She understands I have a vision for the aesthetic of the shot, and she’ll work tirelessly to make sure we achieve it.

I bet if I had to pick the favourite 50 portraits I’ve ever taken, at least half (and probably more) would be of Emma. She has soaked herself in fake blood, hung around town centres at 2.00am, got drunk and even pretended to murder me, all for the sake of my photography. The most recent shots I took of her, are the ones above – taken on a rare sunny afternoon. The ‘Model’ t shirt is really apt, as I’m pretty sure she’s probably been photographed a lot more than a lot of professional models.

I already can’t wait for our next shoot…

Sleepless in Susanna – alt travel.

Alt Travel Photography, I’m not even sure that’s a real thing, but regardless it’s the description I’ve gone with for this particular project. Let me try and explain a little…

Every holiday (or vacation to those of you in the States) I come back with a handful of photographs. You know the kind; selfies, a few pics of the beach etc. The kind of photos I always refer to as “snapshots”. This is nice and all and upon my return I put them in a folder on my Mac, or occasionally get them printed. They’re nice memories to keep and look at a handful times over the years, but it kind of ends there. I decided this year I wanted to try something different…

This past November my Wife and I headed on a working holiday in the beautiful coastal town of Santa Susanna – a short journey from Barcelona and very much in Catalan territory. Before we left I had already decided that I wanted to give this “alt travel photography” a shot. I wanted to create something different. Obviously whilst there I’d still take the selfies etc for personal use, but I wanted to really think and create a set of images I’d happily publish, or at the very least share on my website.
Everywhere we went, everywhere we explored, every activity it made me conscious of taking photographs. Finding a unique shot whilst still documenting our journey and our week. The day we had chosen to go into Barcelona city happened to be the day of the Catalan general strike which saw over 100,000 people take to the streets to protest against police brutality, and stand for democracy. I included only a couple of photographs from this day, partly because it’s not exactly what I wanted this project to be and partly out of respect for those protesting…
I knew from the get go I wanted to include portraits of us both but still capture the beautiful landscapes and surroundings. So that’s what this project is. ‘Alt travel photography”? I’m not sure, but it’s certainly alt for me. Something different, something that made my creative brain tick and something that led to a series work I’m proud of, all whilst experiencing a beautiful place in a sometimes drunken, but always happy state.
To view the full gallery please click on the following link: Sleepless in Susanna by Carl Beebee.

Underwater…

Here’s a little shot I managed to get at the end of a shoot the other day…

A company I was working for had hired a pool to do a fashion shoot there. The pool had really been hired to shoot around it, but once we’d finished we still had over half hour left on the clock. I grabbed my GoPro, asked one of the models to put a floaty dress on and began to hold my breath and shoot underwater… Considering the lack of available light I’m really pleased with the shot. In fact, I think there’s something quite haunting about it.

Amazing what you can do with a little free time, a small amount of light and an undertsanding model… Here’s a few behind the scenes iPhone pics from the shoot.

 

Blogging, you have to blog right?

FATALE test shoot – 03/2017

Blogging, you have to blog right? (Is this ‘blogging’ on here?). Everyone tells me I have to blog. My agents tell me, my publicist tells me, so do my clients, friends and everybody else. I have to blog. I enjoy blogging I’m just not great at finding the time to do it, and I don’t pretend I’m actually any good at it. But I’m not bothered about that. I think I’m meant to blog about work and life but ironically those are the two things that seem to get in the way of me blogging. Let’s face it, there’s things I’d rather do than blog; spending time with my family, visiting galleries, drinking, fucking, shooting. All of the things that fill my life and generally make me happy. As I mentioned, I enjoy blogging, just generally not as much as the other things I’ve mentioned. I guess I need to find a way around this, but for now I’m going to tell you a little about what I’ve been working on because that seems as good as reason as any to blog.

Most of my time at the moment is taken up by working on my new book ‘FATALE’. My agents want this released in November of this year but that means a really tight schedule. I’m photographing approximately 50 women for the book. A mixture of professional models, friends, people I’ve known for a few years and people I’ve never met. It is a portrait of the real FATALE’s of 2017. The girl who lives next door, the woman you see down the street, the Mother dropping her kids off at school. It’s cool, sexy, seductive and different. I was recently asked to sum the book up in one line. My answer was “it’s a fuck you Hollywood” — and it is. There’s another slice of irony there considering I got this book deal on the back of my previous book ‘California Calling’. That leads me onto something else I’m working on… In the next couple of months I’m releasing a new version of ‘California Calling’ exclusively to the iBookstore — hopefully there will be more news on that very soon.

I’ve also been working on a short documentary filming a duo who are in the UK from the States to record an EP. Actually, this is something I’d like to blog about but I’m contracted to keep my mouth shut until the release. That’s irony biting me firmly on my ass again.

Those are the things that are currently filling up my schedule along with the things I mentioned earlier. I’m going to try and blog more but I must admit that this is something I’ve said before. The intention is there. The will is there. If there was a school report for it, it would simply read “must try harder”.

Thanks for reading… See you in the pub.

– Carl.

Hotel Nights.

Every New Year it gets me. Like clockwork, the creative slump drags me down every January. I know some people who enter the New Year full of life and hope. The gyms get busier and the bars get quieter, but historically January has always been a royal pain in the ass for me. I just get a complete block on any creative ideas. Much like authors can suffer for years with writers block, this grabs hold of me and seemingly never wants to let me go.

It’s not that I haven’t tried in the past, but every idea is met with a depressing “what’s the point” attitude. Or a feeling and thought that it wouldn’t be saying anything. It’s a hard chain to break and usually for this month I only ever use my camera for “work”.

This year I was determined to break the slump. I didn’t want to go big but I wanted to feel creative. I wanted to create something that I liked, that interested me, regardless of whether I eventually shared it with an audience.

I came to the conclusion that the best way to do this was to shoot something I’d enjoy, without necessarily worrying about its relevance, context or artistic merit. With that in mind I booked myself and my Wife two nights away in a city centre hotel in Birmingham. I stocked up on Fuji Instax film and decided I’d document our drunken fueled weekend getaway. As soon as we got there and I started I instantly felt good about the project. It was great shooting something for myself rather than a client.

In the end I did share 30 of the of the instant photographs and I’m quietly (or not so much now) pleased with them. (You can view the photos here) Not only are they a great reminder of our time away but they have a feel and a look to them I love. They look like part of a documentary photo essay. Are they saying anything? No. Does that matter? No. Because I returned and felt that the annual creative slump had this year passed me by. Which in fairness, with a book to get finished this year is pretty important.

If you’re creatively suffering, whether you’re a photographer, writer, painter or any other artist my advice would be just to create. Don’t worry about what it’s for or what the point is. Just create. Shoot, write, paint. Anything. The only way I have personally found to defeat the slump is to ‘do’…

Live Music Photography

When I started taking photographs (all those years ago) I used to take a lot of band portraits and live sets. It made sense, I had friends who had good reputations in the music industry, so bands were the very people that were accessible to me. For years, this is what I specialized in, picking up commissions from music magazines such as NME, Kerrang!, Metal Hammer and Rock Sound etc. I loved the work, as at the time I felt it allowed a creativeness that you didn’t really see in more commercial photography. I loved doing the promo shoots on locations and I loved that the gigs took me all around the country and into parties, that quite honestly I’d never make it into under normal circumstances…

After a few years something changed and I stopped. It no longer felt that creative, I felt repetition was seeping into my work and I hated it. That along with the fact that, in the internet age many music publications were either falling under or losing all of their budget, seemed to make it a difficult career to maintain. That’s not to mention the endless list of photographers who are prepared to shoot their idols free of charge. (I don’t blame them by the way, that’s how I started).

Every now again I’ll get offered to shoot a live band, and if it’s something that interests me it’s something I’ll do. Simple as that. When I start to shoot the right band (for me) it does something to me. It takes me back. It reminds me of why I love music so much, and sometimes it even gives me the “bug” to do it all again. That “bug” is usually met the following morning with a hangover and the realization that a life spent in London depresses me more than anything at this current time.

Still, those times, those gigs and those bands remind me of something bigger. Something better. They make photography exciting. The same way it was all of those years ago. Music and photography are two of the most important parts of my life. They are so incredibly ingrained in my personality and my culture.

Sometimes the music industry as a whole depresses me. I look and listen to new bands and they just don’t talk to me. They don’t reach out to me. I’m very aware that this is absolutely because I’m getting older, and typically these bands aren’t meant to speak to me. But when you hear a band you love (new or old) and you’re front row ready to capture that moment, there’s simply nothing better.

iPad. Workflows.

iPad Collaboration with Emma-Louise Gibbons.

So, I made somewhat of a big switch recently. After watching hours of YouTube videos and reading everything I could find I purchased an iPad Pro and Apple pencil with the intention of completely changing my workflow so I could constantly have my “editing suite” with me.

Installed on my iPad from Adobe CC I have Adobe Fix, Adobe PS and Adobe Mix as well as third party programs such as VCSO and Enlight.

The shot above was actually shot on the iPad, edited on the iPad and then “drawn on” using Adobe Sketch on the device…

It took a while. It was a huge learning curve for me but I’m delighted with the results. I absolutely love editing images on the iPad, and in truth, I’ve barely used my MAC since.

There are downfalls. The file handling is somewhat frustrating as you’re restricted to the built in Camera Roll. So for example, if I take an image into Adobe Fix, work on it then it exports the image to Camera Roll. I then want to edit in VSCO, so I do just that it, save it and it exports to Camera Roll. All of a sudden I have 3 varied images all on my machine. Not so much of a problem if you’re just handling 1 image at a time, but for larger shoots with 100+ photographs it can become somewhat confusing. I almost wish there was a way to overwrite previous versions of the image on saved to the Camera Roll. Despite all of this though I don’t think I’ll ever go back. I love the handling, and the precision the Apple Pencil gives you and having it on the rad with me, at every shoot, on every train etc has been a massive time saver.

With news that the next OS update will give the option to handle true RAW files (not through a  conversion in Lightroom mobile) I only see it becoming more and more of a “must have” tool for professional photographers.

Failed Projects and Creative Culls…

Noir Hotel Portrait – Taken on iPhone – October 25th 2015.

I hate admitting defeat. I hate giving up. But as far as my work goes if I feel something isn’t working or that something’s having a negative impact on my work I’ll always pull the proverbial plug. And that’s what I have to do here… The 365 Project just wasn’t for me. It’s changed the way I shoot – I shoot more, undoubtedly, but it wasn’t working. It just didn’t sync with my own creative process.

I don’t “share” photographs easily. I think about it and probably overthink it – before I post anything. This was my trouble with the 365 project. I went to Birmingham for a few days last week. I came back and there was about 5 photographs on my iPhone that I really liked and wanted to share. The trouble? I had to dwindle it down to 1. But then, the next day (I took a day off) I didn’t really have anything so I had to settle for some half arsed snapshot I went out to take. That’s the part that will never work for me. I feel it degrades the integrity of the photography. It’s sharing for the sake of sharing.

Ive changed the website to better reflect what I want to achieve. I want it to be a kind of photographic journal. The same kind of imagery; iPhone shots of things I see, concepts and portraits etc. But now I no longer feel restrained by the ‘what’ and ‘when’ I post. I still plan on updating the site frequently – at least 4-5 times per week but I’ll be a little more methodical with it. It will hopefully now be a site that I feel reflects me and my work.

Anyway, I’d love to get your thoughts on this, so please take a look at the site at: http://beebee-see.tumblr.com/

Previously on 365…

011/365 – Geisha.

So I am only day 12 into my 365 project and I have to say I’m finding it more difficult than I first considered… Although, I guess it’s inevitable, I’m really trying to stay away from “point and shoot” images. I’m doing my best to work on the photographs each day; come up with an idea and concept and shoot it. For obvious reasons – the main one being time – this is much easier said than done.

The image above was taken on my Pentax DSLR yesterday and it’s one of my favorite images of the project so far. It’s deliberately under exposed and shot on RAW as I wanted a dark, grungey and grainy effect for the shoot. For this image I just used one flash light to the side of the model.

I’m trying to be very varied in the photographs I’m shooting for the project – mixing up iPhone shots and DSLR shots.

However, make no mistake, even so early on I can see the benefits of this project. Even on days where I am full up with meetings and editing etc I’m still “forced” to shoot, and enter the creative process. I remain pretty determined to see the project through. Already there are some photographs I prefer to others which I guess is natural. On the flip side of that there are photographs I’ve taken for it that have really grown on me. I’m also keeping a journal and entering information each evening about that days photograph; just things like how I shot it, how I feel about it. I’m finding this very handy as it helps me keep track of what I’ve shot and what I need to focus on. It will also be a real benefit if I decide to publish this in print at any point.

You can see my 365 project at: http://beebee365.tumblr.com/

Thanks for reading.

Creative Context…

‘The Girl & The Stag’ by Carl Beebee. Taken from Instagram.

Just a very brief note with a little news…

Very pleased to say that this week I have signed a contract to write and release a theory book. The book ‘Photography Philosophy & Creative Context’ will be available to buy next year. In all honesty I’m a little daunted by the task in hand – and the idea of writing 30,000 words is terrifying me… But dammit, we’ll give it a good go… I’ll keep posting updates on here and maybe a few snippets of the writing to get a little feedback off you good people.

Ok, on a completely separate note – as far as my Facebook goes I have now all but given up on using my ‘page’ as any kind of worthwhile tool. It seems other than sponsored posts things aren’t really seen from other pages. I’m concentrating on using Instagram more now – both for personal bits and work related things. So please give me a follow on there http://www.instagram.com/carlbeebee (@carlbeebee)

As ever – thanks very much for reading. It is very much appreciated.

See you on the road.

Carl.

Bro&Brew

Bro&Brew has now launched – if you’re an artist or writer please head to the site and go to the SUBMIT page if you’d like to have your work featured…

For my part – I’m going to be shooting a new model each month for the online version of the magazine. Above is 2 images from my first shoot with model Phoenix Ra.

Please go check out the site – it’s still a work in progress but any feedback would be greatly received.

www.broandbrew.com

Bro&Brew

Along with some fellow artists I am in the process of launching ‘Bro&Brew’. The company will act act as an artist promoter, book publisher as well as an online and printed magazine… You’ll be seeing the logo creep up on a lot of my work and sites etc from now on…

We are currently searching for artists, writers, photographers, instagrammers to submit work to be featured in the magazine.

To help explain it a little better here is the information that will be placed on the ‘about’ page once the site is live:

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Bro&Brew is the brain child of international photographer Carl Beebee and illustrator Emma-Loiuse Gibbons. It is also backed by some very kind, friendly associates and bro’s who for the time being would rather remain nameless…

It is a network for conceptual and narrative based art. It is publishing house for fine art books. It is a promoter of artists as well as an online and print publication. It is the company we always wanted to work with. It is the hellraiser of the art community. It is a place where artists, writers and generally creative people can submit their work.

Our manifesto is simple…

Be cool, be edgy and be different. That’s it. The only guideline. We realise lots of people like landscape photography and pretty watercolour paintings of river sides – there’s lots of sites that publish that content. This isn’t, and never will be one one of them.

If you have created some artwork, writing, music that you feel fits our ethos please head on over to our contact page and submit some bits and pieces for consideration.

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Please head on over to www.broandbrew.com to keep updated and to submit work. We have also launched a Instagram page that can keep you updated with cool news and projects etc so please check it out by clicking here.

Cheers.