The Huntsman

Well folks, this time I got fascinated by something literally on my doorstep. The mystery of tailors' trade in Savile Row, world famous for elegant bespoke suits and coats has been something I wanted to look at for a long time. By coincidence, I was asked to shoot a portrait of the two leading gentlemen at The Huntsman, a decidedly traditional and classic Savile Row establishment. It exemplifies the traditional British virtues of order, sobriety and elegance that are conventionally associated with Savile Row tailoring.

The Edwardian-style fitting and cutting rooms, mounted stag heads and compartmentalised workshops over several floors suggest an old-fashioned craft refusing to compromise on quality by automation. Customers usually have three to five fittings, and garments are hand-made using paper patterns by a staff of highly skilled cutters, coat, waistcoat and trouser-makers, alteration tailors and finishers, taking several weeks. They don't do 'modern', they don't advertise, and they don't need to. Their standards explain Huntsman's prices, still among the highest on Savile Row.

I liked The Huntsman so much, I've gone back several times to produce a reportage feature on the tailor's craft. Although the initial requirement was to shoot in colour, I decided to produce the feature in Sepia, a classic monochrome format befitting the subject. See here.

Heathrow Third Runway

It's been all over the UK news media this week: government in its eternal wisdom has decided to give the green light for construction of a third runway at Heathrow, the UK's busiest airport. Needless to say that just about everyone you ask (except the business groups, lobbyists and members of the cabinet) are against the idea, but that sets the stage.

Creative minds at Greenpeace have gone and bought a plot of vacant land right in the path of that future runway, and proceeded to decorate it with some gardening ornaments. Let's face it folks, this looked pretty dire: flat light, grey skies, a empty field and only a minimal amount of time to make something out of this. Something that would make you sit up, laugh, frown, cry, whatever, but at least take notice. And get published. So we got a little creative, and I'm really glad that Alistair, Emily, Paul and Lee went along with the ideas - they make for pictures that are a little different from what the wire services and the rest of the newspapers photographers have been doing, and they got published. Result!

Social Issues

Dontcha love it? First you're told no, maybe, maybe not - wait - wait - wait - we won't commission you because, err, we'll try and get it cheaper somewhere else; and then - uh, sorry, could you please, like, do it NOW?

A story about a sensitive subject such as youth deliquency and crime, social work and day centres is something that ideally is done over a period of time. Although there isn't anything new about under-age kids shooting and knifing each other to death in Britain's capital, it's still difficult to photograph. Before you get to know the head honchos on each patch, gain their trust without being mugged or worse, and before you're allowed to take pictures requires either an awful lot of rapport building, or you simply parachute in and hope for the best.

I must admit I didn't like the parachute option, but my other choice was not to touch the assignment. With a deadline of a little more than 24 hours ahead, I hugged the phone, pleaded, begged and persuaded at least a few people to allow me to visit them, and naturally, shoot them. The meagre results are shown here and the piece ended up running across a double-page, heavily interview/portrait led rather than the reportage I wished I could have done. Some days, it just istn't what you want it to be...

Hamsterjam

Trust me, I wasn't high on any mind-enhancing substances as I was walking aimlessly through the city centre - I just enjoy some of the psychedelic choices in some of these photos, and there's nothing more to it than my desire to share them here:

Goodbye and Hello

And we all transit from one year to the next, as we have done last night. The past year, or rather, 2007 and 2008 have been two of my busiest and happiest years as a photographer so far. So I thought it's time to take stock, review and forecast. True, nobody knows what the future holds and it has yet to surprise us, but a little wishlist-style planning won't hurt, will it?

Exactly 365 days ago, we reached the Antarctic ice shelf at the opposite end of the world, about 65 degrees south somewhere underneath Australia. The first time I saw land last year was early February, and behind us were nearly 20000 nautical miles travelled during almost 4 months at sea with the crew of the Esperanza. In many ways, it was a wonderful trip which pushed me both professionally and personally - working with a tight bunch of people you can't get away from isn't exactly the same as shooting a portrait, but I got used to the idea pretty quickly and enjoyed the whole experience of working on a Greenpeace ship for four months. It was the first time I'd been at sea for this long, and thoughts were crossing my mind like fireflies: what would we DO all that time, and what could I possibly shoot on an anti-whaling assignment that hadn't already been done before by my excellent colleagues Kate Davison, Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert and various others that went before them.

Well folks, this crew has acquired the scary notion of some sort of parallel family, best friends and confidantes included. In many ways, it felt like a rite of passage, as I've become once again a member of this club of transient people you only meet in weird and wonderful locations around the world. You know who you are.

In equal measure, I am grateful for the more or less steady stream of work that has come in from clients, good and bad. In the end, when all is said and done, it's all good, actually - even bad ones. On those jobs, you learn about your limits: in creative, personal and business terms. It doesn't matter whether you find yourself in some location thinking that this assignment is hopeless, or that you just don't get on with an editor, or that you end up doing far too much work for the fee that has been negotiated - you promise yourself not to do this again, ever; or rather, to do it better next time. These mistakes are lessons of wisdom, and as Al Franken has said, can only be learned the hard way.

Not only on the Antarctic assignment, but virtually on every other bigger project in the past two years, the amount of raw files to digest has grown almost exponentially to the extent that I am now suspecting little gremlins hiding inside my shutter button and pressing it everytime I put the camera down. Where the hell are all these pictures coming from? Honestly people, I am being restrained, always feel like I'm missing too many shots, I don't hose down every scene with a burst of 8 or 15 frames, and still, the pictures just keep coming. It's taken on scary proportions and as I'm old-fashioned, I still back up to CDs...

Cue Britta, my trusty assistant. She's been a friend for many years, a keen learner and a gem to have around my little office. Often I feel sorry for her, slaving away on those tons and tons of data she meticulously backs up every month. Within this year, I want to train her further and leave her in charge of the 'office' part of my job until she becomes the undisputed boss in this hectic outfit. She's multi-lingual, versatile, conscientious and like me, an obsessive about detail - say hello to her, it doesn't hurt: britta@jirirezac.com (and she won't correct your spelling mistakes, promise).

However, she did correct some of my submissions during the recent contest mania: Christ, who can keep up with all the awards, prizes and photo contests that are springing up like mushrooms after rainfall? Guess what: she did, and helped me (read: kicked my ass) to get at least some of the submissions done to deadline.

During the past year, some of my work has received recognition by way of awards, honourable mentions and display in several exhibitions: ironically, European Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition and book, Czech Press Photo in Prague, Room for Justice in Brussels and now Antwerpen, and later in the year in Amsterdam, Luxembourg, Paris and London.
On a completely unrelated subject, we are aiming to publish my first book this year. All I want to reveal at this stage is that it is - for obvious reasons - a personal project - and that it will be very different from the usual coffee-table style of photo books. More anon.

If you haven't already fallen asleep, tuned out or otherwise died of boredom from this monster post - I wish all of you a happy 2009, let it be creative, funky and full of surprises.