Roddy Frame

I’m aiming to play my songs at a local ‘open mic’ night in town. I’ve got to make sure I can rope-in some moral supporter(s) to come along but I’m really wanting to play my new songs. I’m also hoping to cover one of Roddy Frame’s. To me, and to others, he is one of the great singer-songwriters and his music would be on my list for a desert island; especially this one which I’m hoping to include in the set.

I photographed Roddy back in 2002 and ended up playing guitar with him for part of the afternoon: swapping chords and watching his playing closely. He’s been writing songs that touch the heart since his teens.

Incase this looks like ’showing-off’ or name dropping, rest assured, it is.

Drawing for sale

I have one lonely drawing for sale at the moment.

Click here.

I will be doing more but if you or anyone you know likes this sort of thing (no accounting for taste etc.) then please buy a print.

I hope the sun is shining where you are. If it isn’t, it will soon.

30 June 2009

Thanks to all who came to the Preview of the LETS SEE exhibition and there were a lot of you. I still managed to keep a bottle of red wine aside for another day though so all good news. It’s worth noting, because name-dropping carries weight in our media-led society, that singer and songwriter Billy Bragg was there. Now, I’m in two minds as to whether or not I should mention that he was there anyway as he was playing a gig later on in the evening and could well have been killing time waiting for friends to arrive. I think I probably won’t mention it. Seemed to like the work though. I would have found out what he thought of it myself but I was chatting to people at the time.

Good responses from those I’ve spoken to and quite a few emails and phone calls adding same.

I’ve got that usual deflated feeling now that comes after finishing something. To counter it I am making notes on what I’d like to explore next. Two things I’ve written in my notebook are 1. the grace and ballet of the BMX community and 2. affectionate gestures. I don’t think they’re related.

Also, photographed a wedding in London on Saturday. A long day and I’m not particularly looking forward to editing-down 950-odd frames.

Mustn’t grumble; tomorrow is another day and unless I’m very much mistaken there is a supply of coffee in the cupboard.

Be kind to BEES

Just to let you know that if you’re in the Bridport area tomorrow (Wed 24th June), then come over to the Community Orchard between 10.30am and 4.30pm and enjoy some BEE fun.

Details here.

David Byrne

My brother-in-law has just tipped me off about a new David Byrne/Brian Eno album. Anyone know if it’s any good?

Here’s my portrait of David Byrne. As I’ve written elsewhere, he seemed to me like a slightly unhinged english teacher. Happy to chat as I remember and full of ideas.

From Wiki:

David Byrne (born May 14, 1952) is a Scottish-American musician and artist perhaps best known as a founding member and principal songwriter of the new wave band Talking Heads, which was active between 1974 and 1991. Since then, Byrne has released his own solo projects on record, and worked in a variety of media, including film, photography, opera, and Internet-based projects. He has received Grammy, Oscar, and Golden Globe awards for his achievements.

National Portrait Gallery update

Finished printing the last of the portraits for the LETS SEE exhibition yesterday. I’ve been using two different darkrooms. One belongs to the photographer George Wright and that one I can only use from when it gets dark (about 10.00pm!) because neither George or myself have yet got round to fully blacking it out. The other is Tara Wickham’s darkroom at Beaminster school. This I can use in the daylight hours. I’m really grateful to both of them for allowing me in to print. Prints are now being flattened under the weight of a load of heavy photography books.

This post is mainly to let you know that my portraits at the National Portrait Gallery can now be viewed online: link here.

For those of you reading this in the west Dorset area, may I remind you that the Private View of my exhibition is at 8.00pm this Wednesday (24 June) at the Bridport Arts Centre, South Street, Bridport.

Come for the cheap wine and good company if nothing else.

LETS SEE: portrait of a community

Details of the dates and opening times of the exhibition of my latest work:

(I’ve changed the poster as I needed one the other way up)

Of interest to photographers

I’ve just been digging around amongst my boxes of prints and came across a 16×12 black & white photograph of a man called Will. The print was made on Agfa Record Rapid paper (no longer available) and it stopped me in my tracks.

I’m quite happy with the prints that I make on Ilford MG FB but, honestly, you may never know how deep a photograph can look until you’ve held it in your hands. I understand it’s something to do with the high silver content of the paper and that other papers are available today that compare: Ilford Gallerie to name but one.

It’s quite possible–and understandable–that you may only know photographs from their representation on the screen in front of you or from machine made prints made on reasonable looking paper. Even if I were to scan this print to show you here, I wouldn’t be able to show you what I can see.

All of this is very exciting from where I look. It means that for the images that connect with me on the contact sheet or on a preview scan, I now know that I can make an image to grab one’s soul and remind us quite clearly how important and interesting all our lives are.

New photographs

Like more ants pouring out of a fissure in a wall, here come some more photographs from your computer screen. When will it end. Soon I think as my drawing is coming on a treat.

Nearly finished the photography for the LETS SEE exhbition next month (24 June–18 July Bridport Arts Centre, South Street, Bridport, Dorset). After that is printing, mounting, writing captions, publicity and all the usual. In one way, this is just a big advert up on a wall in Bridport for a few weeks but in another way, it’s something I HAVE to do or I go mad: photograph people that is.

Just got a delivery of paper today and so I shall spend part of this evening enjoying the unalloyed pleasure that is making contact sheets in the darkroom.

Some recent photographs (some of which are part of LETS SEE):

Posture

I was send a photo by a friend the other day.

Like other photographers, I suffer from a bad back quite frequently. I put this down to always carrying my camera bag on my left shoulder and always having a camera round my neck. It turns out it’s not just that though; it turns out I sometimes have appalling posture; as seen here:

Still, got a great picture as I remember.

Introducing Pete Millson

I’m typing this and imagining that I’m at ease with all this blogging nonsense and that I have things to say. Well, let’s see.

I’ve just finished an exhibition of black & white photography in London all about finding a still moment in a busy day.

Got distracted then as a tractor-load of potatoes just went past the window.

I’m very pleased with the photographs and how the exhibition went but I feel I’ve done the theme to death now. Time for a new point of view.

I’m a little bit obsessed with hating the mass-media at the moment (the concept of it, not any particular individuals or organisations). I’m still occasionally asked to take photographs for use within it and so that’s a hurdle right there. I’m working on it. I feel it’s great visually as a project as there’s some form of mass-media/communication wherever you look. I’m typing through one now. At the back of my mind is the idea that I’m free to live without it. It would be great. Observe the world only through my eyes and deal with what I see as it happens.

Right, yes, me then. I’m 37 years old, like anyone cares, and I live in a village called Symondsbury near Bridport in Dorset. I grew up in the sticks (Stanford Dingley and Bucklebury – villages in Berkshire) and have only just moved back to the sticks again via a 20 year stay in London and so as far as being a country boy goes, I’m a total fraud. In my heart I’m a Wurzel though. I wanted to write songs and be in a band (this I did for 5 years or so in London) and then I was given a camera by a friend in 1993 and that threw a switch. I haven’t been a day without a camera since. I’ve photographed for newspapers and magazines all over the place but more importantly, I’ve looked and looked at people around me and have found a rich visual puzzle. It’s my lifetime’s challenge to photograph what I love about us all. Which is that we’re here.

I like Marmite on cold toast, tea, strong coffee, red wine and most of all being with my lovely family.

I’m hoping to post photographs (my work) as well as songs and other digital vomit.

Have a nice day – speak soon,

PETE.

Production Stills

Just did my fist day on a film/TV set on Thursday. I’ve been asked to do the stills for a children’s drama for the BBC. It was very interesting, quite exciting and really, really difficult. The main difficulty was having to get used to using this thing called a blimp which is a soundproof casing for my camera. It means I can shoot when they’re recording sound on set but, honestly, it’s like holding a large toaster. There’s no access to the camera controls and so careful metering is needed before they shoot the scene as it’s a right pain in the arse to open the casing up and change anything. I’m certain I’ll get used to it but what a learning curve. Not only this but you need to tread carefully around the director, D.O.P. (cameraman), and the sound recordists among others as you are regarded as being in their way at all times. Occasionally I just can’t get a useful shot as the film camera is right up in the air on a crane in which case I have to ask that I be allowed to re-shoot the scene after they’ve finished. That goes down well with everyone. They do pay you though so I shouldn’t grumble. I have another two days shooting next week to brush up my skills.

Production Stills revisited

Just finished my other two days on a film/TV set. Got only a few great shots. But spoke to someone else who does the same job and they said, a) that’s pretty typical and b) a few is all that’s required. I think the producer liked them but you never find out. That’s that then.

Shooting with the blimp did get easier but that isn’t to say easy. Also, I found that pushing for what you need (without annoying anyone) is the way forward. A polite request for help from the 1st Assistant Director (AD) can work wonders.

I’d love to do more and would be starting a little further along the learning curve.

Etiquete

Yesterday I had a job up in London again. I’m loath to take them because of the ridiculousness of it all – it’s 150 miles away but I need the money so what can you do. It’s work. The job was to photograph some speakers at a posh event and then an arranged group afterwards. 

These people are from another world. They have lots of money and assume it allows them to be in charge of whatever situation they find themselves in.

An example. I have my lights set up and metered, I have plush chairs and positions worked out for everyone and I’m ready to get a worthwhile group photograph. A lady steps up after I’ve taken the first frame and starts saying, “no, one of them had their head down. Do it again”. She’s come from nowhere. Who is she? I take a few more frames and she does it again. Being a professional my only option is to say “madam, I’ll need you to be quiet and if you can’t I shall have to ask you to wait outside”. 

I hope I haven’t put my foot in it as I understand she’s ’someone’.

But then we all are aren’t we?

Apples and Folk

It was Apple Day here in Bridport on Saturday (Community Orchard, St. Mary’s Church field). There’s some open space that’s pretty much unused except for dog walkers and the plan is to plant apple trees and make it an orchard for the whole town to enjoy. There was an apple doctor on hand to identify varieties and all sorts of apple related stuff to try (apple juice and cider being the main ones).

There was also some music care of yours truly and others. I’ve joined a folk band and have done only three proper gigs with them so far and this freebie was my fourth. I’ve learnt precisely a quarter of the set but that won’t stop the show. Most of the time I’m scrabbling around working out the chords there and then as we’re playing.

Me on guitar:

David setting up the yurt:

I have a natty little woolen waistcoat but as yet no beard, no sandals and I only drink in moderation. This could all change of course.

BOOK OF FAMOUS PEOPLE’S PORTRAITS

Just telling it for what it is.

In case you don’t already know, I’ve published a fantastic book of portraits.

A dazzling and unique collection of photographs of many of the worlds greatest entertainers and creative geniuses. From Ricky Gervais to Keith Richards, R.E.M. to Elvis Costello, Lenny Kravitz to Arthur Lee or Ray Davies to Amy Winehouse, they’re all here in an incisive and beautiful document from the first years of the 21st Century.

Here’s the introduction from the book:

HOME ENTERTAINMENT: In late 2001 I was asked by the Guardian newspaper if I fancied doing the photography for a new column that would run every week in the Friday Review. Journalist and writer Will Hodgkinson would do the interviews and between us we were to meet (usually well known) singers, songwriters, musicians, actors, film-makers, authors and comedians wherever they lived and ask them to reflect upon their relationship with recorded entertainment, be it records or films or books. The experience was almost always interesting, often exciting, sometimes dull and occasionally enlightening. 

The interviewees would reveal much about themselves in having something as safe as a record collection to talk about. They found themselves at ease and, in the case of the more celebrated and press-savvy amongst them, off guard.

It ran for almost exactly five years and it felt for me like a five-year school outing. Whizzing up and down the motorways and A-roads of Britain, occasionally flying off abroad, always getting lost and always starving after we’d finished. It was a rare thing to be offered a cup of tea and rarer still some lunch.

What the Guardian needed from me and what I found quite hard to deliver week after week was a beautifully styled photograph of the artist in their home environment amongst their collection. I now understand that I just have no idea how to have a concept for the image and a sense of what it is to look like before I’ve seen it. Realising this has turned my photography around. I now know that my skills are in looking and seeing. People-watching is my number-one hobby: watching mannerisms and empathising with what someone is feeling in order to make a worthwhile portrait are thrills indeed.

I hope that Mark Bygraves, my picture editor at the Guardian, saw something of this in the pictures. I can’t think why else he let me carry on for five years.

I’m very glad to have had the opportunity to meet so many interesting people but, really, we all meet interesting people every day. We just have to see it.

PM

March 2008.

Have a look and I’m hoping it will make a great Christmas product unit for someone special!

HOME ENTERTAIN…

Singers, songwriter…

By PETE MILLSON

 

 

 

Book Preview

Photography notes 3

For anyone who’s remotely interested, and there can’t be many, this is how I arrive at my exposures when I’m outdoors with the Leica in the daytime:

a) 400 ASA (ISO if you must) b&w negative film

b) Leave the lens set to f8

c) As the light changes, I move the shutter between ONLY THREE different settings: 250 = bright AND sunny, 125 = bright or ‘don’t know’, 60 = near a building/in shadow

d) This leaves focussing. Set lens to 10 ft and be done with it. Use rangefinder if there’s time of course but using ‘10 ft’ means you’re able to keep your eye on the ball and actually get the shot you wanted.

Favourites

These are my two favourite photographs from 2007:

and

They’re both of children and are both about different aspects of what it is to be a child. I conclude from this that that was my main concern during 2007.

2008 is yet to close and I’m looking forward to arriving at a favourite or two.

Also, while I’m on black & white photography in general, I would urge anyone who hasn’t put film in a camera for a long time to do so immediately. The thrill you’ll get taking the film off the reels is inversely proportional to the thrill you get downloading a card. Please, try it.

Energy

Had a not very interesting day. But is that true? I think it has a lot to do with whether you’re tired or not. Our little one keeps us awake at night (Yawn – people not interested in children) and today I was grumpy virtually ALL day.

My eldest dressed as Elena the fairy first thing, some minor re-touching on the TV stills photos was needed, editing my Dan Leno shoot and speaking to someone in Bridport about an exhibition – meeting on Friday – this was my morning.

Quick argument with my wife, some lunch and then down to the fields with the boys for a hoof around.

Bad mood the whole time. Here are my boys benefitting from having their Dad around today:

Got back and there was a phone call from the Times Educational Supplement asking how long it would take me to get to Southampton. Wasn’t quick enough. Grumpy.

Finally, cooked some sausages for tea and had a cup of tea and the world was back to normal.

We need some SLEEEEP!

PS: These photographs were taken using a TELEPHONE. Extraordinary.

Personal Work

Just had an email from a friend discussing the hassle involved in generating projects for yourself when you already work as a photographer. 

I thought I’d stick my reply to him here as it helped me to clarify things for myself as I wrote it:

“Personal work is hard to start. If you’re anything like me, the main problem is that the tool you use for work is the very same tool you intend to use for self-expression. It’s a job to tell them apart. I’d start by putting your camera down and making a list, no matter how small, of things that truly fascinate and intrigue you. Don’t think about it in relation to photographs only in terms of what you respond to about the subject. Anything, as long as it genuinely fires your enthusiasm. Having small kids and being knackered could mean that nothing fires your enthusiasm at the moment which is fine – it answers your question about only having vague ideas.

When you have a list, ask yourself which subjects are ‘visual’: existential philosophy would be a tough one to photograph. Then, which subjects do you have regular access to. A project on the Golden Gate Bridge would be quite tricky to photograph regularly over time.

Finally, decide on a subject, research it and photograph it. Write out a list of say 20 shots that might tell the story and tick them off the list as you do them. Then it’s done. Move onto the next one. The job of a documentary photographer is to photograph the world. Easy really.

All of this to be undertaken with not a thought to how much it will cost or what it will do for your career. It’s not your career”.

Most of these ideas are paraphrasing the photographer David Hurn – look him up. He’s an outstanding photographer.

Photography notes 4 – Authenticity in portaits

If someone is preoccupied at the time of being photographed, either physically or mentally, they are photographed as ‘alive’, as authentically living.

To pose or to be aware of the camera – to the point where it makes you aware of yourself and hops your mind onto the circular track of “what do I look like?” – is to be dead when alive.

Photography’s major disadvantage is its ability to faithfully record inauthenticity.

If someone is photographed with their gaze directed away from the lens axis, there is a good chance that an authentic portrait will result. It’s not guaranteed however.

For a portrait to be made with the sitter gazing straight down the lens, staring at their fate – to be trapped in silver – will almost never result in an authentic representation of that person as they are or were in their time here. The only time an authentic portrait can result from staring at the lens is when the photographer is skilled enough and sensitive enough to strike while the sitter’s mind is genuinely elsewhere.

This is a great example of this last point from 1960 by French photographer Jean-Louis Swiners:

 

It’s a tricky and delicate job and the result is always emotionally gripping.

Other stuff

Thought I’d try and remember any eventful things from the past few days.

Err…?

Oh yes, went and did some printing in the darkroom again. I’m trying to go once a week with the aim of chipping away at the winning images that appear on the odd roll of film. Processing film, as I have mentioned here before, is exciting in terms of waiting to see if you got what you thought you’d got. It is also, however, a total hassle and printing only compounds it. I print on fibre paper which for those of you who might know is a laborious process in terms of washing the print. 

But, it is all worth it because if I’m spending my life documenting and learning about all I see, I have to take seriously the objects that represent my work – i.e. a well-made print.

Anyway, la-de-blah. There was also a close-encounters moment the other night when a corn harvester (an evil monster version of a combine harvester) had taken a shortcut through our village. It stopped right outside our front room and when we opened the window, it was so large and with all its many headlights blazing, so bright that we honestly for a split second were worried. The driver couldn’t get past our car as the road is narrow and I went and moved the car. On walking back to the house I thought about a photograph and only had a bloody TELEPHONE on me:

It didn’t matter. He had decided to reverse all the way back out of the village anyway.

–

I’m also in the process of plastering my workroom with photographs both my work-in-progress and influential things I find. A semi-plastered corner:

and a bit near a shelf with suff on it (one photo so far):

–

My eldest son and I have built a trailer for his go-kart from a shopping trolley and a box:

Where we live now

Here’s a few photos from our wander round the village today. As ever, we end up visiting someone and having a cup of tea. Oh so idyllic, oh am I not a smug what-not for putting these pictures on here? Well, no, the truth is I haven’t got a fat lot of work so far this week and so here’s my diary of my day clomping around without gainful employment.

Rachel with a goat (caption not really necessary here):

Elliot and friends:

Harper:

Our house can just be seen behind the trees on the right (car outside front):

Rachel being led to the goat shed:

Harper and his new friend:

Must get some work soon.

Afternoon round-up

Quite a good afternoon as it turned out.

We’re after a cupboard for the front room to put the children’s bits and bobs in and a phone and a nature table (whatever) on. We went to try the dump (sorry, recycling centre) in Bridport and, bingo, there it was.

Elliot, my eldest, fancied a bit of dressing up and looked very smart as a result:

Back home to get the wood burner ready. I have a ’steel’ for causing a spark, some cotton wool (which goes up a treat) some kindling and some ‘King Alfred Cakes’ which are a type of fungus that’s great as a natural firelighter and you’ll always find some in the woods. So, I have all this but no wood to burn. Elliot and I went and found some the other day but soon realised that one large log wasn’t going to keep us warm for very long.

No problem. One call to Rob-the-log and a ton of logs was delivered to our door. In fact on our doorstep. Rob’s little lad came to the door and shouted for Elliot. Elliot seems to know everyone. How?

Here he is guarding the logs (a pirate by this time):

Anyway (this is fun to write – apologies to those of you who actually read it), got a good fire going and now we have an evening of cosiness, red wine, washing-up and arguments to look forward to.

–

I’ve just popped up the road (8.30pm) to look after our neighbour’s son whilst she put the geese away. Our neighbour actually phoned my wife to ask if I would be able to help and my wife (Rachel) told me there was a glass of port in it for me when I got there. I said I’d do it only if I didn’t have to go near the port.

An interesting week

Where to start. 

Went in to the doctors with Harper our youngest boy at the weekend when we found he had a combination of an unusual rash and wasn’t well. The doctor said he thought it should be looked at by a specialist and sent us off to Dorchester hospital. Here we discovered that what may be wrong with Harper is that he has leukaemia. 

This was a bit of a shock as you might imagine and Rachel and Harper were taken in an ambulance to Southampton General hospital to a specialist oncology ward – Piam Brown ward to await a bone-marrow biopsy. I have to say up front that the staff there were all, without exception, as helpful, friendly and kind as one could possibly hope for.

Harper endured many blood tests and didn’t enjoy canulars being fitted (can’t blame him the poor thing). What they were looking for was evidence of leukaemic cells, cells that shouldn’t be there, and they couldn’t say for certain from looking at the blood only – this was why a look at some bone-marrow was required.

Rachel and I didn’t really know what to think. The biopsy was on the Tuesday at about ten and we had a dream-like day hopping between feeling positive and strong enough to cope and feeling tearful and fearful of the unknown. Talking to the other parents around the ward was extremely comforting and we met some lovely people.

Elliot our other boy was such an enormous help. He was patient, funny and kind to his brother and I have no doubt he was pretty hacked-off with being shut indoors the whole time.

I’ll cut to the quick and say that Harper’s bone-marrow didn’t show signs of luekaemia and so with no real time to establish what on earth was going on, we were let off the hook, so to speak.

My main reason for writing this up here is to pass on details of the children’s cancer charity CLIC Sargent.

They provide all sorts of help for families and for the children themselves and we even benefitted from their help in our short period of limbo there in Southampton in being allowed to stay in a house they have, Clic Haven next to the hospital, which is a peaceful haven in which to hide from the stress of being away from home with so much of your energy being used up in caring for your wonderful children. If you can imagine yourself having been on your feet all day and finally being allowed to sit down, this is Clic Haven only many times magnified.

Writing this up, I’m having a job recalling what we went through.

My Dad, Arthur, died in 2000 of a luekaemia (Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma) and I feel that now’s the time to make a bit of effort and help cancer charities much more than I do, in whatever way I can. We were fortunate of course and many families who have children with cancer, many who we met, will continue to need lots of energy and help (and sleep!) to make sure they can continue to see the various treatments through. Luekaemia is a very treatable cancer by all accounts and there’s great leaps of progress being made in the search for treatments and cures for all cancers.

Thankyou to the staff of the Piam Brown ward at the Southampton General Hospital. In some respects, to be there is a fortunate thing. You couldn’t hope to be in better hands.

Devon again

The week before Harper went into hospital, we went to visit our good friends Sue and James and the boys (x2) in north Devon. Hadn’t seen them for yonks and it was good to catch up. They have a pony that they are training and in about a year’s time the boys should be able to have a ride on her. Elliot had a lark dashing around the farmyard (which is of course never advisable – walking with care the favoured approach) and met some new friends. This is possibly of little interest to most who might be reading this but a diary entry with photos is all I can offer for now.

My brother’s new film

Just thought I’d mention Abraham’s Point which is the title of a new film coming out soon starring Mackenzie Crook and Joseph Millson. There’s a terrific trailer at You Tube. Can’t wait to see it.

Music

I completely forgot. I have a MySpace page with some of my songs on it. Remarkable!

Roger Mayne exhibition and Monkton Wyld visit

Bit of a moping around morning with work a bit quiet. Job on Friday though! Hoo hoo.

Went to see the Roger Mayne: Portraits exhibition in Bridport today at the Arts Centre. If you don’t know Roger Mayne’s work and you’re a fan of incisive, black and white photography (which obviously, I am), then you’re in for a treat. The portraits really chime with me. Most seem to have two of the ingredients I love: empathy and significance of moment. They also suggest that Roger Mayne is fascinated by other people and what it is that makes them them. On ’till the end of November if you happen to live in the south West.

Although a bit of a moody so and so this morning, the boys always make me laugh:

Yesterday Harper went to the Treewise toddler group which is usually held in the yurt in the orchard in the village but in winter, when the weather’s a bit soggy, it’s held up at Monkton Wyld Court at the Steiner Kindergarten there. A beautiful place and Elliot loves climbing the trees:

And finally… on the way back from Monkton Wyld on the A35 we get a great view of the main landmark in our village – Colmer’s Hill:

Warning

Word of warning if you’re ever inclined to write a blog. Don’t leave the hot tap running downstairs for the washing up while you write it up. 

It’s a mess.

Self-Portraits

I like to draw and would love to draw people much more often than I do but I either forget to have a pencil (or even a biro) on me or I’m too nervous of other people seeing the results. This means, inevitably, that it’s my face that I end up studying. Not recommended. Here, however, are some self-portraits that I’ve made over the last few years. Oh, and a drawing of my hand thrown in for good measure.

By the way, in case there are any photography clients of mine reading this and you were thinking of booking me to photograph some artwork for you, rest assured I won’t be doing it late at night on a TELEPHONE as shown here.

Week ending 15th Nov 2008

Good week. What did I do… can’t remember…

Ah, photographed some graduates (human, not plastic measuring jugs) in Bournemouth on Friday. I’ve been photographing college graduates for about three years now on and off and although one could say it’s not the MOST exciting job in the world, I have to say that I really enjoy it. I get to practice my photography/psychology skills (I’ll write an essay on it sometime – remind me) under pressure, I get to hang out with other photographers (hardly ever happens) and I get to meet (literally) hundreds of people in a short space of time. This last aspect I enjoy because I feel that to be a portrait photographer, one has to form opinions of others’ characteristics very quickly. Not opinions of them as people, just opinions of their mannerisms and what makes them unique.

Whatever.

A friend who reads this blog from Hanoi in Vietnam has mentioned occasionally missing England and hot, buttered toast and tea in particular. It is for this reason that I include here a photograph of same although the tea does look a bit like puddle water. I imagine he would know what it looks like anyway but it’s the thought that counts:

My Mum and Grandma arrived in the village today. They’re here for a week’s Christmas visit. Bit early of course but that’s how we’re doing it this year. I’m really pleased they’re so near. Wish they could move here to be honest.

Also, Rachel and I got a letter from one of the Consultant Paediatricians, Dr Philip Wylie, who looked after Harper a couple of weeks ago. The letter mentions his relief at the outcome, it explains what WAS going on, he gives out his phone number should we need it and the general tone of the letter is very considerate and thoughtful. We felt very looked-after and have been talking about the letter all day. I was with Elliot in Bridport at lunchtime where they had Vinyl Day going on (lots of great records for sale and a DJ playing in Bucky Doo Square) and was feeling slightly serene listening to the music. As we waited to cross the road, Dr Wylie cycled right past us.

OK, and, it’s Elliot’s birthday on Monday. My little boy will be six. This is a dull read if you don’t have children but in some respects, six years have gone in a blink. I love Elliot. And that’s why (he doesn’t use computers) I’ve bought him the Department of Transport book ‘Know Your Traffic Signs’. I know, I know but you can’t put a price on love.

Elliot and his Mum did a bit of sewing the other morning. We’re Home Educating the boys and helping out with whatever we’re up to is one good way of learning:

Got a sharpening stone for our axe today and I’ve been chopping like a demon. I’m scraping a bit here. I’ll post more when I’ve actually done something.

Home Entertainment Book again

Just a quick spot of blatant advertising here.

My Home Entertainment book sales have been unbelievable just recently so I thought I’d put in a reminder in case you know someone who might fancy a neat little coffee table book as a Christmas present.

Advertisement ends. Apologies for the intrusion!

HOME ENTERTAIN…

Singers, songwrite…

By PETE MILLSON

Book Preview

Eype Beach

Went down to Eype beach this afternoon. I’d had a meeting about some work in Yeovil and got back in time for us lot and my Mum and her Mum (who are staying in the village this week) to pop over to our local beach.

We timed it right for a sunset without any planning and for this I get all the praise from my grandma (Gra as I’ve called her since I was little); for organising the weather and working miracles. That’s Gra for you.

It was nothing.

She told me once that she often likes to perch up on her draining board in her kitchen and look out the window at the magpies in the garden. “Handsome beasts” she says.

Elliot is 6

On the 17th we went to Beaulieu, home of the National Motor Museum. 

Elliot has loved anything to do with cars and mechanical design in general since he was tiny and this was his birthday treat. It was a wet and soggy day and we pretty much had the place to ourselves. It’s the second time he’s been but he was ready for it this time and had a really good look underneath the cars at which suspension they were using and had a really close look at engines etc. I’ve no idea what he’s referring to half the time. My Dad, Arthur, used to be a car mechanic. He also worked as a driver of lorries and coaches, rode a motorbike and infamously (in my eyes) backed a caravan up a windy hill in one smooth run. Elliot has obviously inherited it from him.

I can just about change a headlight bulb but there it ends.

Elliot loved it though. As we all did.

26th November 2008

Hello. 

This morning we had a party for Elliot. His birthday was over a week ago but there it is.

Also this morning I had a meeting with a design company here in Bridport. Nice bunch and after telling me they didn’t commission much photography (hmm, I have heard that before actually) they were then kind enough to tip me off about a large London publisher who would be interested in a good photographer (me, obviously. What were you thinking) down in the South West. All a bit tenuous isn’t it. That’s freelancing for you. It made me think that I may organise a day of ‘portfolio-ing’ up in London even though it’s a bit ridiculous, it being so far away. Can’t hurt can it and what’s more, I get a day hoofing around photographing busy people being busy (one of my hobbies).

I’m making great progress with the LETS project (see separate page on this blog). I have rough prints blu-tacked on the front room wall and Rachel and I evaluate them over dinner. No TV, radio off – silence. I recommend it for making decisions about images. Let the choices make themselves known in their own time. Everyone I’ve photographed so far has been into the idea. I did intend to take about six months over it but I think I’m going to take advantage of not having much work at the moment and crack on with it. That is a sure-fire way to get work though – concentrate on other matters.

A couple that I photographed in Wootton Fitzpaine live on a smallholding (quitebigholding really). I’m in equal measures inspired and confused by what they’ve achieved. Inspired because that’s a way of life Rachel and I have been heading towards. Confused because I can’t see how I could ever do it. The skills involved are real skills; making houses, growing crops, tending to cattle, buying cattle, feeding cattle (I liked the cows!). One learns skills from other people of course. I’ve learnt to make bread, light fires and chop wood.

It’s a start.

Why make a photograph?

More cerebral (as I like to think) nonsense for you here.

Photographs. I remember now. What a privilege it is for us to see things. The art of photography is no different to any other. What’s important is to look. It’s enough to go about your day and give what passes in front of you your full attention. To make a permanent record of it, perhaps use a camera. Or a pencil. Looking is the thing.

Playing live

Yesterday and the day before that I had a couple of gigs. I play guitar every day at home, just writing the same song again and again but with subtle refinements each time. I’ve come to the conclusion that I’ve only got a limited number of things that I want to write about in music. Most of the thrill for me is getting the song ‘right’.

Again, whatever.

So, I’ve been playing at home but to get out and play in front of people is always much more fun. It’s also hard work on the fingers. This has positive benefits though. The next day my playing is always more musical. 

Sorry, I’m boring myself.

The gig last night was at a friend’s 50th birthday party in the village of Uploders. My grandma has recently, and kindly, bought a ‘Sat Nav’ for my 40th birthday present (which is 2 years away – long story). All very high tech, all very useful most of the time. Last night though, on heading out for Uploders, I was ‘taken’ to a dark and muddy field with a gate that had a sign on it which read ‘Pig Farm’. That wasn’t what I was after. I switched over to ‘brain nav’ and got out of the car, listened for a party and found my way there.

A pic of me at the party by my friend Ella:

Did another couple of portraits for the LETS project. Really pleased with how it’s going. I’m finding that my first impression of the subject and location is always the right one. It takes nerve to trust that it’s going to work. I used to get quite anxious when I first started doing portraits for other people. It only takes observation. Just look, don’t panic. I’ll post the images in the next couple of days.

Picture Gallery

As I have nothing to say to the world today, or indeed, anything I fancy writing down as a memo to self – here’s some more digital vomit for you in the form of some photographs:

Logs and other matters

A couple of days ago, I went to the woods with David, one of our neighbours, to find some wood to burn. For keeping us warm at home.
I enjoyed learning about different species of tree. David has grown up amongst trees and woodworking and I also grew up in the countryside playing among the trees. However, I think if pushed, naming three species would be my limit and I wouldn’t necessarily get them right either.

Today, by contrast, I had a job in Fleet Street in London. By complete contrast I should say. Met some nice folks who worked on designing oil and gas supply pipes and systems. After that, I went to visit my friend Dominic, who is a photographer, who we used to be a neighbour of and timed it right as he had some food ready for lunch.
I also met up with another photographer, Lucie, who is doing a project on Portrait Photographers. She’s done some great people so far and so was pleased to be on her list. I’ll link up with it when she has some stuff online.

10 Dec 2008

Met up with a couple of photographers who I’ve got to know since moving to Dorset.

Both are avid users of film over digital and I thought I was the only one left. Brendan, who came over in the afternoon, brought along some prints and we had a good chat about technical matters relating to printing (quite nerdy really – that’s describing me by the way). I did a portrait of Brendan using his 6×6 SLR which was beautiful to use and then some on the Leica mainly as I’m on a roll at the moment with portraits. As long as people fall into the category of being human and have a head, I’m interested. If you don’t have a head, I’m still quite interested. I’m just obsessed with finding and portraying the (as I see it) inherent good in people.

There was late-night-shopping in Bridport, Christmas and all, and Rachel was helping on the treewise stall. It was very cold. Dry-and-brittle-with-smoke-coming-out-of-your-mouth cold. I took Elliot along to Santa’s Grotto. We’re very keen to encourage a sense and appreciation of magic and wonder in our children and it’s surprisingly difficult to do. The general impression I get is that even some children are adopting the concept of Father Christmas as a bit ‘wink-wink’ ironic.

Anyway, I also bumped into Michael Harvey who is a small-camera nut like me. He was out with his Leica and some fast film and he was using a viewfinder eyepiece that goes onto the hotshoe. I had a go and, honestly, if you thought capturing the world with a rangefinder camera was satisfying, uncomplicated and vital, just try it with this viewfinder. A measure of how nerdy I can be is that I haven’t stopped thinking about it since.

Also, popped into the darkroom to do a bit of printing. Did two hours. Listened to Mark Radcliffe on Radio 2 and froze my fingers washing the prints. 

And here, with no connection to this post is a recent snap of where we live. In the distance is Colmer’s Hill:

Lets Project Update

Lets project going really well. I’ve got more to post when I’ve processed the films but if you haven’t had a look, there are a few new ones (click on ‘LETS project’ page).
I’m finding portraits more and more just a matter of looking and making firm decisions. If I see something I like there are two options. Either I’m ready and I snap the shutter and and I have it or else I have to stop the subject moving when I feel they are being most authentically ‘them’. The key to this is physical contact. If I were to shout, as photographers have done for decades, “hold it” in an effort to buy me time while I get the camera into position, it would almost certainly burst the bubble of authenticity. If I were to gently but decisively grab hold of the subject’s arm, for instance, and quietly ask them not to move, the fact that a stranger has got hold of them will, more often than not, stop them in their tracks. I can then jump in and get as authentic a photo as possible with time enough to do a good job technically. It’s always worth doing. When I subsequently let the subject off the hook, there’s great relief all round which generally leads to further natural gestures.
Just thought I’d let you in on that one.
Christmas is jingling itself around our house accompanied, if not aided and abetted, by Chris Rea and George Michael singing their timeless MOR pop classics (not in person obviously).
This is sad to admit but I’m very excited by my recent purchase of a new saw. It’s for helping me with the logs we find for firewood but, honestly, table legs are looking tasty as are fence posts, clothes props (I did actually saw that up – oops) and broom handles.
I’ll get used to it.

PHOTOGRAPHY BASICS – BLUR

This is a reply I gave to a friend’s enquiry. I’m posting it in-case it’s of use to anyone else. It was a question about blurred images when photographing family members:

“Blurring in low light is due to one of two things – either the subject is moving or you, the photographer, are moving. A way round this is to make sure the camera’s shutter goes ’snap’ very rapidly (a high shutter speed) – rapidly enough that you can ignore any movement. And the only way you can achieve this is by using a high ‘film speed’ or in your case a high ISO setting. You could also try moving the camera with your subject as you snap. This would mean that you’re all moving in the same direction at the same speed resulting in a sharper picture. And of course there’s always a tripod. This will sort the problem of your shaky hands but doesn’t solve the little ones hoofing about!”

PHOTOGRAPHY BASICS – LENSES

Right. Here’s one they don’t always tell you (this post is only relevant if you’re interested in the nerdier, more technical aspects of making photographs by the way).

Tentatively leaving aside the massively important task of actually looking at and seeing your subject (no easy job), this is a quick look at the tools for the job.

Whatever lens you own, whether it’s a very expensive and well-made lens or whether it’s all you can afford and frankly a bit budget, there is a trick to help you get the most out of it in terms of it producing, sharp, quality images. And the trick is this. ALL lenses produce immesuarably better images if you close the lens down by a stop or two.

The real-world tip here is that when photographing in low light, for atmosphere for example, one is often forced to open the lens right up to get as much light in as possible – to say f2.8. Even though that’s a setting that’s there for you to use, it really is a last resort. If you were to close it down to just f4 – not much of a difference – the image quality leaps. Try it with a digital camera if you have one. Say you were at 60th-f2.8. You’d be inclined to think that for image quality, it’s worth hanging onto the 60th to perhaps avoid blur. A fair assumption but a much better move, in my opinion, is to brace yourself for a 30th and close the lens to f4.

The difference isn’t subtle. In nearly all my tests with various lenses, f2.8 looks ‘alright’ and by contrast f4 looks ‘great’.

I should point out that there are extremely well made lenses available (Leica for example) that are spectacular wide open but they’re rare. And expensive.

22 Dec 2008

A right old ‘country’ day today.

Lit a fire before breakfast, went with Elliot to the home ed group in the village behind the tractor repair yard, got stuck into making Christmas Angels,

came back to find Rachel and Harper still not well and so, took Harper with me for some fresh air and to look for some wood for the fire, found some, chopped it up, helped bake bread and finally typed it all up on an apple mac laptop with a wireless broadband connection.

Ooh arr.

New Year plans

Can’t think of any really.

No, wait, I have. I’m going to approach this year on two levels. On the one hand I go about getting work and carrying out my photography as I always have done; practical steps, reasonable approaches and on the other, I make sure I have at least one completely far-fetched plan on the go at all times.

First out of the gate is my proposal that I’ve just sent off to ask if I can make a set of documentary photographs covering a year in the life of ’someone well-known in their field’ (I’ll tell you who that is if I get anywhere with it).

I’m expecting one of three responses:

1. Yes, great, when can you start

2. No

3. it gets ignored

We shall see!

2 January 2009 – Gallery

A quick round-up of photographs including one of the little sign I made for Elliot for Christmas. Some of these photographs were made with a telephone. Spectacular!

New tune

I’ve just written and recorded a new tune.

A nice little waltz that I’ve called ‘Arthur’s Son’.

If you don’t like it, you can keep your opinions to yourself!

Boy George

Thought I’d start putting up a few of the photographs from my book ‘Home Entertainment’ for your enjoyment or otherwise.

First up is Boy George. When I met him he seemed a very intelligent man and had the same particularly sarcastic sense of humour that I’ve noticed in other performers.

I photographed him in a gents toilets in central London. Not like that.

In-case you don’t know who he is (seems unlikely), we have this from Wiki:

Boy George (born George Alan O’Dowd 14 June 1961 in Eltham, London) is an English singer-songwriter, who was part of the English New Romantic movement which emerged in the early 1980s. He helped give androgyny an international stage with the success of Culture Club during the 1980s. His music is often classified as blue-eyed soul, which is influenced by rhythm and blues and reggae. His 1990s and 2000s-era solo music has glam influences such as David Bowie and Iggy Pop. Being involved in many activities (among them songwriting, DJing, writing books, designing clothes and photography) he has released fewer music recordings in the last decade.

John Martyn

This is a previous post and I’m moving it to the front page because I was sad to hear that he’d died. I really hope he had some wonderful, joy-filled days during his time here. I’m sure he did.

I met John Martyn one lunchtime in a pub in Henley-on-Thames. He had been on the refreshments for quite a while before I turned up.

I had been scouting for a location and had found a nice looking doorway of a church. This was about 200 yards away but it still took a fair while for us to get there as I had the added problem of another pub between there and the one we were currently in. John felt obliged to pop his head in at this other watering hole on the way. I virtually had to manhandle him out of there.

He is a gentle and sweet man underneath all this. As we were crossing the road to the church, I told him that I dearly loved his album ‘Solid Air’ and apologised as I said I thought he must get people saying that all the time. He thanked me and said you’d be surprised and proceeded to sing for most of the rest of the time I was with him.

From Wiki:

“John Martyn (born Iain David McGeachy on September 11, 1948 in New Malden, Surrey, England) is a British singer-songwriter and guitarist. Over a forty-year career he has released twenty studio albums and worked with artists such as Eric Clapton, David Gilmour, and Phil Collins. Despite this, he has largely remained a cult figure.”

Meaningful photographs

Empathy for the subject matter is everything.

Think of a subject that you’re passionate about. For me it’s simply people and how they behave but whatever it is for you, I’ll bet that it would be pretty easy for you to know what aspects you should include or exclude when photographing it.

The opposite must be true. If you find yourself looking through a camera at something that doesn’t really fire you then I would suspect, if you’re anything like me, that you’d be confused about what is important. 

I write this because some of you may have had difficulty in ‘getting a good shot’. Not technically, that’s another matter, but aesthetically; getting a meaningful shot.

If you photograph what truly fires you up, you’ll stand more of a chance of making a document worth handing on.

Amy Winehouse

I met Amy at her flat in Camden Town, London. I sat in the kitchen with her while she made me a cup of tea. Perfectly civil chat. Perfectly ordinary (that is to say, fast-talking) young woman. It’s all about the music.

From Wiki:

 

Amy Jade Winehouse (born 14 September 1983) is an English singer-songwriter, known for her eclectic mix of various musical genres including soul, jazz, rock & roll and R&B. Winehouse is best known for her soulful, powerful contralto vocals.

Winehouse’s 2003 debut album Frank did well, both commercially and critically, in her native Britain. It was nominated for the Mercury Prize. Her 2006 follow-up album Back to Black led to six Grammy Award nominations and five wins, tying the record for the most wins by a female artist in a single night, and made Winehouse the first British singer to win five Grammys, including three of the “Big Four”: Best New Artist, Record of the Year and Song of the Year. On 14 February 2007, she won a BRIT Award for Best British Female Artist; she had also been nominated for Best British Album. She has won the Ivor Novello Award three times, one in 2004 for Best Contemporary Song (musically and lyrically) for “Stronger Than Me”, one in 2007 for Best Contemporary Song for “Rehab”, and one in 2008 for Best Song Musically and Lyrically for “Love Is a Losing Game”, among other prestigious distinctions.

Southampton

Took our little one in to Southampton General Hospital for a small operation today (he’s fine).

It’s no fun for our eldest being stuck indoors all day surrounded by (extremely well-intentioned) plastic noisy toys. I can’t say for certain how he felt of course but I didn’t enjoy it so there!

He was rewarded for his great patience by being given the job of driving Harper down to theater for surgery. He even reversed with his mirrors. Grandad Arthur would have been proud.

www.petemillson.com

My online portfolio ‘petemillson.com’ is being moved to another server over the next few days (involving heavy lifting, use of a sack truck, security guards, everything) and I’ll announce its return when done.

All photography enquiries in the meantime to p.millson [at] virgin.net 07768 077353

www.petemillson.com – RETURNS

Well that was quicker than I thought.

petemillson.com is back up and running.

It boasts no new improvements, no new images and best of all, no change in the extremely high standard of photography you can expect from me.

All aboard!

Phil Hale

Just been digging through some old negatives and came across this of me and painter Phil Hale who I used to hang out with on an occasional basis. I tried whisky for the first time one evening at Phil’s studio as I played electric guitar and he played drums. The embarrassing fact that I’m tempted to omit is that I was aged 22 at the time.

And here’s one of Phil’s dramatic paintings:

Bridport Community Orchard

I have the pleasure of being responsible for documenting the birth of the Bridport Community Orchard here in West Dorset. 

Yesterday I took some pictures as the newly delivered trees were ‘heeled-in’ (to protect the roots from possible frost damage).

It all starts in earnest though this Saturday – the day of the planting.

I’ll keep you posted.

Orchard Photographs 17 Jan 2009

There are 89 new photographs for you to have a look at from the Planting and Wassailing day of the new community orchard in Bridport, west Dorset.

These pictures form part of a documentary project I’m undertaking to record the development of the orchard.

LETS – Exhibition

Yikes. I’ve just been offered space at the Bridport Arts Centre for my LETS project exhibition in May.

Let’s see now:

1. Are all the pictures done? NO

2. Have I written pithy captions to go with each image? NO

3. Have I sorted out extensive publicity surrounding the event? NO

4. Have I sorted out a book to go with the exhibition? NO

5. Have I made arrangements for a Private View? NO

And there we have it. A fantastic and inspiring document of the people of Dorset making good use of their skills and surviving despite a nationwide lack of cash.

I’d better get a move on.

A cherry picked selection of images will be posted on the LETS Project page as I go along and details of the event will be shouted from the rooftops nearer the time.

Pruning an apple tree

If you fancy learning how to look after your one and only apple tree in the garden or you need to get the best out of your rich uncle’s 10 acre orchard (and you can make a trip to West Dorset), there’s a chance to learn on the 7th Feb 2009.

I went to do a few photographs at today’s pruning course run by Treewise in the village where I live and found it pretty exciting which is odd because it didn’t have anything to do with either cameras, guitars or coffee. The tuition is by master pruner (if that’s the right term) David Squirrell.

Anyway, I was impressed so thought I’d pass it on.

Thoughts on Photographing People

Photographing people, for me, is ever such a delicate task. It almost involves getting the camera to your eye and letting the shutter go whilst at the same time sort of NOT doing that. What do I mean? (I wish I knew) I think the task is best tackled by having more than a passing interest in psychology or, at any rate, what people are like. Not just what they look like.

We all know the situation where a conversation with someone is going well: free, un-stressed, easy and then the camera comes into play and, bing, the atmosphere has changed. Sometimes imperceptably but it’s changed.

If one does get the shot, I’ll wager it is partly because you were paying attention to the person involved rather than just juggling light, exposure, viewpoint and moment.

NYC

Look at this, I found an old sheet of negatives from 1996.

I’d been sent out to New York to photograph a band called The Lilys there. It was my first trip abroad for a job and at the end of the roll of film, someone took a shot of me. I look barely able to contain my excitement!

Goose on the loose

Popped up this morning to the orchard up the road to let ‘George the Goose’ out of his shed and to put food out for him. Elliot and I went up. George was making a hell of a racket when we got there (par for the course I think). I looked at Elliot and Elliot looked at me. “You do it”, I said and so brave Elliot undid the latch. We’d already been told by our friends and neighbours, to whom George belongs, that he’s all mouth and no bite (or whatever the phrase is) but I was a little nervous that he might ‘go for us’.

Here’s a sequence of photographs of Elliot and George:

Interview transcript (2002)

I’ve just happened across my copy of Black & White photography magazine from 2002. The now editor, Elizabeth Roberts, interviewed me about my approach to portraits.

–

Making Faces

(An article by Elizabeth Roberts, which originally appeared in the August 2002 edition of ‘Black & White Photography’)

There are times when I think that being a journalist is a funny way of earning a living. There I am, standing outside a north London tube station waiting, once again, for a complete stranger to turn up. ‘I’m tall and wearing a T-shirt and glasses,’ he’d said over the phone. That description, it appears, covers roughly 50% of the male population walking past me. After 10 minutes or so, an old man with a craggy beard approaches. ‘Sorry I’m late darlin’, he yells, before doubling-up with laughter and heading off. Suddenly feeling rather conspicuous, I casually stroll up and down.

A couple of minutes later I hear my name being called and turning I see, bounding towards me, bespectacled and T-shirted, a tall young man, beaming. Phew. It’s Pete Millson. As we walk back to his house he strides beside me and we chat easily. By the time we get there he’s unwittingly answered my central question – what makes a good portrait photographer?

The answer is simple – he’s friendly, enthusiastic and at ease with himself – but there’s something else as well – he’s genuinely interested in other people.

But it’s time to get his side of the story. How did it all start? ‘ When I was young I played in bands and wanted to be in the music business,’ he says. ‘I was seeing a friend off at the airport on a long trip and he gave me a camera. I was thrilled with it. So amid all the emotional goodbyes I was asking him how to use it! I took a few rolls of film with it stuck on a middle setting – I’d no idea what I was doing,’ he says. ‘The results were terrible.’

He bought himself a teach-yourself-photography book and gradually began to learn. A friend showed him how to process film and he set up a basic darkroom at home. ‘I put together a portfolio of pictures of friends. I was still involved with bands so most of my pictures were musically orientated,’ he says.

He sent his portfolio to the New Musical Express and they invited him along to the office. ‘I must have caught them on a quiet day! I saw the art director and several other people and they seemed to like what I was doing,’ he says. ‘I was really bluffing at that stage – I still didn’t really know what was what – I was just really excited by taking pictures.’ Strongly influenced by Dutch photographer Anton Corbijn, Millson’s work was gritty and raw. ‘I was trying to teach myself just by copying him,’ he recalls. ‘I suppose that’s what appealed to NME.’

It was at this stage that he began to think about where his life was going. ‘I was in my early twenties and it began to dawn on me that if I didn’t get my act together I was going to have to do something really boring to earn a living,’ he explains. ‘But even so, I couldn’t really see where the photography was going.’

Nowadays, the work is regular, with a weekly interview column in the Guardian Friday Review called Home Entertainment. Pete works on this with journalist Will Hodgkinson who interviews while Pete photographs one famous person each week.

I was curious to know how an ‘ordinary guy’ like Pete felt about meeting the rich and famous and, more importantly, how he went about achieving an original and meaningful shot of someone who has been photographed ad infinitum. ‘It takes about half an hour for any awe to wear off – then you start to notice little things about the person – a shoelace undone or something – and you start to form an opinion of them.’ Few people, even the famous, he claims, like being photographed. ‘If I can make someone feel relaxed with me as a person, it’s a good start. So I just chat away.’ It isn’t difficult to imagine how Pete’s method would disarm even the most uptight.

To take a successful portrait, Pete believes, the subject must be almost unaware of the camera – as far as that is possible. ‘It took me a while to learn that,’ he says. ‘I didn’t understand at first what was going wrong – the pictures started to get worse. I knew all the technical stuff by then but what I didn’t realise was that the photographic skills, getting the right depth of field and exposure has to be learn so well it’s instinctive. Fiddling around with a camera or lighting while someone is just sitting there is disastrous. My job is to make the person feel relaxed. Once they are, then I jump in and get the picture – you have to wait until the real person emerges, and sometimes that’s only fleeting. It’s the hardest thing to do.’

Pete doesn’t pre-plan his sessions, preferring to take his chances with what comes up. He generally uses available light and works with handheld Nikon SLRs, occasionally using a Rolleiflex or Voigtlander rangefinder. What he ultimately aims for is capturing his subject in an unguarded moment when the tension and self-conciousness go out of the face. ‘I can’t really describe what happens,’ he says, ‘but you really know when it does. It’s nothing to do with what’s on the outside – it’s all to do with what’s going on within. The most important thing is to anticipate it because sometimes it only happens for an instant,’ he says. But, I wonder, how do you go about anticipating – what are the clues to be looked for? ‘Well, for instance, if you ask someone a question, momentarily they think about their answer – at that point they completely forget themselves and where they are. That’s the moment I dive in. You have to be observant.’

Pete admits that his method has taken some time to perfect. When he first started out he thought he ought to be doing the David Bailey approach – ‘That’s great darling, give me more’ – ‘Frankly, it scared me,’ he says, ‘I came to the conclusion I just couldn’t work like that. Now I’ve learnt there are all sorts of ways to be a photographer. I prefer to approach it quietly.’

Pete believes that good photography is largely down to editing. ‘You keep clicking away and you know you’re working towards something but you’re not quite there – and then you realise why, like maybe you’re standing in the wrong place, and it all begins to fit. Eventually you get one frame that does it – but that’s all you were after.’

You sense that, for him, his real passion is people. ‘I think we’re fascinating. Most people look great – they just don’t think they do. It all comes from inside. That’s exciting.’

National Portrait Gallery

I can’t pretend I’m not very pleased, not to mention excited, about an email I received a few days ago. The Curator of Photography at the National Portrait Gallery in London expressed his interest in acquiring six of my portraits. I’ll let you know who the portraits are of when I’ve signed, sealed and delivered the prints later on this month.

How jolly exciting. I just wonder what the 15 year old Pete Millson would have made of it.

Caring Father

Having just written the title to this post made me think of my late Dad. I’ll write more about him in the future.

This post however is about just how mean I’ve found myself capable of being. I’m constantly telling the whole family not to leave the fan-heater on in the bathroom. The other night however, I said not to worry and just to leave it on. They were surprised. What I didn’t tell them was that I’d just read in a houseplant book that the ‘Maidenhair Fern’ in the bathroom needs warmth.

We had a nice day today in West Bay:

Gig 18 February 2009

I was waiting in the car, stopped at the lights, today in Bridport, the nearest town to where I live and happened to glance in the window of Beach & Barnicott, a café/bar (which seems quite a relaxed and friendly place). There in the window was a poster about a gig featuring a band I hadn’t heard of. As I read-on I discovered it was me playing. Paul, who had asked me to play (and who is ill at the moment and won’t be playing alongside this Wednesday), had neglected to tell me the name we were playing under. 

I think I’ll check them out.

Portrait

Sorry there hasn’t been much on the blog these last few days. I’m out actually doing stuff rather than writing about it.

I’ll be delivering my prints to the National Portrait Gallery end of next week and I’m very excited. So excited in fact that I’ve dug around in my files to see if there’s a good portrait of me. I found one but I either look a twit or constipated or both. Well, if you can’t indulge in a spot of narcissism on your own ‘blog’, where can you?

More posts (of more interest) coming soon.

Hello

Haven’t written much for a while. Hello again.

I’ve been busy with lots of things, the main one of course being my job as Dad! That takes up precisely 100% of my time and I fit everything else into the gaps.

This week I take six of my portraits to the NPG. I’ve had some beautiful 16×12 inch prints made and it seems a shame to hand them over really! I’m going up to London to hand them over myself. There’s no real need for me to do this; I could get a courier to deliver them for me but it seems too important (to me) to not go there myself. The scenario could still be that I’m met by an office assistant that takes them out of my hands and just says “cheers” but there we are.

On Sunday we turned our front room into a gallery and invited people to come and see some of my LETS work in progress as well as lots of my other portraits from over the years. It was a bit of a trial just to see how it would work in practice and we’re quite excited about telling more people about it next time. There’s an ‘open studios’ week coming up soon here in Bridport, art capital of Bridport, and we’re aiming to be part of that.

And the daybefore found me doing my 10-minute slot as part of a Music-A-Thon for a local music charity. I had duly rehearsed and honed my 3 singer-songwriter classics and was put on the back foot a little when I got there to find I was on soon after the local bell-ringers had finished their slot. I hope my introspective nonsense went down alright. Everyone clapped I suppose! It was lots of fun singing unamplified in a great church hall.

Rachel’s just shouted up the stairs that supper’s ready so that’s it for this post!

8 March 2009

Delivered the prints on Friday to the NPG.

I met up with my friend Vicki (who, by an astonishing coincidence, edited my book ‘Home Entertainment’) which really made my day. After signing the back of these huge bromide prints in pencil whilst trying not to spill coffee over them in Pret a Manger we went to drop them off. I’d timed it perfectly as both the curator of photography and his main assistant were having lunch and so, as predicted, I handed the artwork over to another assistant. To make sure I remembered that I am an unknown photographer and not (yet) a celebrated artist, the assistant, just as we were getting up to leave asked, ’sorry, your name is?’.

Here are the portraits:

Ray Davies

Sanjeev Bhaskar

Michael Nyman

Keith Allen

Bert Jansch

Billy Childish

Me about to go in – photo kindly taken by Vicki.

No matter, Vicki, as soon as we got out the door into the sunshine, said that it was time for a celebration (in the form of a pint) and we headed off to an old Soho watering hole. These soho pubs look quite ordinary at first glance. The people inside them do too. But if you look and listen closely, as I can’t help myself doing, you find that these aren’t normal people having normal conversations. I heard about which authors penguin are planning to sign up (and the woman to sign them up was drinking lime juice and something) and how shoddy a certain terrestrial television company are when it comes to acquiring new talent. One of the ‘TV’ crowd then answered a call and appeared to be about to hire someone ‘great’.

Vicki and I had a chat about how we met on a plane to New York, in an effort to keep up.

What else? Umm… yes, went to stay over at my Mum’s which was lovely. It doesn’t matter how old you are, you still end up being fed, watered and cuddled without a thought to the fact you’re not 6 anymore. I love it. My two boys had a lovely time, they always do.

Also popped over to friends of ours where we used to live in London and helped clearing their allotment by having a bonfire and throwing everything on it.

This week back in Dorset I have a rehearsal with the band, a meeting about some work and some shelves to sort out.

You can keep your soho lifestyle, plodding about in a daze suits me fine.

Symondsbury ‘joiner’

Took a few pictures and joined them together to show the village where I live from up on our allotment. Really effective way of squashing it all in. It’s such a beautiful place to be that I think I’ve been ’snow-blind’ to it since we moved here. I’m only just managing to ’see’ it.

Forgetting It All

Wrote a new song last night and it’s the best one I’ve written as far as I’m concerned. Two things to note: 1. My friend and neighbour Kim has written the words (that makes it already better than most of my others) and 2. I haven’t finished it yet.

That said, download it here.

The Sea

I’ve read before that being near the sea will influence your work whether you like it or not. That could be cobblers of course but I think this photograph shows something (and I don’t mean the back view of someone – pedants take note).

Also, talking of the sea (?), Polly Harvey (PJ Harvey) played a gig last night at our local Arts centre with John Parish. The director of the Arts centre offered me a free ticket but I, for some reason, honored my rehearsal that was already scheduled instead. Shame I missed it but the rehearsal was a good gig too. Shame you missed it.

Cerebral nonsense and ’snaps’ round-up

In the same way that a book reminds you that the world can only be viewed through one set of eyes – yours – so a photograph has the same effect. A ‘mass-media’ claims there is a collective vision. There can’t be.

Interesting or (more likely) a load of old toss? I shall leave it with you.

Here, though, is a round-up of recent family snaps:

NPG online

There’s now a page showing a list of my portraits at the NPG.

The images aren’t available to view online yet but should be at some point in the near future.

Bridport Community Orchard revisited

Last Sunday (29 March 2009) there was another volunteer day on the Bridport Community Orchard.

On the list of things to do was to move a section of the hedging, dig a pond (not easy) and build a beetle bank.

It’s going to be a very valuable resource for everyone. Think of that, pop into town for your bits and bobs and go and have a sit in the orchard and watch the clouds go by. And relax.

I have the job (not much of a job when there’s people around you digging a pond it has to be said) of documenting its progress and with that in mind, here’s some photographs from the day: click me.

9 April 2009

On Saturday last, myself and neighbour David were helping provide the entertainment at a LETS Trading Day in Dorchester. I bought some butter knives for 3 LETS and booked myself in for a back massage for 25 LETS. At one point, David and I found ourselves outside on the pavement with our instruments. This was to help draw the punters in, we were told. I wonder, though.

Also, found a lovely photograph on a roll of film from a recent trip to a quarry on Portland.

There’s also a finished version of my song ‘Forgetting It All’ here.

I hope you have a happy Easter time.

The Things You Learn To Love

Hello. A new song written. Very pleased with it and I think that buying a guitar strap and recording it stood up helped. Like you care.

All is going well with my next photography exhibition; LETS SEE: portrait of a community. I still have about 15–20 portraits to do in the next couple of weeks and so I’m a little anxious but then again, it’s only some photos up on a wall: I’ll pop the kettle on.

Hey, look; here’s the boys out in the garden.