Tis the season - for Panto! This spread is from a recent commission to shoot Mr.Clive Rowe at the Hackney Empire Theatre. Clive is known as the queen (I'm sure he won't mind me saying this) of the Pantomime Dame scene in London and the article centred around the fact that a lot of tourists apparently don't 'get' Panto.
This tongue in cheek piece was about informing our foreign visitors how to behave whilst attending a Pantomime. According to the copy our American cousins are the most baffled by proceedings and try to shh people next to them when everyone is shouting out 'he's behind you' or whatever (bless them).
I arrived during a general press call and was asked to get a shot of him in his dressing room wagging his finger at the camera apparently telling off the viewer. I was told I'd have 15 minutes with him in his dressing room before he needed to get ready for the matinee performance. Note: however much time you are told you have with a subject to shoot, divide that figure by three. This is almost always the case. So I figured I had 5 minutes to shoot him in his dressing room which would be fine.
While I waited for the performers to appear on stage I had a wander around the old theatre, it was starting to show it's age a bit but that just added to the charm of the place. After a quick discussion with the Theatres P.R I discoverd that due to a breakdown in communication with the writer of the piece (who was doing the interview by phone due to a tube strike) I did infact have a total of 0 mintues to shoot Mr.Rowe in his dressing room due to this being the first he'd heard about it and Mr.Rowe not really having any spare time.
No panic, after he'd finished the press call on stage for the other photographers I leapt up onto stage, introduced myself, let him know the shots I had planned and shot a few images of him on stage - it was well lit and made for a second bonus location the picture desk were not expecting. We then went to his dressing room and spent a few minutes getting some more images again as the magazine had specified (head and shoulders, wagging finger, get a sense of the location in the background). Mr.Rowe being a seasoned performer gave me just the images I had in mind and after a cup of tea with the lovely people who worked backstage at the Empire it was back home to edit.
After the image delivery the magazine let me know that the image would be running 'big' in the magazine - always a bonus, plus apparently I had great feedback from the Theatre saying they were impressed with how 'quick' I was during the shoot, well, I never really had the chance to dordle even if I'd wanted to!
