Blog

New In House Photographer

There have been some big changes at Garage and with the large amount of work and teaching that we are doing we felt the time had come to go and recruit a new shooter. Its become even more necessary now as our lighting expert Natasha is working more in London on both stills and video shoots, producing some great work for other photographers. So we have…. *drumroll* a new in-house photographer who we would like to introduce to you all.

He is the man with the magic button pressing finger, Kenny McCracken, you can see his work on the cover of the new Brighton Source magazine. When they heard he was back in the photography game they snapped him up as their new cover artist, so now he will be shooting all the future Source covers and your favourite Brighton studio is back at the helm of Brighton’s favourite magazine. The shot below is of PulpPress author Danny Hogan, at Garage Studios.

Shot by Kenny, Assistant Andy Nelson.

We will show you a lot more of his work soon, but have great news Kenny will also be one of our in-house tutors. He is funny, charismatic photographer with bags of personality and an unshakeable confidence in his images, which he honed by spending a long time assisting Rankin at Dazed and Confused many years ago, and then assisting renowned commerical photographer Dave Ellis. He used to work full time as a photographer, but left to front two successful bands and live off healthy PRS cheques, but he has now returned to photography as a full time career.

To this date, Kenny is the only photographer that Kevin has assisted and the first person to show him that lighting could be fun. He is a great addition to Garage and has experience of both stills and video, and he learnt his trade many years back when digital cameras were still a twinkle in someones eye. More importantly though Kenny is a keen creative individual, an invaluable facet of a photographer is an enthusiasm to produce and more importantly showcase work- so expect a lot more from him soon. (Oh and don’t worry I will kick him off his smoke machine addiction by the tiume you read this- Kev).

If there is anything he doesn’t know about composition, lighting and drawing something from your subject then we have yet to find it. You can be sure we thoroughly roadtest any photographer that works under the Garage name, so be assured we are very confident about this guy and his work. We will post a blog about the above shoots, with some of the ideas behind the images later in the week.

You can book him for any shoot through the usual way of mailing info@garage-studios.co.uk

Matt Hodson- Live Shots

We were going to write a post a few months back about Matt Hodson’s Esben and the Witch images but things got in the way and we were way too busy, (apologies Matt) but then Brighton Source just posted his brilliant Primal Scream shots so now we have a good reason. This shot of Bobby Gillespie below is stunning, and really captures the feel of a Primal Scream gig full flight, soaring and ripping the roof out.

Matt attended our Portrait course, and produced some really good images, very thoughtful and considered. A thinking photographer is a good thing, a quality to be cherished and which often rewards the photographer with mental agonies during a shoot but some damn good images afterwards. He borrowed some kit of us for the Esben shoot and although he only had a limited time before their gig he made some really strong shots and you can see one of them below.

He has just produced some awesome images of the Primal Scream gig at the Brighton Centre, and made us all even more envious about the fact that we didn’t go. You can check more of his work out here.

New Work by Kevin Mason

Kev has been toiling away over the weekend updating the work on his personal site , and it’s looking pretty darned good. Take a look and let us know what you think….

Kev is our in house Fashion & Portrait photographer and the main tutor on our lighting courses

Location Lighting Workshops this weekend.

Now that the wind has lost it’s bite, and with all the amazing weather we’ve been having, we’re taking our courses into the great out doors this weekend for a series of Location Lighting workshops.

Saturday 2nd April 10 -2pm Speed Light £90

Sunday 3rd April 11-3pm Studio Lighting £110

Each half day session will focus on a different type of lighting, and how you can use them to enhance your images on location by working with both ambient and artificial light.

The courses will be taught by Kevin Mason and include a model for the day…

If you would like any more information or to book your place, email or call 01273 609600

New Courses coming soon.

We will have details of 2 new courses up soon, hopefully by late on monday and they included the much requested Creative Photography Part 2, and an extra special course by I Am Lucky founder Matt Martin which will teach how to edit and curate your work and turn it into a zine. Its bringing the DIY approach back to photography, making prints and getting your work into the hands of others. This course will be run over several weeks, as well as some summer workshops that will be aimed at college and uni photographers. We have a feeling it may just be one of the best courses yet.

Stay tuned for more news very soon.

Model Casting Day

We held an open casting day a few weeks ago with photographers Kevin and Sam Hiscox. Here are some of the shots of who turned up- we haven’t uploaded everyone and we will hopefully do another post soon, but here’s a selection below.

We are always on the lookout for interesting new faces/people to shoot and we will be holding another Open Casting in a few weeks time, so feel free to come along. Huge thanks to everyone that made it on the first day- it was really enjoyable to meet you all.


Lou O’Bedlam returns to the studio

Some of you may have been lucky enough to attend last May’s workshops with fantastic U.S based portrait photographer (and all round stand up guy) Lou O ‘ Bedlam. For those of you who missed out, or those who were left wanting more, the good news is that he’ll be back this June…..

Lou will be holding a series of talks and workshops based around the methods he uses to create his strikingly beautiful, distinctive imagery. This time he will not only be holding a talk and portrait master class, but will also be offering an additional advanced workshop and also one to one sessions which can be booked by the hour.

Talk: Friday 24th June 7.30 pm £6

With time for a question and answer session at the end, Lou’s talk will not only include some of his favourite work and influences, but will also touch on the way in which he arrived at the style of imagery that makes each photograph so uniquely his.

Portrait Masterclass: Saturday 25th June 10- 2pm £60

This 4 hour workshops will focus on:

Perfecting Your Vision:- How to hone in and identify your visual language, learning how to craft an individualized style.

How the Tools Shape the Shots: Looking at how different cameras lead to very different results, and how much of an influence they can have on your work.

Interacting with Models:- Investigating the ways you can interact with the people you are shooting, whether they are seasoned professionals, or complete stranger whose face you just “have” to shoot.

Advanced Portrait Session: Sunday 26th June £85

The advanced course will delve deeper into the psychology of portraiture, the relationship between artist and subject, and the ideas and thoughts that help to form successful portraiture. You will also cover the finer points of achieving personal artistic goals relating to improving your photography. Moving beyond the purely technical aspects of creating imagery, there will be a focus on the motivation behind your work, and ways in which it can help to support the implementation of your artistic vision.

Both workshops will allow time for guided shooting with a model….

One to One sessions: Saturday 25th - Monday 27th June £65/hour

There are a limited amount of one to one sessions available over the weekend. They could be either portfolio based if you would like feedback on your work, concentrate on the methods Lou uses to produce his work, or focus on a specific technique you would like to master. Sessions can be booked by the hour.

Lou’s work can be found on:

His site

His Flickr

For more information or to book a place on any of the sessions, email or call 01273 609600

New Work

New Work from Kevin, we will add to the post as the negs are scanned.

52° 42' 44" North, 03° 34' 37" West 1637 8°c

52° 51' 59" North, 04° 06' 43" West 1551 9°c

Matt Martin shoots for PulpPress Publications

Back in October of last year we put on the first solo exhibition of Matt Martin, a young photographer who came to the attention of Kevin when some of his own work was featured on Matt’s curated blog We Are Lucky.

You can read about the exhibition here, which proved so popular that we had to extend its run, and we are pleased to say it then got picked up and shown in London by another gallery The Other Space in Camberwell. You may have also been lucky enough to hear him talk about his work at the Miniclick event organised by photographer and keen supporter of new work, Jim Stephenson.

One of the people who attended the exhibition whilst it was at Garage was PulpPress founder and author Danny Hogan. We had been lined up to shoot the cover of his next publication, and we had already shot the authors promo images, but on seeing Matt Martin’s work Mr Hogan dropped us like a hot potato and asked us to arrange a meeting with Matt. We couldn’t have been more pleased, to get a great reaction from other photographers for a show is one thing, and the general public also really seemed to love the work, but getting a commission for the photographer is more than we had expected. Danny was attracted to Matt’s very raw style, his enthusiasm for everything he shoots and the very clear punk ethos that comes through in all his work. So we lost the work, but we helped a photographer we love get his first book cover, stoked is the word.

Straight talking Danny had this to say….“I guarantee that anyone spending a few minutes in Matt Martin’s company will be impressed with his energy, tenacity and good manners. Anyone beholding his work will recognise that this lad’s eye for creativity and sheer talent elevates photography. We instantly realise that he his not just some mug with a haircut pushing a button on a machine in order to feed his dark hunger for underfed girls.”

Matt shot the images below on location in Brighton on his Contax T2, Fuji Reala 100 on a typically quick shoot, with model Alex Hughes, Hair and MakeUp by Romaine Bowman with Danny providing Art Direction based on the character he penned.

The book, Jailbait Justice: The Girl With The Big Iron On Her Hip is out now and you can buy it here from Amazon, and don’t forget to check out Matts current work, a lot of which is shot in Brighton.

We are always interested in promoting and helping other photographers, whether its through internships, hosting talks or exhibitions or trying to put clients in touch with the photographer most suited to their brief so if you have some great work send us a link to the usual info@garage-studios.co.uk and we will take a look.

Thanks for reading, from the haircut crew…. now go check their work…

More from Derriere…

Here’s a few more images from Friday’s shoot….


Photography: Beth Steddon, Styling: Stevie @ Ophelia Fancy, MUA: Saffron Powell, Lighting Assistant: Zoe Baker, Furniture from Nanadobbie