Above is our recent shoot with former US Open Champion at Congressional, Ken Venturi, who won in 1964, in the current issue of Golf World Magazine. Ken was great to work with, and at 80, was quite happy to work through a number of different shots around his home in Palm Springs. In fact we just basically turned it into a photo studio. But he was cool with that, so i can’t argue. He has a fascinating story of how he fought massive heat stroke to win the title back in ’64. I guess they didn’t have tiny little water bottles in those days! And below current US Open Champion Graeme McDowell. We shot him a few years ago, when he was nothing but a wee lad. Look at him now, all growd up and winning majors!

Last month we did a fun shoot with former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, on the golf course, obviously! I have to say she was great to work with and quite malleable. I use that expression in terms of how open a subject is to ideas. Sometimes, with high profile people, you just never know. It can go either way. But i think after having been doing this for twenty years or so, that’s where the experience comes in. Knowing when and how to open your big mouth. This is in itself the art of portrait photography if you ask me. Anyway, the other personally gratifying aspect of this shoot, is that i was in effect backing up a personal photo- hero of mine, none other than the great Walter Iooss jr, who i believe was originally slated for this shoot. It feels great to be in such good company. You can read the full article here: http://www.golfdigest.com/magazine/2011-06/condoleeza-rice-interview

I spent a couple of days in New Orleans hanging with and shooting Greg Dulli, former frontman of the Afghan Whigs, and currently of The Twilight Singers. Let me tell you, these guys can play. And drink. And eat. But then again, what would you expect in New Orleans. Also Greg is the owner of the uber-cool hangout ‘The R Bar’, where much of our shoot took place. If you find yourself down in N’arleans, you gotta go check it out. Monday’s special is $10 for a shot and a haircut! Seriously. There’s even an old- school barber chair at the bar.

I’m pleased to announce our first collaboration with an online- only magazine, Wavelines from Nomad Editions, clearly signalling the ipad-ization of the publishing industry. I may be an idealist, but i’m also a pragmatic realist, and the ipad-istic magazine is the future my friends, whether you like it or not. Me, personally, yeah i love print, nothing is better than holding your published work in your hands. But let’s face it, the future is the digital press. To me there’s no question about it, and you just have to run the numbers yourself to figure it out. The other bonus of this project is i got to work with photo- editing rockstar Laurie Kratochvil, who surprised with an out of the blue call while checking into my hotel in New Orleans last week (where ironically enough, i was sans-wifi to view said online magazine).
The only problem with this format is over the past twenty years i’ve painstakingly managed to build an archive of most of the magazines my work has been published in ( the ones i know of at least), but how the heck do you archive a website?

Here’s a really nice shoot we did, in this weeks People magazine. A four page story about a family of race- horse trainers, who’s father was nearly killed by falling hay bails, and the family business had to taken over by his teenage son. The son went on to win his first race ever as a trainer, and is now a rising star in the horse racing business. On a personal note, i have to say the family were the nicest, most down to earth people you could find, and were very accommodating for our two day shoot, with a shooting schedule of early mornings and dusk. But the good news is…. i did learn how to rope a cow, cowboy style! Ok, so my cow was a wooden one, but still, it’s a start.

Earlier this year we did a fun shoot with a new upstart in the golfing world, a punky little O.C. skate-dude by the name of Rickie Fowler. Now, any time a magazine spends the time, effort and resourses to focus on a ‘hot, new thing’, then you know they’ve probably got their finger on the pulse enough more than me, to know what they’re actually talking about. But when i met Rickie, i kind of had a feeling this kid’s gonna be something special. Guess what, he was just named PGA Rookie of the Year, and that’s after having been a key player on the US Ryder Cup team this summer! Oh, and by the way, he’s a kick- ass motocross rider too…. and has a bit of that Zac Efron/ Justin Bieber thing going on. Can’t you just hear Nike and MTV swooning?

Here’s a great post blog post from my rep Wonderful Machine on our recent adventure-filled shoot with John Mellencamp.

Thursday November 11th, 2010

Robert Gallagher has risked his life for rock n’ roll. The LA-based WM photographer recently had a potentially jarring experience involving famed rock star John Mellencamp and a three-foot blade pulled from the top of a walking cane. According to the profile in Q Magazine, Mellencamp started the photo session by “swishing about” said blade, declaring, “alright, you’ve got 30 f***ing minutes!”

Mellencamp, apparently, is not fond of photo shoots. But where a lesser photographer may have faltered, Robert, undeterred, rose to the occasion. “That pretty much set the tone for the afternoon,” Robert told me. “But to be perfectly honest, it didn’t bother me. I didn’t feel he was really trying to threaten or scare me.” Though Robert wasn’t scared, the article describes Mellencamp delivering a knockout punch to a previous photographer, who invaded the temperamental rocker’s personal space to make adjustments. Nevertheless, Robert had a strategy:

“I was confident that if I just focused on my thing, to capture the devil-may-care artist, then he’d get it and be on board with me creatively. And that’s pretty much what happened. In fact, the 30 minutes turned into 50, which his manager pointed out never happens, with a quick jaunt around the area in his little bone-jarring ATV to shoot some artworks he’s collected.”

I caught up with Q photo editor Russ O’Connell to hear a little bit about why Robert was such a good fit for this assignment. “I knew that I could depend on Robert to shoot him in his natural environment, his home,” Russ explained. “We were lucky to have unrestricted access to John at his home and Robert’s work fits perfectly with the type of images I was looking for, nice raw uncomplicated portraiture. He’s also great at that important reportage angle that I needed for the feature… what you see is what you get with his work, and that’s down to his skill in camera.”

Robert is “particularly proud” of this shoot. First of all, he admires Mellencamp for “his political beliefs, despite the negative attention he draws. He is someone I greatly respect for standing up and being counted.” The wider reason is that he sees Mellencamp as an “outspoken cultural icon, a driven creative spirit, and someone whose sounds represented the freedom of the American spirit, which we’d crank full blast out of a convertible Triumph Spitfire back in our college days in North East England.”

-Asad

Everyone’s favourite vampire Robert Pattinson is our first cover in china. It’s actually a pretty nice looking magazine, i have to say i’m impressed. http://emag.bundpic.com/

The writer Bret Easton Ellis, shot at his home in West Hollywood. He challenged me “I’m so bored with all the photo shoots done in this house, every conceivable angle has been shot to death. I defy you to shoot an original picture”. Allrighty then! I think it works quite well, particularly the shape of the legs in the frame.

from a shoot with author Daniel Suarez. I highly recommend his book ‘Daemon’, kind of like Matrix meets The Social Network meets War Games. very topical for these web dominated times.

One of the greatest pleasures in this celebrity photography game has to be the time we went to Las Vegas to shoot Tony Curtis. In my opinion, one of the all- time greats, and star of one of the all- time great movies ‘Some Like it Hot’. An absolute classic. But what was even better was discovering what a great guy he was to shoot. Up for anything, as long as it ends in a laugh. He even wanted to take me and my assistant Thomas out on the town to the casinos. Just a great pleasure in this world full of over- inflated ego’s. When I told him he was my mum’s version of Brad Pitt, he insisted I mail some pictures back to him to sign for her. What a guy, and what a sad loss. Rest in Peace Tony.

I was so happy to hear that Graeme McDowell from sunny ‘Norn Irn’ won the US Open this past weekend. It reminded me of a cool shoot I did with him back in 2004 for The Observer Sports Magazine (UK). We spent an afternoon on a Scottsdale, Arizona golf course, just shooting around making pictures, and he was awesome to work with. No publicists, no handlers, just me and him having a laugh. I still can’t play golf though. I guess i never picked up any tips. Anyway, good for you Graeme. I’ve always been keeping an eye on your progress.