A R Harvey Blog

Anna and Daisy

Between rehearsals for 300 Friends, myself and set designer Jeffrey Michael staged an impromptu photo shoot featuring two of the girls - Anna and Daisy - with one of his lighting creations.

 

300 Friends

Daisy Jo Lucas 

When I grow up I want to be a princess who falls in love
And sleeps on a bed of feathers and butterflies
And be a ballerina and sing songs
And be a mermaid with long blond hair
And leave a trail of breadcrumbs so I never get lost

And be like everyone else
YOU. WILL. BE. HAPPY. 

- 300 Friends

"300 Friends" is the latest play from the Whitespace Theatre Company, directed by Sarah Elaine Stewart.

It could be said that although Disney films and fairy tales undoubtedly inspire young imaginations, they also sow the seeds of disappointment later on in life. Good doesn't always triumph; the best laid plans do not necessarily come to fruition. Come a certain age, most grown ups lay their childish fantasies to bed and surrender themselves to rather more mundane aspirations. Or give up entirely.

And so the play introduces us to six twenty-somethings, each clinging onto a doomed dream that threatens to float off without them. They parade their hopes for others to admire, they talk as if their words alone will somehow bring them closer to fulfillment. Of course, we the audience know better. Such is the luxury of detachment, of sitting on the perimeter looking in.

However we cannot sit as spectators of our own lives - we are right in the thick of it. And just like the characters of the play, we too are hopelessly ill-equipped to judge what is attainable, and what will never be.

Robert Ashford

Anna Gudbrandsdottir

Tom Kirkin

Alice Knapton

Elizabeth Quinn

Elizabeth Quinn, Tom Kirkin and Robert Ashford

Daisy Jo Lucas.

300 Friends set

Jeffrey Michael, set designer.

 
 

Johnny Lazer at Barden's Boudoir

http://www.myspace.com/johnnylazermusic

Barden's Boudoir is buried somewhere on Stoke Newington Road, near a couple of Turkish kebab shops and down a flight of stairs. Girls vastly outnumber boys; they huddle in alcoves and around small tables. Many sport short, boyish hair cuts. The androgyny grows more apparent the closer one looks, and soon little doubt is left as to why I'm the only guy here.

Johnny Lazer finally hits the stage around midnight. The crowd crush in around the platform and suddenly I can feel my camera bashing against someone's leg. I'm now wedged between two floor speakers, right at the front. Nearby a plastic pint sits flat and forgotten - I carefully eye it's position and make a mental note not to spill it.

Johnny Lazer's tunes are defiantly pop, an unflinching challenge to those who believe the genre is still owned by twelve year old girls. "Kaleidoscope" is a colourful tale of fractured love that dips and peaks like a sinister fairground ride. One can almost catch sight of the cracked mirrors and crying clowns as we are whisked by. Meanwhile, "Weekend Waster" is a swaggering panorama of the end times, where the rivers flow with JD and the four horsemen of the apocalypse can be heard galloping across the dance floor.

Credible pop for those old enough to have loved, lost, and who really should know better.

In these photos: Johnny Lazer and Laura Fares (drums).

 

The Canbury Tailor in Idol Magazine

Idol Magazine is a new publication coming out later this year. Last Friday their website finally went live, enjoying over 40,000 hits in just a few days. Did I mention our Canbury Tailor shoot is on the front page! 

The Rob Moore Fan Club

Every now and then I check my web logs to find out where my visitors are arriving from. The other day I followed the breadcrumbs back to a Japanese blog called MensModelsTalk. To my astonishment they had copied all my images from the Rogers Benham menswear shoot and reposted them!

I asked my wonderful Japanese housemate Mariko to translate the annotation:

"I love the situation of the photo and I feel like I will go into a dream world. Sitting on the sofa with the Union Jack cushion, Rob Moore looks like a true English gentleman. I want to just go into the photo, sit next to him!! I bet I am not the only one who feels that way lol"

Awww!

Rob Moore is the handsome chap pictured above, and represented by Select Model. He has a whole section on MensModelTalk devoted just to him.

Needless to say, I am rather flattered - if somewhat surprised - to find my photos living another life on a faraway website... Of course I post them here knowing full well they can be easily copied and repurposed. As computer security guru Bruce Schneier once famously wrote:

"Digital files cannot be made uncopyable, any more than water can be made not wet."