All posts by Laurence Winram

National Theatre of Scotland

Dracula – Nina’s revenge

I’ve been working with theatre companies for many years and I always enjoy the challenge of creating something new. Theatre allows a degree of creativity that’s not so common in some of my other more commercial work and suits my vision to a tee.

Creating a teaser image for the National Theatre’s production of Dracula had one big challenge. As is often the case with theatre projects early on, the main character wasn’t cast but we still needed an image. So how to show a character without showing who it was? A lot of options we looked at involved casting shadows or using movement but all of them I felt would give a rather vague and weak image. Then I remembered a personal series of images I shot 2 years ago using fine plastic sheeting. I showed these to the theatre and the director liked the route. We then looked at a means to suggest a bat and found a library image of one that’s backlit and shows the wings in a beautiful way. I combined the two and cast overlay are colour to add a sense of drama to the image and we found our final shot.

I make this process all sound quite straight forward but it wasn’t and never is. There’s a lot of stumbling around in the dark and worry. I know that that the stumbling around is an essential part of the process but I struggle with the fact that I do find that part stressful. Usually the more stressful and stumbling around I have to do to get there, the better the final image. if only I could get there without all the worry and stress, after all it always works out and that worry is for nothing. This is one of the reasons I speak to students and tell them to face their fears and not be put off by them, it’s a normal part of the creative process. After all these years I still struggle with the stress of it all but recognise it doesn’t mean I can’t do it. I think a lot of the benefits in our lives come when we face our fears and push against that. that’s how we grow.

Portraits of the pandemic

Elson Musenga – Interim foundation doctor

Midway through the pandemic I was commissioned by Edinburgh University to make a series of portraits of 13 individuals that work in or with the university. Each of them was chosen to represent the broad range of people at the university who in one way or another are playing their part to help combat the virus. Their roles are diverse from stores manager to government advisor to intensive care consultant.

Devi Sridhar – Chair of Global Public Health and Director of the Global Health Governance Programme

After some test shooting and much discussion on safety between myself and the university co-ordinators Jen Durkin and Jen Middleton we established a straightforward style that seemed to fit the subject.

I photographed each of them individually in my studio, a bit of a challenge when we had to stay well apart. Trying to relax your subject and adjust a camera is not so easy when your mask is steaming up your glasses and muffling your words. Despite these inconveniences the project was hugely rewarding creatively as well as a being an interesting window into each of their worlds. In the course of shooting I received several personalised mini TED talks on what they were working on. The biggest thing I learned from talking to them is that despite their best efforts just how hard it is to know what the future holds when you’re dealing with a pathogen that’s so new without years worth of data to analyse.

Kenneth Baillie – Intensive Care Consultant a Senior Clinical Research Fellow in Anaesthesia & Critical Care at the Roslin Institute.
Gwenetta Curry – Lecturer of Race, Ethnicity, and Health in the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine
Kev Dhaliwal, Project lead for STOPCOVID
Derek Mills, Stores Manager, IGMM

Large scale prints have been produced of some of the images. These are hung at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh inside the Chancellor’s building foyer. The full collection is to be displayed in the Elsie Ingles lounge soon. You can see all the portraits and read more about each of the subjects on the university blog here.

Hibs Football teams

I was commissioned to shoot the mens Hibs team to showcase their new lineup wearing home and away strips for their newly designed website put together by the agency Whitespace. Adam Wilson the designer from the agency art directed for the two 1/2 days of shooting at the Hibs grounds. They wanted to make use of some stylised lighting that used the team colours so I spent time testing beforehand so we were good to go on the day.

Adam shot some behind the scenes footage. Click on the image below to view.

It was then rightly decided to do the same for the women’s team. Again over two 1/2 days, this time in my studio. Fortunately I’d made a detailed plan of all the lighting and settings from the previous shoot which meant I could exactly match the earlier shots, something I’m always encouraging students to do.

Edinburgh Seven

Prints of this image are available in my Winram Gallery here.

Before lockdown I was commissioned by Edinburgh University medical school to reinterpret Rembrant’s painting, ‘The anatomy lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp’. The university owns a copy painting of this that hangs by their anatomy museum just where we made this photograph. In our version the characters were replaced by all female medical students who represent the very first women students in Britain that were allowed to study medicine 150 years ago at Edinburgh University. Sad to say the women back then were not granted the honour of graduating, something the university rectified at a honorary degree ceremony for them last year.

The original Rembrandt inspiration – The anatomy lesson of Dr. Tulp from 1632

It was a real honour to be involved with a project to help redress this imbalance, something that we need to be ever mindful of when we still live in a world where women’s rights are still being decided by groups of men.

There was a tricky balance to strike to shoot this. I’d have ideally spent several hours on it fine tuning lighting, angles and outfits. But of course we couldn’t take up the space and time of everyone involved indefinitely so the image was pretty much one hour from start to finish. We set it up just outside the anatomy museum next to a giant elephant skeleton which is just out of shot. The robes and props we had were a far cry from perfect but I love the challenge of making the best of what you’ve got. I guess the trickiest part was the fact that the arm was 6 inches short and should have been a left hand, not a right! As well as that I discovered just how many liberties Rembrandt had taken to foreshorten the cadaver and raising the figures at the back, something we had to work around. Several people have since commented on the cadaver looking like Mark Zukerberg and much as I’d like to say it was all an intentional symbol it’s wasn’t!

Trying to overcome some of the technical problems in the recreation.
The women medical students receiving the doctorates last year on behalf of the original Edinburgh seven.

I prefer not to do unnecessary retouching and there’s not much my final version other than colour, texture and grading. I wanted it to look like the Rembrandt but I didn’t want it to be overly stylised, otherwise the key message of the image could get obscured.

There’s an article here in The Scotsman that covers more on the original Edinburgh Seven.

I’ve photographed at this same location many times for the university in the past but also on a personal project.

An image I made at the same location, inspired by the same Rembrandt painting years earlier as part of my Conemen project

This image was also inspired by the Rembrandt painting so it’s pretty ironic I was asked to do this again byJen Middleton from the university when she was unaware of my earlier Conemen version. That first shoot was memorable for having the affable Prof. Gordon Findlater who was at the time head of department show us round. He stayed late so we could shoot and gave us a personal tour of the spooky anatomy museum upstairs which included the skeleton and life mask of body snatcher William Burke, from ‘Burke and Hare’ infamy. It’s generally closed to the public.

I love to work on projects like this but it’s not too often they come up. If anyone out there is inspired and would like me to shoot a project for them, whether it be for a client or just personally I’d love to be kept in mind. When projects are interesting enough the budget is of secondary concern for me.

If you want to see more new work like this then my Instagram feed is the place to see it.

Lecture time

You wait to give a talk to students for months then three come along at once! Strange but true, I’ve just given my third talk with students in the past month or so. I totally loved each one, all for different colleges and universities.

First up was City of Glasgow college where my good friend, fine art photographer and lecture Iain Campbell works teaching the NC and HND photography students. I showed a wide range of work from my personal projects to the commercial and went over any advice I had to help the students find their feet in the industry.

City of Glasgow College photography department

That was pretty much the same agenda for my talk with Jon Lee‘s photography students at Edinburgh College. Jon’s great at bringing in outside photographers to share their unique perspective. I feel almost duty bound to do these talks as when I was a student at Salisbury it was the visiting photographers that really inspired me and made me believe I could become a photographer myself. It was harder back then when you had no online window into that world so those talks were a goldmine on information.

After the talk Jon Lee set up a shot of the lot of us at Edinburgh College

Last up was Napier University where I spoke with photographer and lecturer Sophie Gerrard‘s 4th year photography students about portfolio presentation. More of the talk was focussed on how you get through the door in the first place as this is often the harder step, certainly in the commercial world. Lots of good questions and feedback too.

At Napier university going over a fine art portfolio I showed at Arles

I’d really recommend that folk take their experience and share it freely with the next generation. When I think how much of a difference it made to me back in the day, there’s a real sense of it coming full circle.

Red

Here’s a behind the scenes film of stills campaign I shot for Radisson Red hotels with Teviot a while ago. It was a fantastic project, especially working with such quality models.

I loved the simple quality of light, especially the ring flash fill. It allowed their personalities to dominate. Here’s a few of the edited images.

Radisson Red campaign image
Radisson Red campaign image
Radisson Red campaign image
Radisson Red campaign image

the Skeklers

I was recently put in touch with one Rachel Frost of @thecraftybeggars She is a maker of all things fine and crafted, primarily hats, often for the world of historic re-enactment. She also likes to work on some rather more adventurous fine art projects and we thought we could both work on a project.

This eventually culminated in a shoot of some wonderful Skekler outfits she had created for a workshop she was running in Edinburgh. There’s not much known about the Skeklers or ‘straw men’ but it’s thought to derive from a tradition based in Shetland during Halloween and other celebration periods. There’s a great piece on them in a Document Scotland page that gives a bit more background and showcases a project initiated by Glasgow photographer Gemma Ovens.

Myself and Rachel took her outfits to Yellowcraigs beach as it was a suitable canvas to show something as otherworldly as the Skeklers outfits. My artist friend Hazel Terry and Rachels friend and dancer Sara were up for playing the part.

As well as a grand day with them both I later went with my wife Krista to a darker forest where we created a rather more sinister version around burnt trees. While there a man passed with a Harris Hawk sitting on his arm, it fitted the moment perfectly.

Skeklers in a dark wood
Krista on Skeklers duty in the burnt forest.
Skeklers with a fiddle
Hazel and Sara at Yellowcraigs
two women dressed as Skeklers
Roaming the dunes
Hazel goes full feral

Print Sale!

I’m holding a pop up sale of my fine art photography again today from 4pm -9pm at Knotstressed clinic on Montrose Terrace in Abbeyhill Edinbugh.

some of the prints on sale from my Edinburgh – Dead of Night series

Knotstressed has loads on, including free massage tasters, treats, my wife Krista’s Lazy Fox Pottery and mulled wine. The whole street is involved so there’s lots to check out.

I’m also selling some of my MythosLogos and Shadow series.

And some news…. I’m also looking to have the facility for people to be able to purchase prints direct from my website some time in the near future.

some of my Shadow series

So do come along, even if it’s just to say hello!

The Duchess

‘Pass the blood Ben.’ Delicate work….

Sometimes when you’re given a brief your heart just sinks. Sometimes it beats faster. This was definitely a case of the latter.

I’ve long loved shooting theatre projects and this production was no different. The brief was clear, based on an earlier pre production illustration created by Edinburgh Agency, Do, create a poster image for the Edinburgh Lyceum / Citizens Theatre co-production show showing the principal actor Kirsty Stuart as The Duchess, standing in a pool of blood that’s soaking into her dress.

There was a lot of talk about the best way to do this and I quickly decided that we had to do it for real as far as we could with a natural reflection of her in the blood. You’ll be glad to hear I drew the line at a visit to the butchers. Fortunately Allan Ramsay from the Lyceum turned up at my studio replete with 5 litres of the red stuff, so convincing it was hard to tear your eyes away from it once it spilled out onto the ground. I was relieved it just smelled of sugar, being made of no more than corn syrup and colouring. Before it was poured out I did all the lighting and composition tests so we could focus on getting the blood element right.

the final poster for The Duchess of Malfi at the Lyceum theatre Edinburgh
Photograph of Kirsty Stuart drenched in blood as The Duchess of Malfi performing at Edinburgh’s Royal Lyceum theatre. Photo – Laurence Winram

It took some time to spread around, Kirsty stoically not moving an inch, so when we were finally ready we couldn’t hang about. Kirsty channeled her Duchess perfectly so it didn’t take long to capture the right image. I then just had to shoot the wider edges of the pool of blood and piece it all together.

pool of blood
for the edges

The cleanup was almost as dramatic as the shoot. I hauled the sheet covered in drying blood outside where I could clean it off into the drain. If you’ve not seen it, my car park area is surrounded by the backs of housing, literally hundreds of windows looking down at this. I half expected a visit from the men in blue.

Cleanup

The Duchess sounds pretty epic. It’s a 17th century play, although it’s a new version by Zinnie Harris after John Websterby. Check out the Lyceum info here.

Harris Distillery

More Hebridean adventures, with tea from a 128 year old…..

Here’s a few fun images from my recent jaunt to Harris Distillery on the Outer Hebrides. This year my wife Krista came along for a ‘holiday’ and to maybe help out ‘just a wee bit’. Didn’t quite happen that way. She was with me for most of the trip dangling lights off boats, running away from monster waves and hauling gear around warehouses. Still it’s always a pleasure to meet up with the Hearachs again and introduce Krista. It may be a job but I’m meeting with folk that are more friends than clients. Myself and Krista had some fine adventures with even a bit of time at the end for a trip down to Rodel and then over to Skye for a few days.

Lewis McKenzie brings in the sea kelp. An essential ingredient of Harris Gin. Lewis has a huge knowledge of the crop which has recently been under threat of being commercial dredged, a ruinous practice. 
One of the locals takes a sniff of the Harris gin at Hushinish beach 
storms one minute….
blue skies the next….
Kenny checking out the peat supplies that will be used to give the Harris whisky it’s smokey flavour
New distiller Norman Ian with his bairns on Luskintyre beach
looking very at home on Hushinish beach.
The design of the bottle was inspired by the beautiful patterns you get on Harris beaches.
Harris is a truly otherworldly place. Where else will you get to see waterfalls running backwards? Probably around a 60mph wind out there.
I can never resist the view of the Clisham from Aird Asaig. 
Managing director of Harris distillery, Simon Erlanger, travels from Stornoway down to Harris on his classic bike, and on a day that’s not raining! Simon doesn’t like the rain. 
Lewis trying not to look like a kelp monster
Stevie with a traditional peat cutting tairsgear.
Guardian of the Clisham, with the new distillery warehouse in the background.
Production manager Kenny Maclean checking the stock at Aird Asaig
Billy filling the Dottach for another distillation of Harris gin. Just a 72 hour process end to end. A wee bit quicker than the 5-10 years it takes for whisky to be ready! It’s been one of their best decisions to have added gin production to the distillery, it created an almost instant income stream thats been many times more successful than anticipated.
Days I love my job, no. 4.
The legendary Temple cafe down in Northton, wonderful food and atmosphere. Sadly about to close.
….just along from Croft 36, what an amazing concept.  A shop all done on trust, just help yourself and leave your payment. Wonderful pies and soup to be had.
Inside St. Clements, the 15th century church in Rodel on our day off. Such an amazing place.
My favourite moment on Harris…. Down the Golden Road we stopped at this ‘cafe’ (a church hall selling soup and toasties on Tuesdays and Saturdays). There was the sweetest old lady managing things. I asked her how long she’d been there, she stopped to think for a while, raised  her finger and said proudly, ‘since 1908!’ I’d just love to think it might be true, but she did eventually rectify it to 2008. Love it!

Royal Scottish Academy Open Exhibition 2018

Royal Scottish Adademy Open Exhibition photography by Laurence Winram

So, much as I should, I never seem to get around to exhibiting my work, it just ends up Facebook and Instagram or my website and thats it. Well I challenged that and submitted a couple of favourite Mythoslogos images into the RSA Open Exhibition 2018 which is held every year their beautiful centrepiece gallery on the Mound in Edinburgh. I’m pleased that both got accepted and I even managed to sell a couple on the same day. It’s really a wonderful exhibition of very diverse and skilled work from a huge pool of artists so I was delighted to be involved. It fairly got my thoughts turning and I’m determined to do more exhibiting.

It’s on until the 25th of July 2018 so do get along and catch it before it’s over, it’s free to enter and has a damn fine cafe and shop to boot..

Royal Scottish Adademy Open Exhibition photograph Hazel Flew, with Hazel Terry. edition of 20 by art photographer Laurence Winram

Royal Scottish Adademy Open Exhibition photography by Laurence Winram. Watching, two men on ladders on Rannoch Moor

Royal Scottish Adademy Open Exhibition 2018photography by Laurence Winram sold framed print

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European Stone Stacking Championships 2018

The other day I found a box of beautiful stones I’d taken off the beach 20 years ago. I decided to finally let them go, so left them them outside at the foot of a tree in the field by the house. Just a few days later quite by chance I found myself joining in at a stone stacking championships at the beach in Dunbar. I’d occasionally liked to create Andy Goldsworthy style pieces with stones but never put much thought into it. Watching the competitors on the first day make some amazing artworks, I thought what the hell! It looks too much like fun and I saw that there were several other total novices that were having a go. So the next day I found myself along with about 25 others, trying to see how many stones I could stack in 20 minutes. As soon as I started I realised it’s totally addictive. I had our dog with me so couldn’t join in the 2 hour artistic creation part but come hell or high water I will have a go next year.

It was all very low key, just in it’s third year and organised by one James Craig Page, a Dunbar artist and stone stacker himself. Check out the event website… The overall winner Pedro Duran, who also won last year and wins a flight to the world championships in Texas. It seemed all the winners are old friends but it was good to see some locals also get placed. Very inspired by John Earnshaw who drove up from Lancashire to compete despite being a total novice. He, like me, just wanted to have a go. I loved that it was such a friendly event. The artworks seemed to invite folk to chat with strangers around them and I met so many nice people.

It’s not very widely advertised and it needs proper publicity so I hope this might encourage a few more folk to come along next year. Now I’m just heading out to find my pile of beautiful stones and take them back in the house. Got to get practicing!

Dunbar Beach on the European stone stacking championships 2018
Dunbar Beach

winners of the european stone stacking championships 2018 Dunbar beach
some of the winners from 2018; SP Ranza, Pedro Durán, Rocío Agar Marco and James Brunt

James Craig Page with the judges, admiring Rocia Agar's work 2018
Host James Craig Page with the judges, admiring Rocia Agar’s work

Jonathon Kitching, down from Aboyne to compete

Novice stone stacker John Earnshaw up from Lancashire

John Earnshaw stone stacking
first time novice John Earnshaw’s spiral

SP Ranza - most stones stacked.
winner of the most stones stacked (29) by SP Ranza

James Brunt stone stacking
James Brunt’s impressive stack of 28

most stones stacked at European stone stacking championships 2018
My own, most stones stacked effort. 24 stones but the top two blew off!

James Brunt

Marco Monesini stone stacking
Part of Marco Monesini’s work

stone stacking at Dunbar beach
by Neil Andrews, another competitor from Lancashire

Pedro Duran stone stacking
Part of Pedro Duran’s winning work

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Do try the Bacon and Saville

I recently visited the Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh, a regular haunt. They are currently showing some incredible work by the acclaimed Scottish artist, Jenny Saville I remember her work when she first gained wide recognition over 20 years ago but hadn’t seen much for years. I was totally blown away and would recommend a visit. You really need to see the images in their larger than life scale to appreciate them. The wild textural style seems at odds with the subtlety of the overall final painting from a distance.

While there I saw some of the Francis Bacon images they hold in their permanent collection. I’ve always loved the abstraction in his work and like Saville I’m so impressed that brush strokes so seemingly wild can result in art so nuanced. I’ve always felt a little frustrated that those contradictory qualities are harder to capture in photography. I have been playing around with light from a projector and I calculated I could use it’s qualities to allow more unpredictability and abstraction into my work . I’ve never seen anyone else using light in quite this way and was unsure if my late night pondering on the technique would come to anything.

I first tried lighting a moving model during a long exposure in the studio and liked the outcome, especially the lack of control over what the final image would look like. I then tried shooting a self portrait, largely for the want of a suitable (slightly!) craggy face that would work well for this approach. All rather hard to do while holding the camera at the same time! All this from a man who can’t abide ‘the selfie’. The self portrait has a look of something highly edited but I love that this image is straight from the camera unedited other than a crop. The rather wild look of the image is captured raw in both senses! A couple of days later I was shooting a theatre image for my friend Matthew Zajac and managed to sneak in another projector portrait of him at the end of our shoot.

I’m not sure where all this might lead, I’m always inclined to jump around stylistically but I really enjoyed the lack of control  inherent within the process which I think allows more to come from the sitters in that moment. Anything that challenges your normal practices, especially after 30 tears of shooting is very welcome. I also just love to play!

Jenny Saville style photograph of a reclining nude in a studio

Baconesque self portrait

Matthew with Patricks shoes

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Subterranean Magic

Playing with fire, with Kirsty Whiten

Kirsty appearing as Tatwari, god of fire.

The fire cave

Kirsty in the cave 

A good while back I saw a couple of amazing paintings at the RSA in Edinburgh. A friend of mine introduced me to the artist, one Kirsty Whiten. She specialises in powerful surreal images, ritualistic, symbolic paintings I felt strongly drawn to. We ended up meeting and got along. I persuaded her to appear in one of my photographs. Loving her work I wanted to reference it in my own image somehow. She invited me up to her amazing home studio in Fife then on for a traipse around some local spots Kirsty thought might be a good location for a picture. Eventually we ended up in an amazing forest that was full of sink holes and mini caves in Blebo woods. This seemed like the perfect location to capture something otherworldly. The elemental quality of the location made me decide to use fire in the image. We took a couple of test shots in a shallow cave and headed home.

The forthcoming shoot was in my mind to the extent I ended up dreaming about it. In my dream the location was different, in a much deeper cave with a lower cave within the main cave that was full of people that we had to negotiate with before being able to take the photograph. When we arrived back at the location for the shoot Kirsty mentioned that there was a second cave nearby if I wanted to see it. We ended up heading over and as soon as I stepped inside I was surprised to see the cave you see, one with a deeper lower cave at the back, just like in my dream. Naturally we ended up taking the images in there.

The smell and atmosphere in the cave made it one of the most otherworldly and intense places I’ve ever shot in, even more so when we began to light up the balls of fire. It’s a tricky process all about subtle timing but that intensity helped in a way. As well as Kirsty portrayed as Tatwari, ‘a god of fire and shaman of ancient times,’ I took a couple of other images of her as well as the cave alone which is the one I keep getting drawn back to.

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Not so Common

Now it’s been officially released I can let you have a peek at an extremely fun shoot I was commissioned to do for the Royal National Theatre’s production of Common back in January. It stars Anne-Marie Duff as Marianne and is set around 1800. They wanted to portray it in period and on location. Logistically it was decided to shoot it in London so I had an assistant recce  a few spots that would give us that wilderness look without an epic amount of travel. So thats how I ended up getting the sleeper down from Edinburgh to be picked up by assistant Keir then off to Chingford Plain on a chilly morning in the first week of January.

There I met up with Liam Relph and Ollie Wisner the creative team at NT. We stomped about and found the right location before Anthony turned up with his mighty fine crows fresh from a stint with Doctor Who. After a good while for costume, hair and make-up I got to meet Anne-Marie out in the field. Straight away it was apparent she’s very down to earth and great to work with. We took shots in a couple of locations , which took a while as I had to cater for  the dread, ‘side of a bus’ and ‘drop banner’ crops, every photographers nightmare!. That’s why the shot below is a stitch of about 6 shots to cater for the huge crops.

Apart from the laptop dying of cold half way through we had no mishaps. The crows performed right on cue every time which helped reduce much need to photoshop elements after. Anthony even had a choice of crow if we wanted one to fly, flap wings or just sit still. I made the shoot much less stressful than I anticipated. I think thats ‘Flamingo’ on her arm.

It’s not on till May but if you want to see it here’s the link https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/shows/common#production-story

Anne-Marie Duff in the National Theatre's Common
Anne-Marie Duff as Marianne in the National Theatre’s Common

GRY-Nat-Theatre-Common-095
Assistant Keir providing me with blue screen assets – or is it an i-D magazine shoot?

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Anthony Bloom with one of his crows
Anthony Bloom with one of his finely trained crows

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Ollie Winser directs the birds

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Angel (NSFW)

Angel

Been busy with commercial work in the second half of last year and got a bit frustrated at a lack of personal projects being ready to go. Especially over the Christmas holiday with so much free time. So I decided to do a few more in my nudes series as it’s so quick to put together and still a highly creative process. I planned a shoot with a model who shall remain nameless, who decided to bow out late the night before. Then totally by chance another model announced she was free, in Edinburgh the next day and would I like to shoot? Curious that her model name is ‘Angel’.

I had always planned to try out more experiments with projecting images. It’s tricky as even with a fancy powerful projector the light level is remarkably low requiring high iso and wide aperture, not the usual favourite of photographers unless you’re looking for that. Regardless I like the results and will continue the series some more. I’d love to be able to use flash with projected images but I’ve never heard of a system that allows it. Anyone?

Nude B+W woman with projected dots in the studio
Nude B+W woman with projected dots in the studio

nude woman in studio with projector light
nude woman in studio with projector light

nude woman in studio with projector light
nude woman in studio with projector light

nude woman in studio with projector light casting stipes
nude woman in studio with projector light casting stipes

nude woman lit with a lightening stripe projector in a studio. Black and white art nude
nude woman lit with a lightening stripe projector in a studio. Black and white art nude

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Shetland

Shetland

So I’ve been shooting an ongoing project for several months. A lovely commission to shoot many award winning apprentices for Skills Development Scotland. This recently involved a road trip up to Inverness then onto Aberdeen and then a hop over to Shetland. I’m not long back and can’t yet share any of the images from that shoot as the campaign isn’t up and running yet. However, I did manage to have a few hours spare at the end of the Shetland shoot before flying home.  I asked some locals where the most dramatic bit of coastline was within an hours drive. They pointed me in the direction of Eshaness in the north so thats where I headed with my camera.

I realise now I never quite arrived there, after 50 minutes of driving across a beautiful barren landscape of deserted homes and sporadic colourful villages I turned a corner and found the bay overlooking Hillswick from Urafirth. It was so beautiful and dramatic looking into the light that I was happy to stop there, get out and explore. To be honest I didn’t at the time know if this was Eshaness or not, what with no mobile reception and scant road signs. With the wild remoteness of it all it seemed fitting not to know quite where I was.

I wandered down past a abandoned house complete with a very creepy pair of children shoes left at the end of the road, like something out of an Edgar Allen Poe story. I wondered if it was something thats done to mark an abandoned home, then realised I was being too dramatic and it was probably just a forgotten pair of shoes. Spooky and poignant all the same.

I walked along the clifftops for an hour or so with a wild wind forcing foam and rain up the wall of the cliff into my face and lens, then the clouds would part and it would be perfect sunshine for a minute before returning to a torrent of rain again, then back to sun again, over and over. I found my eyes constantly being drawn to the Jagged rocks breaking the surface of the sea in the distance, the light changing the same view dramatically every few minutes.

I had a two hour drive back to Sumburgh for my flight and managed to check my bags,  just allowing time to take the hire car down to visit the coastline by the monumental lighthouse nearby. Despite being the most notable spots to visit I saw not another soul out walking,  the only tourist about I was aware of was me.

Definitely have to go back and spend more time exploring. It’s bleak and barren quality is weirdly compelling and Lerwick has some beautiful wee corners. The whole island is a photographers dream.

Looking across to Hillswick from Urafirth
Looking across to Hillswick from Urafirth

Lerwick. Like it's a perfect Scottish town film set!
Lerwick. Like it’s a perfect Scottish town film set! The locals really do wear fair isle jumpers and sport enormous non hipster beards.

To enter or exit Sumburgh airport you have to drive over the runway!

shetlands-dramatic-coastline-gra_9009
Sumburgh lighthouse at the extreme south of Shetland.

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looking west from Sumburgh in the last light.

The rather creepy childs shoes.
The rather creepy childs shoes i found in the long grass.

shetlands-dramatic-coastline-gra_8694
Here be monsters.

Lots of lonely isolated houses, many unoccupied.
Lots of lonely isolated houses dot the landscape, many unoccupied.

Shadow Double Exposures

Shadow

I just added a few of my remaining Shadow double exposure portraits to my website so I just thought Id mention it on my blog. I haven’t really done more work on this in quite a while but there are a few that haven’t been added to the site and every now and then I think of an idea and will often return to the basic portraits and try to combine them with something different. That produced the shot of Anaa-Lena with the feather Head dress. I  felt it suited a much more muted tone too, sometimes I feel my images are too literal and I just can’t stop experimenting. I know that can mean it’s hard to maintain a single consistent style but for me that comes second to the pure creative process. If it feels right to me it goes in.

See the whole series on the website here http://commercial.lwinram.com/personal-projects/shadow/BLUE8854-3-Mihaela-as-Cerynitis/

Prints of many are available on Artfinder or contact me by email

Double exposure female nude of Anna Lena with feather head dress
Double exposure female nude of Anna Lena with feather head dress

nude double exposure of a woman with branches
nude double exposure of a woman with branches

nude girld double exposure with building
nude girld double exposure with building

double exposure nude of a woman with fabric
double exposure nude of a woman with fabric

double exposure nude of a woman with a metal structure
double exposure nude of a woman with a metal structure

Ben Turner

Ben Turner

I took shots for the Lyceum Theatre’s production of the Iliad a while back and Ben asked if I’d take a few shots of him when I had time and he was still up here. We managed to squeeze in a quick session at the end of the run of the play. I knew he’d be a good subject after our rushed poster shoot, he’s an intense person and thats how I like them!

I shot him with dramatic lighting and a harsh process, rather in a similar style to the great Anton Corbin. It gives a Lith printing feel to the shots.

_RY_0126 _RY_0250 _RY_9922

Roarie Yum

Roarie Yum

I was recently contacted by Roarie, a free spirited world wandering model and creative muse. She would be in the UK and did I want to work with her? She herself picks the people she wants to work with and her motivation is first and foremost the creative process and will readily turn down a photographer if she isn’t inspired by their work. I’ve never worked with a model quite like her before but loved the edgy energy she brought to the shoot. She’s constantly on the move and is full of ideas and where I find I’m often trying to create a certain edge in images, with Roarie it was more like trying to contain her intensity.

I’m all too aware that shooting nudes can be a bit of a cliche but the process of working on this theme has been one of the most creatively satisfying projects I’ve worked on. I love that there’s nothing to clutter the image, just form and light, it feels like when I used to do life drawing with a huge piece of charcoal and work really fast. I love the speed and freedom. No clients, no brief, just pure creativity and beauty.

Prints for sale on Artfinder https://www.artfinder.com/winram or direct. studio@lwinram.com

Roarie Yum seated nude with stripes projected on her naked body
Roarie Yum seated nude with stripes projected on her naked body

Roarie Yum holding up a hare mask. Spotlight in the dark
Roarie Yum holding up a hare mask. Spotlight in the dark

Nude - Roarie V Roarie VI Nude - Roarie XI

Miranda

Miranda

I had the pleasure of shooting a wonderful Glasgow based model, the eclectic Miranda. Amount other things she’s a fine art student and a life model.  This really helps me when I’m exploring slightly offbeat themes. She was as enthusiastic as me about what we were trying to achieve and brought her own form of creativity to the shoot. I thought she had the perfect expression to capture that certain mythical, feral look I had imagined. To be honest I based the shoot on her look. I’m hoping we can shoot together more in the future.

nude female model as mythical god cerynitis with the shadow of antlers
nude female model as mythical god cerynitis with the shadow of antlers

nude female model as mythical god cerynitis with the shadow of antlers
nude female model as mythical god cerynitis with the shadow of antlers

nude female model as mythical god cerynitis with the shadow of antlers
nude female model as mythical god cerynitis with the shadow of antlers

nude female model as mythical god cerynitis with antlers
nude female model as mythical god cerynitis with antlers

The Iliad

Ben Turner as Achillies at Lyceum Theatre
Ben Turner as Achillies at Lyceum Theatre

The Iliad – and the question of art direction

I recently shot these images for The Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh’s production of Homers The Iliad. It’s Mark Thomson’s Final show as artistic director there and quite the epic to end on.

Right from the start I pictured a form of multiple exposures to show the main characters in not overly dramatic poses but also showing the chaos they create by the use of blood. I could see it in my mind but I couldn’t show it to the client in advance. Fortunately, Ben Jeffries, Director of Communications at the theatre, was trusting enough to let me try this approach. This is hugely appreciated! It highlighted to me the lack of faith I feel there can be in photographers abilities to bring their own vision to bear on a creative project that all too often can be entirely art directed in advance of any communication with the photographer themselves. There are times I feel it would be more appropriate to don a white lab coat in the exercise of ‘now copy this,’ style of uncreative art direction. The best course is a balance, bringing the ideas of the art director at the early stages of a project to the photographer to see how their creativity together can help create something greater than the sum of the parts. Often a final photograph is the best idea of a non photographer. I wouldn’t dream of telling a designer how to layout their page, it’s not my speciality. So why does it happen the other way around!

Poster for The Iliad at Lyceum Theatre by Homer. Ben Turner as Achillies, Helen by Ameira Darwish and Thetis by Melody Grove
Poster for The Iliad at Lyceum Theatre by Homer. Ben Turner as Achillies, Helen by Ameira Darwish and Thetis by Melody Grove

America Darkish as Helen in the Iliad at Lyceum Theatre
America Darkish as Helen in the Iliad at Lyceum Theatre

Melody Grove as Thetis at Lyceum Theatre
Melody Grove as Thetis at Lyceum Theatre

Conemen exhibited in Doha Qatar

Conemen ride again

Yay! Just opening tonight, (12th March 2016) is the New York Times Art for Tomorrow conference being held in Doha Qatar. Louise Hunter from Summerhouse media was kind enough to invite me to exhibit there alongside some world class artists. All the framed prints were collected the other day and shipped out.

I’m showing five of my Conemen images as well as The Watchers (from Mythoslogos). Sad not being able to attend but hope the work is well received.01The-Watchers-Laurence-Winram- 02Conemen I-Laurence-Winram- 03Conemen IV-Laurence-Winram- 04Conemen III-Laurence-Winram- 05Conemen-Dragons-III-Laurence-Winram- 06Conemen-Dragons-II-Laurence-Winram-

Saving the World!

Saving the World isn’t just for the movies!

Being a photographer you used to being asked to do some pretty daft things. But when I was called up by Jim Swan at the Leith Agency to discuss a shoot that involved a car blowing up on behalf of the Scottish Government  I was a little surprised and well interested. When I saw the visuals I loved the environmental concept and the film poster style of the campaign, something that suited my more theatrical approach to photography.

I did start the process of researching literally blowing a car up, which no matter who you are, let’s admit it, we all want to do! However, the client wanting to use a £70,000 Mercedes lead us down the retouch route.

The shoots themselves were relatively straight forward, especially after getting my assistant Elliot and friend Mihaela to run through the actors rolls with banana and croissant in hand as well as getting Elliot swinging around in a harness. That meant I was all prepped for lighting and the crucial comping angles to match the backgrounds. Thanks to Sarah Lauder for her epic production skills!
greener-banana greener-car
saving-the-world-washing-machine-L-Winram-1