I met Gigi a few years ago at a particularly riotous birthday party of a mutual friend. I vaguely remember drinking a different shot for each letter of her name, but I couldn’t say much more than that as our friend is called Natalya.
Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago and I find an email asking if I was free at all to take some pictures of her. Gigi has been creating songs for her current album The Projectionist to raise money for Love Support Unite in Malawi. Each week, a new song appears on Soundcloud and she asked if I would shoot some images as part of the project. There was clearly no way I could refuse, especially when Gigi told me she wanted to shoot film and possibly play with double exposures. That sealed the deal for me.
We spent a wonderful day wandering Hampstead Heath, putting the world to rights and taking portraits. I love shooting film, it’s a completely different feeling to anything else. The noise of the shutter, winding on a shot and then waiting and hoping it all comes out as you see it in your head.
As it started to rain, I still had a few shots left in the Bronica, so I suggested we take refuge in my favourite pub, The Stag. I cheekily asked if we could use the upstairs room to finish our shoot, and was kindly obliged. I had almost forgotten how much I love taking portraits, and this shoot was a reminder to always say yes to something that interests me and to take time to play and experiment with the photographic process.
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