Music Portraiture Research (Nick Pickles)

Photography Research





Nick Pickles is a London-based freelance photographer who travels across the country to cover gigs, festivals and events for a wide range of clients.

He currently works as the house music photographer at Wembley Arena, and in the past year has been comissioned by clients including Red Bull, the BBC, EMI, Disney, The Fly and many more.


He also won the 2011 Rock Archive Glastonbury photo competition. His previous roles have included being the house photographer at the 02 Academy Leeds for two years. He contributes to several major agencies including Getty Images, WireImage, Retna and WENN. His work has been used in a host of national and international publications, by bands for artwork and marketing materials and for private exhibitions.




While he does specialise in live music photography, he has also done a range of corporate work, portraiture, reportage and commercial photography for numerous clients. Some examples of this work can be found on the site in the other projects section.

Music Portraiture Research (Ami Barwell)

Music Photography

Ami Barwell has been shooting within the music industry for the past 13 years. Striking and atmospheric, honest & sexy; her photographs seek out and capture their subjects’ soul. Her photography encapsulates the true spirit of rock ‘n’ roll – passion, emotion, sex, sweat and soul.

Her amazing raw talent and gritty rock ‘n’ roll style has recently seen Ami in demand on fashion, commercial, advertising and style campaigns; working with Ben Sherman, Wella Shockwaves, Buddhist Punk and British Hairdresser of the Year.

Ami is one of main photographers that I want to have a style similar to. I like her photos as she manages to get a real performance look even though it's all done in a studio. This is a really nice style as it manages to capture everything that the artist loves.

Music Portraiture Evaluation

Evaluation

I think overall my photo shoots went really well. I managed to get some really good pictures and the music students are really happy with them, that alone makes me happy as well as I know that the pictures are good enough for them to use to publicise their music.

My studio pictures went quite well and my music student Ali was pleased with them and said they were 'really good'. All the lighting was in the right place most of the time but there was sometimes a problem with it; it wouldn't flash in sync with the camera for some reason, this seemed to happen to everyone but it wasn't too much of a problem in the end.

My location pictures were the best as they, in general came out the best in the end and lots of people have said they are 'amazing' including, of course the music student Sam. There was a little bit of a problem with the initial photo shoot as we had trouble with transport so it had to be called off. Luckily the next time we did it everything went smoothly although the drum kit was a little bit difficult to carry to and from the place we had to go to.

In general I really liked the outcome of everything, even though I didn't like the studio shots that much; they came out good anyway. I did however find out that I really like taking pictures on location and am better at doing it as well.

Music Portaiture - Final Pictures (Sam)

Music Portraiture - Final Pictures (Ali)

Book Cover Project - Cover Ideas

Book Covers

 

 

This (right) was my first idea for a book cover. I took a picture of some kind of metal shed in an alleyway near the college which had rusted away and a few writings and drawings had been scratched into it. It's good because it could be anywere but it makes you think it's in the city and because even though no one is in the picture there is still evidence of people being there before.

This (left) was my second idea for the Invisible Man book cover. I took a picture of a part of Ipswich's skyline from the roof of a car park in town. It's good because it's in black and white so it looks similar already to pictures from the time it's set in. It's also a bit wet and miserable so links to the type of book it is.

Book Cover Project - Final Cover