The National Trust is associated in the minds of the vast majority of people with the preservation of old historic houses. But while the NT looks after 300 such houses, its far larger responsibility is the land in its care: 250,000 hectacres and 700 miles of stunningly beautiful coastline. All of which is protected for future generations. So the photography for this ad had to look out of this world. Always a challenging brief.
Greenpeace
Global warming is becoming an increasingly important and urgent problem that we all need to wake up to. While no one can accurately predict the future, scientists are now universally agreed on one thing: rising global temperatures are caused by human activity. And we’re already feeling the consequences. The ten warmest years on record have all occurred since 1997.
Rimowa
Rimowa photographed for Global Luggage is one of their high end brands. These cases are made with true craftsmanship in traditional aluminium and also light weight polycarbonate.I wanted to present the exquisite qualities of this unique brand which has been established since 1898.
Lulu Guinness
A cheeky case from Lulu Guinness photographed for Global Luggage is one of their wide ranges of products. This is a fine example of the brands retro style throughout their range.
Cruel Sports
I care passionately about the welfare of animals and am totally against cruel sports. So I thought I’d use this photograph for this particular charity to create a greater awareness of this barbaric sport. I wanted to give the piece an almost photojournalistic feel of authenticity.
Classic Cars
Footman James is one of the UK’s oldest specialist motor insurers, specialising in classic and vintage cars. Their customers are passionate about their vehicles, so the company wanted to reflect this passion in a series of advertisements with high production values. With this in mind, I decided to shoot the two vehicles in daylight on the beach at Camber Sands. While big skies can work wonders for the lighting, beaches and classic motor vehicles are not the best of bed-fellows. So I had to employ a transporter to place the vehicles exactly where I wanted them and then sweep the sand to remove any traces of tyre tracks. It was a bit of a performance to say the least but what fun and the results created a great feeling of nostalgia with these wonderful vehicles.
Jordan
These press ads promoted Jordan as a tourist destination by featuring the country’s geographical and archaeological highlights (Wadi Rum and Petra) that make it one of the genuine wonders of the world. Capturing this stunning sunset in the blindingly hot desert and cold temperatures of dusk was certainly not the easiest of tasks.
China Daily Campaign
These 48 sheet posters were designed for China Daily, the Chinese newspaper that is now being distributed for free in London. As part of a general awareness campaign, China Daily wanted to gently remind readers that while most of the world’s iconic brands are manufactured in China, one of China’s most popular daily newspapers was being read in the UK. The newspaper has serious plans for Europe and has already invested in an English speaking editorial team here in London.
Diabetes UK Campaign
These pieces formed the front and reverse of a DM piece, along with the cover to a welcome pack, which sat inside. Diabetes UK is the largest charity devoted to Diabetes in the country, and its network of over 300,000 individuals who campaign, help and provide services for all those directly affected by the disease, forms the core of the charity. Diabetes UK raises more than £7 million every year for research and wanted its marketing to reflect the serious nature of this contribution. Until now the charity had relied on a variety of photo library shots. So here was an opportunity to raise the bar and provide a consistent and professional look across all its marketing material.
Vultures & Eagles
Eagle Heights is a falconry and small wildlife centre situated in the pretty village of Eynsford in Kent. It looks after as many as 150 birds at any one time, including eagles, hawks, falcons and some of the world’s rarest vultures. Besides allowing visitors to get close up to these beautiful specimens, the centre holds regular falconry displays – allowing you to admire the remarkable dexterity of these birds in flight and their ability to hone in on small prey from an astonishing distance.
The centre is also actively involved in conservation work through its breeding programmes and promotes education by highlighting the importance of conservation to over 35,000 schoolchildren every year.
The air of excitement and anticipation among the young visitors is something you won’t fail to notice when there’s a school party present. And this sense of excitement and wonder is something I wanted to tap into when creating a series of eye-catching images.
Launch of new website.
My new website has some new and interesting content to catch your eye including my latest commercial. Take a look at www.johnmacphotography.com
Sleeping with the Blackbirds
Original photograph
This is the front cover I photographed for Alex Pearl’s teen novel, ‘Sleeping with the Blackbirds’. The book is a dark, comic tale that comes with a hefty dose of magic realism, so I wanted to create a stylish and moody cover that conveyed something of the fantastical, dream-like nature of the narrative. The shot was taken on Hampstead Heath, which features in the story. I also arranged and oversaw the design of the typography, which was hand drawn by Lyndon Povey. The book is published by Indepenpress and was launched at Waterstones.
Homeless Charity Film
I was asked to photograph the cover to the teen novel ‘Sleeping with the Blackbirds’ by Alex Pearl to raise money for the homeless charity, Centrepoint.
The project got me thinking about the way we perceive homelessness. The stereotypical image of someone with a blanket wrapped around themselves while supping soup from a mug isn’t, I believe, very helpful or insightful.
In a world in which circumstances dictate the way we live, homelessness is something that can very suddenly affect anyone from any walk of life, religion, ethnicity and nationality. You can be living a normal life one moment and then be the victim of a violent relationship, economic recession, illness or crime, the next. Homelessness can and often is the result of such traumatic and unexpected bad fortune.
The more I thought about this, the more I felt it time that homeless charities conveyed this image to the public. So in collaboration with Alex (who’s a copywriter by trade), I set about storyboarding a commercial for Centrepoint that would break all the conventions and stereotypes associated with homelessness.
Fortunately, I knew a French make-up artist who was a very good friend of Sarah-Laure Estragnat (twitter @Sarah_Laure), the talented French actress who was available and keen to take part. She was perfect for the film because she doesn’t look like the clichéd homeless person and she isn’t even English.
I wanted the film to give us a glimpse into the distressing world of an attractive young woman running away from some awful situation that we can only imagine. As she runs we can hear her emotional thoughts in French. I wanted the whole thing to have a film noir look to create even more intrigue. And I wanted to challenge the viewer right up until the end-frame where our end line written in English spells out succinctly what the commercial is all about.
Hopefully, the commercial will make people think twice before they pre-judge the next homeless person they see on the street.