Alex Eveleigh shoots work for the Editorial with Moving Image module
23rd January 2023
Graphic design is a huge passion of mine, and in particular I love making album covers, so I jumped at the chance to make an album cover as a part of the course. I had received a commission from the band Faraday Birdcage (first ep pending) to create an album cover for them earlier that year. On a holiday in Wales I encountered a very generous artist who upon hearing about my commission allowed me to borrow his (responsibly sourced) bird skull. So yes, that is a real skull, and yes it is a little weird to hold. I created the following album cover with a makeshift studio in my office, a lot of photoshop work, and some fun with a scanner to create textures.
In addition to the album covers I made a banner that could be used for Spotify, billboards, or website banners using the same process.
Following a visit from the art director for Superdry to explain the brief we were set, I planned a seaside shoot to fit the summer theme. I felt at the time this would have the best chance of getting a summer feel when it was definitely not summer. Module scheduling, and eventually train strikes, put a wrench in this plan. I was faced with a choice, take some great photos but have them out of season, or take some mediocre photos and try and fake the season.
I chose the former and set out on a 70/80s rollerblading shoot, embracing the vibrant colours of fall and my local environment, second hand Sony cassette boom box in hand I got from eBay for cheap. I embraced the film simulations available on my Fujifilm cameras as a starting point for my post production work and enhanced the final images with refined colour processing, photoshop fog and lighting affects, and some copy to top it off.
After discovering my local bar was having a cover band night for My Chemical Romance and Fall Out Boy I became interested in documenting the evening and the performance.
A friend had contacts with the band Mad by Mourning, who were playing that night and I managed to get their permission to shoot the event as their photographer for the evening. This was the first time I’ve ever shot a live music event so I did a lot of research into other photographers who made their livings off shooting concerts.
Armed with a wealth of references, an overheating camera, and dubious back stage credentials I showed up to shoot Mad by Mourning, resulting in the following photos, and a slight headache from having my skull rattled by the massive guitar amp sitting just a foot from my head as I knelt in front of the stage.
