Yesterday I headed over to Martin Figura’s house to do a photoshoot for my new show, The Petty Concerns of Luke Wright. I have had various ideas for this shoot, but in the end I decided to go for something classic and simple. The show title is pretty general; it’s essentially just about me (even though the content is quite specific) so we figured it would be fitting to just go for a portrait shot.
Martin’s really good at catapulting people. He’s the first photographer I’ve worked with who I think really captured me. Or perhaps he’s just the first photographer I’ve worked with who’s had something to work with. I’m so baby-faced there isn’t much personality to come out. However, in the last year or two I’ve started to look a little more weather-beaten. In fact I look more and more like a bullfrog everyday.
When you go with a simple portrait a lot is reliant on how you look. Looking all young and fresh faced might be good for fashion shoots but it’s rubbish if you’re a writer. Ideally you wanna look more like this:
than this:
With that mind I thought I’d spice them up a little. Given the whole poet/bleeding heart cliche we tried a few shots with me holding an actual heart (an ox’s heart to be precise, I managed to get one the day before from our local organic butchers). I’ve yet to decide whether they worked or not. I’ll post them up here when Martin gets them to me. It’s dependent on whether the heart actually looks like a heart or not to the average passer-by, otherwise the shot will just say: “look at this twat, he’s holding some meat.” Which, on reflection, would have been a better show title. Hmm, I wonder, is it too late?
Anywho, it was fun. I really like Martin, despite about 25 years age difference we get on brilliantly, really similar sense of humour and we’re into the same sort of things music/books wise. He’s a poet as well as a photographer, and a member of The Joy of Six poetry collective. Check them out.
After the shoot we headed down to the Scout Hut on Gloucester Street in Norwich to see The Librarian Girls, who are my mate Sooz and her sister Georgia. Sooz is a lovely songwriter with a beautiful voice. Every time I see her play I get excited and consider quitting the old poetry and dedicating myself to trying and getting her a record contract. But then I remember I wouldn’t know how to do that other than texting my old school mate Jon who works with Keane saying: “you should hear this new band.” I don’t think that would work.
“The Scout Hut” is a genuine scout hut which by the looks of things hasn’t been touched since the seventies. It provided a suitably ironic retro backdrop for the lo–fi indie acoustic duos and their teeny bopper fans - the skinny jeaned floppy-fringed bum-fluff boys and their floral dress wearing, doe-faced Mini-Allens. I looked like a nice gig, but it made me feel about 104 so we left after LG and went to the York Tavern, which was the home of Aisle16’s poetry club for many years. Yanny Mac and briefly reminisced over being interview by Simon from Eastenders on a band stand in 2003. Ahh, happy days.
