Midnight Sun

I’ll tell you something – if you want to meet loads of really interesting, diverse, amusing, unusual, beautiful humans, get yourself a camera. The camera is a passport to the world of other people, people are never the same, so no shoot is ever the same – variety is the spice of life. In the last two weeks alone I have photographed 19 different individuals, and individual they are.
Highlights of the last couple of weeks have been photographing Thurston Arrowsmith (below) at his hideaway allotment garden in the north of the Isle of Man and entertainer, Beckii Cruel (above), someone I’ve wanted to photograph for quite some time. Beckii is particularly popular in Japan – Beckii on YouTube 

“If I don’t do it this year, I’m never going to do it…” – Michael Cooke

Next week, Friday the 13th actually, I’m leaving my home on the Isle of Man to start an epic 6000 mile round road-trip to Nordkapp in the far north of Arctic Norway. I’ll be documenting, and co-driving, Michael Cooke on what is, for both of us, the road-trip of a lifetime. The original plan was to drive up to the Arctic Circle, turn round, and come back, but if you’re going to do a trip like this, you may as well do it properly…it’s like walking to Everest Base-camp – I’d want to carry-on all the way to the top, to be honest!
In 1991 Mike was diagnosed with FacioScapuloHumeral muscular dystrophy, or simply muscular dystrophy, a muscle wasting disorder, Mike (below) is confined to a wheelchair for most of the time. A few months ago I described Mike as ‘disabled’, he was quick to point-out that what he actually is is ‘less able bodied’, which he is, there’s not a lot he can’t do that a ‘more able bodied’ person could do. Something Mike can’t really do is drive 6000 miles on his own, which is why he asked me to join him, the only slight downside is that the car we are taking is wheelchair adapted, so when I’m at the wheel, I’ll be driving from a wheelchair, but Mike assures me that he has been making the seat more comfortable. I’ll believe it when I feel it.

I’m going to do my best to update this blog while I’m away, however, the further north we go, the less internet we get. What we do get more of is daylight, 24 hours a day of the stuff, for most of the trip.