An early morning with Matt Creer

For the second time in about three years, I’ve been working with Matt Creer, shooting the artwork for his latest album. I liked the photographs we made in back then, which I shot on digital. However, we are both in agreement that these recent images, shot on film, unquestionably have a depth and an almost fourth dimension that the 2014 shots lacked.

Photo sessions with Matt are always enjoyable, despite the odd 5am start; in a city, this wouldn’t represent a problem, but on the Isle of Man the first available coffee outlet doesn’t open its doors until 7am. Most importantly, Matt never asks, “Why?”, he has total faith in my ideas – any photographer who has worked with a musician who art directs their own shoot will know exactly what I mean…

A former student of the Royal College of Music, London, Matt has featured numerous times on BBC 6 Music, BBC Radio Scotland, BBC Radio Ulster, BBC Radio Lancaster and various commercial Radio Stations across the UK and Ireland. Matt has also performed in some of the world’s leading orchestras and ensembles and recently played the role of Jesus in “Jesus Christ Superstar”. The Manx singer-songwriter’s music merges folk traditions, with warm, rich, layered arrangements inspired by his classical background that has created a sound all of his own. His 2015 album “The Leeward Tide” reached number 17 in the iTunes singer-songwriter chart on the first day of release.

All of Matt’s images were made using a variety of film stock – Kodak Portra 400 and Ektar 100, Fuji Superia 400 and expired Fuji Reala 100 in 35mm, 6×4.5cm and 6x7cm formats. The film was developed and scanned at the excellent Canadian Film Lab