Heavy Music Awards Nomination

On Monday the 20th of January 2020 I woke up after a long night of traveling home, from London after photographing a band I love, to an email I thought I’d honestly never get.

I was nominated as one of the Heavy Music Awards Young Photographer Of The Year Awards. This has been one of my goals for the past 3 years as I’ve entered each year since I started university but never got through until now.

I’m alongside 5 other fantastic photographers, some of which I’ve looked up for a while and others who are new discoveries for me. I always draw inspiration from fellow photographers so the competition has given me more connections within my work.

I have just under 2 weeks to pull in as many votes as possible, and the prize if I win is a studio session mentored by the legendary Paul Harries, who is the Kerrang! photographer and one of my biggest inspirations to this day.

Knowing that Paul actually looked at my photograph and thought it was good enough to make it to the final 6 photographs is an honour within itself. The photo that was chosen is CJ (Dreamstate) performing at Burn It Down Festival in Torquay last year. It was my highlight of the year as during the festival I suffered an injury to my wrist during a heavy band, so when I came to the front to photograph Dreamstate they actually pulled me to the stage to shoot their set as they say the injury and didn’t want me in the crowd, so their kindness made this shot possible and I’m forever grateful to be able to work with such amazing bands like Dreamstate.

I’m truly blown away with the response I’ve had via social media since the nomination was announced, feeling the love for sure!

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If you’d like to take a moment out of your day to vote for me (no sign up required) you can do so below.

Link To Vote For Me

Thank you for your support throughout this experience, good luck to everyone who’s been nominated and I can’t wait for the event in London in May this year.

Here’s to 2020

Top 5 bands at Burn It Down Festival 2019

I was asked back to photograph the second instalment of Burn It Down Festival in Torquay. Last years event Was brilliant. I got the chance to photograph bands like Mallory Knox, Dream State and Arcane Roots.

The line-up this year had some fantastic bands like Basement, Loathe, Haggard Cat, Black Peaks, Dream State loads of which I’ve had the pleasure of photographing before and a few new bands for me to photograph.

The event had three stages across three venues. The Signature Stage which was at The Apple & Parrot. The The main stage was the Jägermeister Stage which was at The Foundry.

I photographed over 15 bands over the day, varying from rock to hardcore to emo.

My top 5 favourite bands at Burn It Down are -

  • Black Peaks

  • Dream State

  • Mother Vulture

  • Haggard Cat

  • RXPTRS

After what can only be described as a highly successful second year for the South West festival, I am really looking forward to seeing what this festival had in store for the coming years.

Bloodywood Review and Gallery @ The Lanes, Bristol 24.07.19

On Wednesday the 24th of July, 2019 the furiously heavy Bloodywood took to the stage at The Lanes in Bristol. This was the bands first ever UK performance and rightly so, the gig was a sell out!

The Lanes is a truly unique venue which is situated in a retro styled bowling alley, which upon arrival didn't seem the place where a metal show would go down but I was proved otherwise the second the show started.

Sarthak Of Bloodywood

The band announced that this was their first ever time in the UK and their first ever tour! This was fantastic to see how an internet phenomenon take the world on with their important message behind them. I felt very honoured to be apart of this brilliant show and I was seriously looking forward to shooting them live.

The venue was packed, every single person who bought a ticket was in the room and the floor above, jumping around, moshing and singing their hearts out. The vocalist went into the crowd and was welcomed by a surge of singing, sweaty fans around him. The band quoted "we thought we'd be playing to about 10 people each night" so I couldn't imagine the emotions going through them during this gig.

The band mix traditional Indian folk instruments with what can only be described as thunderous choruses to create a fantastically unique and honest sound. Bloodywood took the time to talk about important issues surrounding mental health which they've incorporated into some of their most popular songs, something the crowd were definitely loving to be a part of, myself included. The fact that this is the bands first ever tour and first ever time playing our country and they absolutely nailed it seriously excites me to see where this band will project themselves in the near future.

Bloodywood @ The Lanes, Bristol