Me and the things that keep me alive. This is the latest from my mission to raise awareness of type 1 diabetes and fully come out as a type 1 diabetes person using pictures I’ve taken of myself. I have an intense and complicated relationship with these things, not least because there are 3 of us in this. I have 2 different pens that I jab into my leg or stomach 3 or 4 times a day. One contains short-term insulin for a quick hit to combat carb consumption and the other is long term milder stuff that lasts 24 hours for general blood sugar lowering. I have a healthy respect/fear of them particularly as I’ve suffered from the intense anxiety that happens when you mix them up and give yourself a mega hit of the short term stuff thinking it’s the long term stuff. The sudden realisation that you’ll need an awful lot of fast acting sugar very quickly is not something you ever forget. The consequence was a 999 call and the quick sucking down of 16 packs of banana flavour energy gel. I was ok thankfully, apart from a tummy ache. Now to keep our relationship on track, my 2 pens live in separate rooms.
Off The Grid
I’m just back from Osea Island and another vintage year at the Offgrid Sessions event where I was taking pictures for the organisers. Some of the best talks I have ever heard mixed in with wild swimming, fab food, Bulgarian folk music, fireside chats and ukeleles. Fantastic.
Bobby Madrigal - Portraits of an artist in her studio
I always enjoy shooting artists in their studios with their work. The idea here as always, is to show off their work, get an idea of their methods and the space they work in but most importantly show their personality. Oh and it helps when they are your sister and take you out for lunch afterwards.
A few shots for REGnosys to go up on their new website. They are a city-based collaborative coding platform for financial institutions (whatever that is). A nice group of men though, the picture brief was to show teamwork, personality, a relaxed atmosphere and not to be too corporate and stuffy.
Me and my Type 1. A tweet about my life without a functional pancreas.
It’s 30 years since my type 1 diabetes diagnosis. That’s 30 years of at least 4 insulin injections and around 10 blood tests every day as well as carbohydrate counting and constant thoughts about my blood sugar levels. I’m not looking for sympathy just recognising a mileston… pic.twitter.com/252Z18fZcn
— James Clarke (@jamesroyclarke) December 13, 2021
Champagne from Kent that is better than actual Champagne
For The Times this week, a portrait of vineyard maestro Patrick McGrath who is producing perfect Kent grapes for Tattinger Champagne. Full story here.
Also nice to meet the romanian grape pickers at the Domaine Evremond vineyard. A nice bunch!
Leavers Hoodies
Great to get this shoot into the bag for the good people at leavershoodies.com. Lots of models, skateboards, footballs and multiple locations in and around Brighton. What could possibly go wrong? Nothing thankfully, so the catalogue for what every self-respecting school leaver will be wearing at the end of this year will be available soon.
Inside The Bruderhof
I was pleased to see this and a few more of my pics being used to publicise the great documentary on iPlayer “Inside the Bruderhof”. Although I’m not religious, I like them and have enjoyed working with them on a number of occasions. They seem to have an idyllic lifestyle particularly for the children, seen here rather impressively building a log cabin. Watch it and see what you think, they have something special there for sure.
Iggy To The Rescue
It’s exciting to be name-checked on the same poster as Iggy Pop! I did the publicity pics for this award winning short film, in which a life-like Iggy doll voiced by the real Iggy, battles with evil knitted chickens.
Marc Almond In The Observer Magazine
Good to see this old pic of mine in The Observer Magazine and on The Guardian website. It was my first proper portrait shoot for The Times back in 2005. I remember being nervous but Marc was lovely and this through the door set up was a good way to get around a rather dull hotel location background. I’m surprised though that they used such an old pic for a recent interview, Marc is 62 now and was 47 then. No complaints from me though.
1000 Dream Trips. My search for the best travel pictures in the world
This is the result of a couple of months away from cameras and looking for beautiful travel pictures to go with this exhaustive Telegraph Travel Guide, an amazing resource to help you find your perfect holiday.
Plugging Into Offgrid Sessions
A few shots from this year’s Offgrid Sessions event on the beautiful Osea Island. This is the 4th year that I’d been invited to capture the event. It revolves around an exciting line-up of speakers and thinkers with this years theme being, Truth and reality: how do we know what we know? How can we trust what other people tell us? How can we trust what we tell ourselves? How does the world really work? A lot to take in but nicely mixed with comedy, beer, good food, wild swimming and plasticine. Fantastic!
