Immaculate conceptions

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images © David Sykes 2013 All rights reserved.

Last month I was approached by Ryan Watson, from Shots magazine, to see if he could interview me, I jumped at the chance! Shots is a great Magazine. It has featured some of best photographers and Directors of the past few decades, including some of my favourites.

It’s always a bit nerve wracking being interviewed, but I had nothing to worry about it – it turned out to be a lovely piece and, I am very pleased with the end result (thanks Ryan).

It’s also nice to have so many of my shots featured, both new and old.

When the article’s on their website, I’ll add a link – in the meantime go get a copy! 😉

Don’t forget it!

| david

MARMITE CUPBOARD 1

MARMITE CUPBOARD 3

MARMITE CUPBOARD 2

images © David Sykes 2013 All rights reserved.

Last month I shot the latest Marmite campaign for Adam & Eve DDB with creative team – Tom Webber and Nick Sheppard.

It has to be one of the most enjoyable shoots I’ve worked on for a long time, from start to finish. Sometimes you get layouts sent through and you can tell straight away that it’s going to be a great ad, this was no exception. It’s such a clever and simple idea, and the way they wanted it shot was right up my street!

All the guys from A&EDDB and Marmite were great to work with. It was a fun couple of days shoot, if not a little sticky at times! (I’ve just about got the smell of Marmite off my Camera gear).

Wesley West had a great time making all the prop products that are in the cupboards. I helped out by shooting the food photography for the packaging, I couldn’t resist having my photo’s in one of my photos!

The TV ads they’ve created are also great and very funny and are causing a bit of a stir right now, as you’ve probably seen!

My posters are going up around the UK on 48 sheet posters and 6 sheet – keep an eye out for them.

Why not visit the Marmite site and help end Marmite neglect!
But don’t report us here, I promise we will get through all of theses soon enough!
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Been a good week this week my Marmite work got featured in Luerzer’s Archive and got awarded best outdoor on best ads

Was great seeing my work out and about.

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Credits

Creative Director Mike Crowe
Creative Director Rob Messeter
Creative Tom Webber
Creative Nick Sheppard
Business Director Kate Hewitt
Agency Producer Craig Neilson
Photographer david sykes
Art Buyer: Daniel Moorey

Drum roll please!

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D&AD Awards Creative Review

image © David Sykes 2013 All rights reserved.

I was really pleased to be asked by Jessica Dance to collaborate with her on the fantastic paper drum for the ‘drum roll’ D&AD awards cover in this months Creative Review.

I’ve been working with Jess on a new personal series of work and it was great to work with her again on a commission look out for the new series to be shown soon.

cover drum roll

image © David Sykes 2013 All rights reserved.

Wood chips

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wood burger

image © David Sykes 2013 All rights reserved.

I was very lucky to have this beautiful wood burger and chips made for me by my good friend and model maker Wesley west.

He’s a very talented chap and when he said he’d made me the wooden burger I jumped at the chance to use it in a shoot, the hardest thing was deciding how to shoot it!

Leaving idlewild

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idlewild

image © David Sykes 2013 All rights reserved.

Here’s one of my latest personal shots it’s a scene depicting Idlewild airport in 1961, now known as JFK.
The idea came about after I found a folder with the Pan AM ticket in it whilst helping to clear my wife’s grandma’s house last year, after she had sadly passed away.
Caroline’s Grandfather had taken a business trip to the states in 1961 and had kept everything from the trip, from the letters to and from the travel agent, to the match books and drinks stirrers from all the bars and hotels he visited.
I love the fact that the trip was such a rare and exciting event that he kept all the momentos from the trip. I even found a ticket from a visit to the empire states building (see if you can spot it in the shot) it’s a stark contrast to the disposable and online way we live our lives now.

Carluccio’s cracking Easter eggs

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Easter carluccios

image © David Sykes 2013 All rights reserved.

Last month I was commissioned by Irving & co to shoot this year’s Carluccio’s Easter poster campaign working with the talented Ana Rachel.

The poster design was great, very simple and they’d designed fantastic type to go with it. It was a dream job as photographer, and when the product arrived I was even more pleased!

The Carluccio’s eggs are beautiful objects. They were lovely to shoot. We had a great day coming up with different ways to show off the eggs. In the end we decided to see what they would like cracked – showing off the dark chocolate inside, looked even more delicious! It did take a while to get them to break in the right way though. In the end I perfected a technique that works perfectly every time ( with a little help from a hammer! )

I also managed to film a short animation for them at the same time, using the mini chocolate eggs – which you can watch below.

I hope everyone has a great Easter and, I hope you are lucky enough to receive a Carluccio’s Easter treat!

Easter carluccios 2

image © David Sykes 2013 All rights reserved.


Music : J’y Suis Jamais Allé by Yann Tiersen
Available on itunes here

First past the post

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image © David Sykes 2013 All rights reserved.

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image © David Sykes 2013 All rights reserved.

Last friday my latest work hit the news stands in the form of an advertising wrap on the Sport magazine for the Racing Post.
I was commissioned by the talented folks at Sell Sell. They wanted to make an image containing all the essentials one would need at the races, including all the different ways to get info from the Racing Post.
It was a fun day the lovely Katie Cordell sourced some fantastic props to make up our gents outfit it was all very fancy, it was like a high end Bond Street store in the studio for the day!
I even made my self useful by finding the hip flask we used in the shot while I was away in Salzburg for a long weekend it was one of the few things not to have a Mozart on it!

Goldbären

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image © David Sykes 2013 All rights reserved.

I was pleased to be asked to shoot another cover for Monocle magazine, this months issue is all about how the world needs the new Germans (and their sweet bear)
I had to shoot a super close up of a Haribo bear we had to hold a Goldbären (Golden bear in German) casting which meant we had to buy lot’s and lot’s of Haribo it’s a hard job but someone has to do it!
Me and Sam my assistant are still working our way through the reject bears and other yummy Haribo’s.

I also had to photograph lots of German stationary for this issue which was great for me because as I’ve always had a soft spot for some quality stationary from back in my graphic design days!

issue 61 stationary

image © David Sykes 2013 All rights reserved.

sacred hearts

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heart collector final

image © David Sykes 2013 All rights reserved.

Here’s my recent valentines inspired test.
I found these hearts in my local art shop and couldn’t resist getting them, a bit of red spray paint later and voila!

This lady has been stealing men’s hearts for years who’s next?……

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And the winner is…

| david

Thanks to all those that took part in my christmas sock craft pack, apologies for the late arrival of the results, it has been a busy January!
There were some great sock characters created and in the end I couldn’t chose just one favourite so I’ve decide to award a bottle of bubbles to two creations.
The winners are Marion Thibaudot from BBH and Alex Bamford from RKCR/Y&R. Both of them put a smile on my face so congratulations to you both!
Here are the two winning entires
Marion

Alex

Below is the shot that started it all.

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image © David Sykes 2013 All rights reserved.

Adventgram final 25

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adventgram work 2012

All images © David Sykes 2013 All rights reserved.

Happy New year!

Thanks to all of you that contributed to this years adventgram and followed the project.
It was great seeing all the different ways people interpreted the project.
I look forward to doing it again at the end of this year.

Hope you all had a great festive break here’s to a great 2013

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All images © David Sykes 2013 All rights reserved.

The proof of the pudding

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All images © David Sykes 2012 All rights reserved.

This Festive season I decided it would be good to create a Christmas inspired shot that I could send out to the people I’ve worked with over the years, so I started to think up ideas and came to the conclusion that everyone loves festive food and presents at christmas so why not combine the two.
That is how I came to create my sock christmas pudding, for those that have followed my work over the years you’ll know that I have liked to create food images but not using food but everyday objects to create faux food.
So I dusted off (and repainted) my giant 4 foot plate and went about creating my giant sock pudding, the pile ended up being 3 foot high and nearly 4 foot wide and Katie Cordell the stylist had to source over a hundred socks.
It took us the best part of a day to create the perfect sock pile and at the end I was tempted to go for the flaming Christmas pud and set fire to them! But I couldn’t as I needed them for the next part of my mailer.
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All images © David Sykes 2012 All rights reserved.

I thought it would be fun to send people one sock from my pudding as a memento and as creative inspiration, I custom made some sock tags with a challenge on them to make the lonely sock into a festive stocking or christmas character. To help them on there way I supplied a starter kit of some fake fur some red and green felt, googly eyes and some buttons. (see below) I’m asking them to send pictures of the results so I’m looking forward to seeing the festive creations.

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All images © David Sykes 2012 All rights reserved.

This will probably be my last post of the year so I’d like to wish everyone a merry christmas and a happy new year thanks for following my blog.

Adventgram 2012

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This is adventgram from 2011

All images © David Sykes 2012 All rights reserved.

We are surrounded by numbers every day as a result they tend to go unnoticed, there are 1000’s of different typefaces out there, some beautifully crafted some not so.
I’ve decided to celebrate the humble number, and what better month than December the one month that most of us count down to an event, Christmas day.
I’m shooting my adventgram project for the second year running. Every day I find and shoot the number of the day on my phone using instagram to publish it.
This year I’m being joined by some fellow instagramers using the hashtag #adventgram

Monocle, the gift that keeps on giving

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All images © David Sykes 2012 All rights reserved.

It’s that time of year again the gift guide issue of Monocle and this year it’s themed. All the gift ideas are from vienna (who knew they made so many cool things!).

I also shot some of the new Monocle mechanise they are selling this christmas, they have there own umbrella now and I have to say it’s probably the best made umbrella I’ve ever seen but if you’re thinking of getting me one for christmas don’t I have a tenancy to lose them!

We had lots of fun with paper and boxes this issue and I thought Richard spencer-powells choice of colours for the boxes worked so well I had to give them there very own photo.

All the fun of the fair

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All images © David Sykes 2012 All rights reserved.

For my latest piece of personal work I had the pleasure of working with Stylist Carrie Louise on this project we wanted to look at the great textures and objects you get at a fun fair and shoot them in an abstract way.
It was a fun couple of days shooting, if not a little messy as we hired a candy floss machine for the day. I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to eat candy floss again probably the stickiest day in the studio I’ve had so far, and rest assured that no goldfish were harmed in the making of this project just a couple of coconuts!

Michael Parkinson’s background

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All images © David Sykes 2012 All rights reserved.

I was recently commissioned by Sky arts to shoot some backgrounds for a couple of their new shows, here is the one I shot for the new Michael Parkinson show Parkinson: masterclass it starts on the 13th of November looks quite good. It’s up on 48 sheet poster nation wide keep an eye out for them.
Unfortunately I didn’t get to meet the man himself the portrait was shot by their in house photographer. I’m sure parky is a fascinating man to talk to, maybe next time?

Pick your teeth

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All images © David Sykes 2012 All rights reserved.

I found these whilst Halloween shopping. Thought they were such a fangtastic selection of ghoulish teeth I had to shoot them, I decided that they deserved there own halloween alter.
Which one’s would you pick?

Hope everyone has a Happy Halloween of trick or treating this weekend!

Shooting medals

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All images © David Sykes 2012 All rights reserved.

I was asked by Bloomburg Business Week to photograph the 2012 Olympic medals.
I had to shoot them at the London offices of Rio Tinto who are providing the metal for the medals.
Once we had cleared security we were taken to a room to shoot the medals. It was amazing to get to hold something as special as an Olympic gold medal, it was a lot bigger and heavier than I expected.
I had only an hour and a half to shoot them, which is a lot less time than I usually take over a still life, but I’m really pleased with the results!

One interesting fact I learnt was that the gold medal is actually 92.5% silver, but I guess if you win one you don’t care what it’s made of!

Good luck to all the competitors at this years Olympics but as a Londoner, I will be cheering for team GB!

Jelly Jubilee

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All images © David Sykes 2012 All rights reserved.

I found this jelly mould by Lydia Leith and knew I wanted to do a test shot with it unfortunately I have been so busy I didn’t manage to do it before the jubilee so to wet your appetite I created this more simple shot for the jubilee weekend.

It’s win win all round.

| david

All images © David Sykes 2012 All rights reserved.

My latest Advertising work for Fallon is up and about around the UK.
It was shot for Cadburys who are helping you to send a message of encouragement to team GB and you get to eat their lovely Chocolate so a win win situation all round!
We built a giant pin board in the studio then pinned hundreds of cards to it, a few prick fingers later this was the result.
If you run out of chocolate easter eggs over the weekend grab a bar of Cadburys Dairy milk and write team GB a message of support.

All work and no play makes jack a dull boy

| david

All images © David Sykes 2012 All rights reserved.

Here is one of my latest pieces of personal work, and as we’re in the middle of “Mad Men” fever I had to pair it up with my whiskey shot from a few weeks ago I think they work well together.
If the rest of the series is anything like the first episode the hype is well deserved. Hope you enjoy my new work and Mad Men.

All images © David Sykes 2012 All rights reserved.

Five years and counting

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All images ©David Sykes 2012 All rights reserved.

This month Monocle magazine celebrates it’s five year anniversary and I was asked to shoot the cover and contents of it’s anniversary special edition. It was great to go back through the archives with Richard Spencer Powell helping select from all the fantastic print they’ve produced over the years. (they’ve been busy!)
I’m very proud to have had my photography in every issue of Monocle, it’s been a lot of fun seeing all the amazing things they find.
Some of my favourite shoots I’ve worked on over years have been the covers that I’ve shot.

All images ©David Sykes 2012 All rights reserved.

Hair of the dog

| david

All images ©David Sykes 2012 All rights reserved.

Happy New Year!

I hope you all had a good holiday?

January might be known as the month of recovery, and of abstinence from the temptations of the festive period, but in my opinion the long winter nights need a bit of old fashioned warmth. So, for the first post of 2012, I thought I’d share my latest personal work, something traditional to warm the cockles as the cold bites. Oh, and in the spirit of recovery, here’s the antidote as well.

Last minute gift ideas

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All images ©David Sykes 2011 All rights reserved.

For those of of you who are looking for those last minute gift ideas have a look at the December issue of Monocle they have some fantastic gift ideas in there gift guide.

I was asked to create a Monocle version of a department store window display for each of there gift guide sections.
I always love shooting Monocles gift guide as I get a sneak preview to all the latest and greatest gifts on sale (and I have to admit that quite a few were added to my charisma list.)

So this is my last post before Christmas so I’d just like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New year!

QR Riddle

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All images ©David Sykes 2011 All rights reserved.

I wanted to promote the relaunch of my website and this blog with a bespoke shot and a mail-out. The QR code is the perfect example of something physical that links to the digital world, so I hit on the idea of building and shooting my own physical QR code and sending out a limited edition mailer. Just the QR photograph; no name, no other links or information, just that.

I wanted to play with the juxtaposition of a physical object linking directly to the digital, so I decided to build a 3D model of the code and create the image in one shot. This is in line with the way I like to work, I try to shoot as many things ‘in camera’ as I can. This meant scaling up and then building the 8 foot square model of the code. To create another link to my previous work I used objects from around the studio to build up the shot. Over three days, I worked with the stylist, Carrie Louise, to source the props, plan out and construct the QR city.

To further demonstrate the ‘in camera’ feel of the code I shot on film. To give the mail-out the sense of being a sheet of 10 x 8 film I retained the full frame of the shot, including studio in the background and rebates. I even presented it in the same bags you would get the film back from the lab in.

So, a brand new website via QR promotion with a traditional twist. An intriguing QR code arrives in the post, would you scan it?

Credits: Website designed by The Chase and built by Christian Duncan

Paper owls

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All images ©David Sykes 2011 All rights reserved.

This is my latest work for Dell working with the agency VML.
I’ve been asked to shoot a few paper craft objects over the last year and I always find them such lovely things to work with all the different folds,colours and textures they alway make great subjects.

Trick or treat?

| david

All images ©David Sykes 2011 All rights reserved.

I’ve got the perfect treat for your walls. As it’s halloween today I thought it would be a good time to announce that I’m selling three more limited edition prints.
The prints are from my Skullsicle series and are Limited edition of fifty unmounted photographic prints, they’re signed and numbered lambda prints on Fuji Super Gloss Archive paper.
The dimensions of the paper are 30 inches by 20.

They can be purchased on line here

Happy Halloween!

Aftermath

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All images ©David Sykes 2011 All rights reserved.

Here is the first of a new series of personal work I’m working on called “aftermath” looking at the interesting colours and textures that are left behind when the meal is over.