Gary Edward Jones Music: a portrait

This was a photoshoot with Gary Edward Jones, a Liverpool-based folk musician, and three other musicians – Elfin Bow, Skeet Williams and Jay Christian – who are collaborating with Gary on a project.

They needed a number of different kinds of photograph, including:

• Group photos of all four of them
• Individual photos of each person, both with and without their instruments
• Various combinations of two of the musicians together at a time

The photos were to be used on promotional material – posters for gigs, social media, etc. – and needed both informal, documentary-style shots and some more formal headshots.

They requested a mix of both black and white photos and colour, and wanted to the ‘look’ to be low key and moody.

We did the photoshoot in the Philharmonic Dining Rooms in Liverpool – a place famous for its beautiful architecture and 19th century interior design. We used one of the small rooms, which had wood panelling around the walls of the room and large, frosted windows. All the photography was done using the light available; no extra lighting or flashes.

We worked together to direct the photography. They had their wishlist, which we fulfilled, but we also came up with a few other ideas and poses while we were working.

The shoot was a lot of fun; Gary, Elfin, Skeet and Jay are all lovely people, and very talented musicians.