It’s not every day you get an invite to Elton’s fairytale mansion. Of course, the invite would have been a little more special had it been an invite for lunch, but I’ll settle for an invite to photograph Elton in his place. It is however really unfortunate that we are in Covid times, as the restrictions on where we could shoot meant we were could only shoot outside. I can only imagine how dazzling the inside of his house would be.
Elton is helping promote the artist John Grant, so the shoot was of the two together. Not much time and restricted to one setup, but we managed to get a backdrop up, battle the summer breeze and plow through the summer heat. Admittedly my face mask at the end bore proof of the heat and the rush to get it all done in the allocated time.
It was a shoot with tinted sunglasses, Gucci outfits and Talk-Talk T-shirts, Rolex watch and Doctor Martin boots.
Elton was friendly and professional. He knew what was expected of him. John was genuinely humble, kind and lovely to work with. Next time I hope to get to shoot them individually. Not just one frame on a 10X8 analogue camera (which I managed to squeeze in) - but two whole shoots with them individually. But as I started off saying - with Elton you take what you can get.
Shot for the Observer New Review
