Anyone who knows me will no doubt tell you how much I LOVE soulful music, mainly disco, US house & anything on that sort of vibe. Music is my first love and before I settled on photography I dabbled in producing music, but being tone deaf once it came to composing a melody I generally got frustrated & gave up. My interest in music production stemmed from DJ’ing, which is something I still do from time to time now. Ever since I was about 15 living at home I used to have scores of friends round to my house… well to my little bedroom…on a Friday night, where I’d play at full volume my Dad & uncle’s old vinyl records on our 1980’s Marantz turntable.
George Benson, Peter Brown, Carl Carlton, Keni Burke, Chic, EW&F, Kleeer, Evelyn King… I could go on for days! To me and my friends it was like our own little version of The Loft (iconic underground 70’s New York club). We’d be having that much fun, dancing around with the music blaring out that we’d never end up getting ready on time and the taxi would be kept waiting while I made a dash for the shower after dragging myself away from DJ duties on the stereo. My parents somehow put up with this each and every friday for several years and even purchased me some Technics turntables for Christmas the year I started uni. There was no looking back from there & I spent the majority of the next 3 years, spending a large chunk of my student loan on purchasing vinyl. Since then as I have moved into photography I don’t keep ‘in the groove’ as much as I did with music but I still DJ occasionally when I get the chance and love to get out to a party when I know there is good music & a good crowd
This is all a round about introduction to how I ended up doing my latest project that you see below. Through following the very informative Soul of Sydney blog I made a few friends on Facebook. There’s a couple of chaps who every so often put on secret parties where after purchasing your ticket, a couple of days before the event the secret location is e-mailed out to you. They’re normally very cool parties, and the crowd is always appreciative and knowledgable about the music. After letting me know about the plans for the latest party, Pete asked if I wanted to come down and document it. Always up for a new challenge I thought ‘Why not?’, purchased a new flash, and headed off on the water taxi to the secret location… boat, pontoon, island, I’m not sure what it was?! It’s a world away from shooting weddings but the sun showed up for the first time in a week, the music was unreal and there was a sea of friendly faces. I hope you like the images!
Oh yeah and check out that sunset!!
If you’re interested in keeping up with future parties check out ‘Inner West Soul’ on Soundcloud
