L-R: Paddy McQuinn, Carey Harte and T.

Kilkenny based grindcore metallers, Atrax Mantis, have just released the artwork for their upcoming debut E.P ‘Condemned to Hatred’. Which means I can finally reveal my conceptual promo-shots for the inlay of the E.P, and behind-the-scenes shots from my first time working with MakeUp/Special Fx artist Carey Harte.

Last year was my first time as a judge and official sponsor for the Hype Entertainment Battle of the Bands, I offered a photography package to the winning band, who turned out to be Atrax Mantis. I also offered a photography package to runner’s-up, Decadation (more on that soon). Following the competition, Atrax hit the studio to record their debut offering and when it was near completion, we met up to discuss the artwork. Much to my delight, the lads had a very clear idea of what they wanted on the E.P and we had several meetings and brain-storming sessions to work out the concept.

Around about the same time, I had been chatting to MakeUp/Special Fx artist Carey Harte, about working on some projects together and this seemed the perfect opportunity to get us started. Sticking with the concept of “Condemned to Hatred”, myself and the Atrax lads had come up with a sequence of shots portraying two characters, I’ll call them “the prisoner” and “the guard”. We’d need bruises, we’d need blood, we’d need Carey! She said yes.

After a short search for models and locations; Paddy Mc Quinn stepped up to be “the prisoner” and Atrax voKillist T would play “the guard”. We found the perfect location, a dead-end corridor in a warehouse that was currently under renovation on an industrial estate, we got permission to shoot there and we were good to go.

On a Sunday in early May, we all met in my house. This would be the first time I would get to meet Carey in person, and on doing so I pronounced her name wrong, she secretly thought this was funny and allowed me to further embarrass myself all day. I was apprehensive about introducing her to Atrax Mantis!? They’re not called the “foul as f**k” metallers for no reason! And they also had “the merchanDykes” with them to add to the madness. I introduced Carey (as Carrie), everyone began chatting and soon it became clear that we were all going to laugh quite a lot that day.

Carey got to work on Paddy, covering him in bruises, slashes, missing teeth and general battered-ness, soon we were on our way to the warehouse. The corridor looked perfect for the shoot, but with all the construction work there was a heavy layer of concrete dust, meaning a nightmare trying to keep my lens clean and keep the dust out of my camera.

The next problem being that the only power source in the building was several floors upstairs, meaning we’d have to run adapters the whole way down to a set of construction lights, quite a stretch, meaning the lights would barely come to the end of the corridor. We stood the lights on top of a large construction table, they filled the darkened corridor with light but I’d have no room to move them and it would cause huge shadows. In the end, I climbed a ladder to the ceiling, and gave the lads from Atrax various jobs.

Dylan held the ladder, “Fuzz” stood on the opposite side of the corridor shining a large heavy-duty torch at a reflector held by Guilly, I told him where to reflect the light to brighten dark areas around Paddy and T’s faces etc, Carey re-did any necessary make-up, the “merchanDykes” supervised, the dust flew around. After initial test shoots with my 18-135mm lens I changed to the 50mm (cheers Ken), which limited my depth of field but meant I could shoot as low as f1.8. We moved around the corridor, I tried out various different angles, shutter-speeds and colour temperatures, the dust continued to fly. Sooner than expected we had a huge collection of usable shots, alternative angles, and the dust had gotten everywhere.

You can check out all of my behind-the-scenes shots from the shoot here. You’ll also find the finished artwork for the E.P, with design and photo-shop work by T.

Quite happy with the results and with time to spare, we decided to move around the warehouse and get some promo/press shots of Atrax Mantis as well. The results of which I posted several weeks back, the only problem with this shoot was trying not to make Fuzz laugh or smile, it’s “not very metal!” and it’s very easy to make him smile.

This type of conceptual shoot was another first for me, and I’m really happy with the results. I’m eager to work on more stuff like this very soon. At this point I have to say a huge thank you to the very lovely and talented Carey Harte. It was awesome to meet you and work with you. I hope you like the results. Hopefully we can get to work on our next project very soon!?(Later that night Carey txt me to tell me I that had pronounced her name wrong all day. She still finds it funny, I still find it embarrassing.)

I’d also like to say a huge thanks to Paddy McQuinn and T, for their patience throughout the shoot, especially when Paddy was standing on T’s face, I was playing with settings on my camera trying to get it just right, and dust was flying everywhere. Finally a huge thanks to Atrax Mantis, I’m proud to have my work featured on your debut offering (which I’ve already heard and it’s awesome!).

Atrax Mantis will release ‘Condemned to Hatred’ at the Hype Entertainment Battle of the Bands 2007 Winners Showcase gig in the Zoo Club on September 14th at 4pm. Don’t miss it!