Amelia’s Magazine | Leon Diaper: Photographer Spotlight

wietse22With a passion for the natural world and the understanding that things
are going the wrong way, capsule Wietse started getting involved with activism
in his Dutch homeland at the age of 15. Putting himself in harms way to
defend the defenceless didn’t get him the school grades his parents had
hoped for, ed but it set the tone for the years ahead. After moving to the
UK and studying at the Newark Violin Making School in Nottinghamshire,
his activism focused on direct action, creative activism and community
media. He is a founding member of the community media outlet Notts
Indymedia, the Riseup! Radio project and the art activist collective the
Mischief Makers. In the last two years his focus has moved towards ocean
conservation and he currently lives and works as ship’s carpenter on the
Steve Irwin, the ship operated by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.
Wietse’s hobbies include sewing, embroidery and drawing.

www.mischiefmakers.org.uk
www.seashepherd.org
wietse22With a passion for the natural world and the understanding that things
are going the wrong way, erectile Wietse started getting involved with activism
in his Dutch homeland at the age of 15. Putting himself in harms way to
defend the defenceless didn’t get him the school grades his parents had
hoped for, but it set the tone for the years ahead. After moving to the
UK and studying at the Newark Violin Making School in Nottinghamshire,
his activism focused on direct action, creative activism and community
media. He is a founding member of the community media outlet Notts
Indymedia, the Riseup! Radio project and the art activist collective the
Mischief Makers. In the last two years his focus has moved towards ocean
conservation and he currently lives and works as ship’s carpenter on the
Steve Irwin, the ship operated by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.
Wietse’s hobbies include sewing, embroidery and drawing.

www.mischiefmakers.org.uk
www.seashepherd.org
wietse22With a passion for the natural world and the understanding that things
are going the wrong way, information pills Wietse started getting involved with activism
in his Dutch homeland at the age of 15. Putting himself in harms way to
defend the defenceless didn’t get him the school grades his parents had
hoped for, but it set the tone for the years ahead. After moving to the
UK and studying at the Newark Violin Making School in Nottinghamshire,
his activism focused on direct action, creative activism and community
media. He is a founding member of the community media outlet Notts
Indymedia, the Riseup! Radio project and the art activist collective the
Mischief Makers. In the last two years his focus has moved towards ocean
conservation and he currently lives and works as ship’s carpenter on the
Steve Irwin, the ship operated by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.
Wietse’s hobbies include sewing, embroidery and drawing.

www.mischiefmakers.org.uk
www.seashepherd.org
wietse22With a passion for the natural world and the understanding that things
are going the wrong way, approved Wietse started getting involved with activism
in his Dutch homeland at the age of 15. Putting himself in harms way to
defend the defenceless didn’t get him the school grades his parents had
hoped for, sildenafil but it set the tone for the years ahead. After moving to the
UK and studying at the Newark Violin Making School in Nottinghamshire,
his activism focused on direct action, creative activism and community
media. He is a founding member of the community media outlet Notts
Indymedia, the Riseup! Radio project and the art activist collective the
Mischief Makers. In the last two years his focus has moved towards ocean
conservation and he currently lives and works as ship’s carpenter on the
Steve Irwin, the ship operated by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.
Wietse’s hobbies include sewing, embroidery and drawing.

www.mischiefmakers.org.uk
www.seashepherd.org
mattAll photographs courtesy of Leon Diaper

Leon Diaper is a 23-year-old very talented photographer hailing from New Forest. Leon graduated last summer from the art institute of Bournemouth where he had studied a BA in Commercial Photography. He is now trying his luck in the big city of London.

Valerie Pezeron: Hello Leon, malady how are you getting on living in London?

Leon Diaper: I am trying to make my way with everyone else, health doing my own work. I have a day job to earn money in American Apparel at the moment. This is all right. I have a few friends who work there. I needed a job when I came to London and this is better than the bar job I used to have back home, with crazy hours. It does not make you particularly productive.

VP: Why commercial photography?

LD: If you want to make a living, the course I did was more grounded than the other photography BA a few of my friends did. Theirs was a really open-ended and really fine art based course. It wasn’t anything I liked, looked at or ventured towards. With my course, I could do fashion, documentary and you get 6 weeks to do a project in anything you want. I was shown how you could sell your work and get it published.

6

VP: So you did work for Dazed and Confused? How did that come about?

LD: Just band stuff and portraits, which is always nice to do. Normally I would email them, just annoy people and then call. Most of the time, clients you approach are quite nice; I’m going to meet someone from Tank magazine today. They just said, “Come over and show me your work”. It’s often quite informal, and then you just have to prop them again to go “hey, what do you think!’ and things like that. It was a paid gig, which is always really nice.

VP: So far you have been photographing bands but the rest of your portfolio is quite different.

LD: Yes, because music photography is the easiest way to get your work into magazines. I have so far photographed bands like Siren and Siren. My personal work tends to be more documentary stuff. I enjoy doing narratives, meeting groups and individuals.

VP: What king of magazines would you see your work fit in best?

LD: In Dazed, they have the editorial piece. I would love to do stories for such magazines. I love spending a lot of time building a body of work in order to narrow it down into a piece. Bands are always really hard to make that exciting, to be honest. It’s a really good thing to do but… but here are two guys I have never met and I’ve got 50 minutes to get a picture that is good!

VP: I love the work of Anton Corbijn. Who do you like and who influenced you?

LD: I’m quite traditional. William Eggleston and Steven Shaw…all the photographers from back in the 60s and 70s, these are the people I go back to, that I am excited about. That’s why I do a lot of work in America when I go away.

VP: Did you always know you wanted to be a photographer?

LD: I remember doing photography way back at A’ levels and being a little bit unsure where to go. I was doing communications then and did not know what to do with it so I thought maybe I’d give photography a go. I’ve carried on with it since. I don’t come from a family of artists. My step dad played the guitar, that’s about it! My mum is science based and no one took photos around me. I’d say music was always the thing I was into and I am in a band. Film, music and photography all excite me.

bandpic

VP: What do you play in the band?

LD: I play the guitar and sing. I try to sing! It’s quite 90’s grungy pop songs sort of thing. Louder bands like Sonic Youth and singer-songwriters like Elliott Smith are on my play list, Joanna Newsom also. Things like that are good to listen to when you are reading. I love the nostalgic sound of albums one used to listen to a while ago and you listen to now to remember things by.

VP: What kind of camera do you use?

LD: I use a Bronica medium format camera for some stuff. My favourite camera for my documentary work is the Kiev; it’s got a really nice quality to it for things like portraits..

VP: Tell us about your printing methods? Do you use just colour?

LD: I normally take it somewhere because colour is really hard, black and white you can just do at home. Lately I have popped in a few black and white images in there.

VP: You seem to enjoy manipulating light, light effects such as smoke.

LD: I bring in little props such as powder to make an image such as photographs of people dynamic, less stiff. Things become fun; it brings surrealism and freedom to the images. I pay special attention to colours also.

wonder

VP: What is your most precious possession?

LD: Probably my guitar! I’ve been in bands for years and I have had it through the whole time. It’s quite a good electric guitar; I remember saving a lot of money for it. My Kiev and Bronica come next. These two are my main cameras. I have other pinhole cameras that I have used for series with the sort of dreamy sequence.

VP: What do you think of Pentax and Leicas…?

LD: I’d love a Leica camera but they’re so beyond being able to afford them! I’d love to buy lots and lots of cameras, but now that I’ve found ones that I can use I’m sticking with them.

VP: Yes, and these are gorgeous pictures! What would be your dream job?

LD: I’d love to be paid to do the sort of documentaries like this one I did when I went to America for two months, establishing myself as part of those great photographers. It’s that kind of that grand ambition of great adventure, of disappearing and coming back.

man

VP: Have you read “On the Road” by Jack Kerouac?

LD: I have! My pictures of Slab City are a great example; it’s an old military place in the middle of the Colorado Desert. Back in the war, it had been used for bombing then they closed it. The army stayed and lived there for a bit, people started coming there for a bit and in the 60’s, there was a huge commune…

VP: It’s one of the last frontiers, isn’t it?

LD: Yes, and it looks like something out of Mad Max. Have you seen the film “Into the Wild”? They filmed at Slab City this guy; my friends and me helped him paint the mountain at 6 am. Everyone has a dog in Slab City. It’s probably one of the coolest places I have ever been, being there with these people. It’s people on drugs, down and outs and I see the beauty, the freedom. These people are living their own way with their own means, getting by without harming anybody. Some people there have super posh motor homes and on the other end of the spectrum, others live in makeshifts. They live day by day almost for free, gas and food are almost all they worry about. I’d be lying to myself if I claimed I could live like that.

girl

VP: It’s really quite different from Bournemouth, isn’t it?

LD: It’s definitely worlds and worlds away from Bournemouth! I love the contrast of American Pop culture because it’s loud and all quite new, the strange, weird and wonderful.

VP: Literature seems to have played a big part in your development.

LD: Ah yeah, definitely! 50’s and 60’s culture, Beatniks…Faulkner. I’m currently reading Hunter S. Thompson. The backbone of my work is freedom based American culture. Another photo series of mine is in San Francisco, outside of this bookstore where Kerouac and friends used to meet. The first year we drove from New York to LA for two months. We rented a half decent car and did a five a half thousand miles!

VP: There is an overwhelming sense of nostalgia in your work. It’s as if you wish we were still in that place.

LD: Massively! Definitely! I’ve always wanted to go back and we did; we went from Vancouver to San Francisco- the pacific Coast. Why can’t we do this all the time!

VP: Have you watched Planet of the Apes and Soylent Green?

LD: I have but never looked at it artistically.

VP: There is something there about civilisation having been there a long time ago, but then you look back on it. Things have really moved on but there are places, like in the movie where Charlton Heston discovers the Statue of Liberty in the sand…

LD: Forgotten times, yes. I like kind of weird stuff like Harmony Korine and Gummo. The mix of playfulness and the serious: I did some work on wrestling, obviously it’s bigger in the US. I always see images in films and that informs my work. I try to find weird and wonderful people.

mask

VP: What are your plans for this year?

LD: I’d like to go away again somewhere. I’d like to go to Alaska.

VP: Oh, wow! Maybe you could put Palin back in her habitat, which might be good.

LD: (Laughter) Exactly! There is a British Journalism Photography competition I entered last year and got short-listed for. I got some work in their magazine, which was nice- I am not quite sure when I hear from them if I win. You get 5 000 pounds if you win to do a project you propose to them, that’s why I want to go to Alaska o follow the Transatlantic oil line that goes from north to south. It would be reportage on the freedom of meeting different kind of people along the way. I like taking detail shots and landscapes.

VP: Any other plans?

LD: A Masters Degree one day but not any time soon. I’m doing a group photography exhibition called “Clinique Presents” from the 11th of February at the Amersham Arms. There will be some prints for sale and the theme is loosely based on magic.

painting-the-canyon

Categories ,Abisham Arms, ,alaska in winter, ,American Apparel, ,American photography, ,Anton Corbijn, ,art, ,bournemouth, ,British Journalism Photography competition, ,Charlton Heston, ,Clinique Presents, ,Dazed and Confused, ,elliott smith, ,Harmony Korine and Gummo, ,Hunter S. Thompson, ,interview, ,Into the Wild, ,Jack Kerouac, ,Kiev, ,Leica, ,Leica camera, ,Leon Diaper, ,music, ,musician, ,Pacific Coast, ,photography, ,Planet of the Apes, ,San Francisco, ,Sonic Youth, ,Soylent Green, ,Steve Shaw, ,William Eggleston

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Amelia’s Magazine | Depeche Mode at the O2 Arena: Live Review

Depeche Mode by Sam Parr

Depeche Mode by Sam Parr

I was definitely in unknown territory, trying to make sure I took the right exit from North Greenwich station on a bitterly cold evening, with literally minutes to spare before stage time. I’d been reassured by a friend who had already gone ahead to the venue “don’t worry, Depeche Mode won’t be on until 9.30”, only to subsequently receive a text (with many exclamation marks) that it was actually half an hour earlier. It didn’t help that I’d never actually been to the O2 before (well, not since the days of its original incarnation as the Millennium Dome), so I was flying blind in terms of where I had to go. Luckily, after scaling two sets of escalators, I’d made it to my seat just in time, perched precariously in the top tier of the venue (the O2 is definitely not for those of a vertiginous disposition).

Depeche Mode by Daria Hlazatova

Depeche Mode by Daria Hlazatova

The O2 Arena seems to get mixed reviews, certainly in terms of the sound quality (though on the night, from where I was sat, it seemed fine to me), but being so far from the stage does, I think, make a difference to the whole gig experience, it tends to feel a bit more detached (especially if, like me, you’re more used to venues like the Lexington, the Windmill or the Buffalo Bar – about as much contrast as you can get!).

Depeche Mode by Claire Kearns

Depeche Mode by Claire Kearns

Well, what is there left to say about Depeche Mode that hasn’t already been said? Formed in Basildon, Essex, they first appeared as part of the synth pop scene that coalesced in the wake of acts such as John Foxx, Gary Numan, Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark and the (original) Human League, and whilst many of their contemporaries have long since been consigned to the annals of music history, Depeche Mode recently released their thirteenth studio album, Delta Machine.

Depeche Mode by Laura Collins

Depeche Mode by Laura Collins

Tonight’s appearance was the band’s third gig in London this year (after two nights at the same venue in May), with the current Delta Machine tour apparently being their biggest in around 20 years. Still comprising of core members Dave Gahan, Martin Gore and Andy Fletcher, the live band is complemented by Peter Gordeno on additional keyboards and Christian Eigner giving the songs some beef on drums.

Coming on to a darkened stage, backed by giant video screens, Depeche Mode kicked off with the opening track from the new album, Welcome To My World – all brooding synths and Dave Gahan’s typically lugubrious vocals. Another new track, the pounding Angel, followed, before old favourite Walking In My Shoes made an appearance. A fair few tracks from the generally well received Delta Machine album cropped up during the set, including the single Heaven (accompanied by a black and white film from long time collaborator Anton Corbijn), whilst Martin Gore took over vocal duties for The Child Inside. Accompanied solely by Peter Gordeno on keyboards, Gore did a couple of other solo numbers, including a mid 1980s B-side, But Not Tonight, which got the crowd singing along, and a reworking of an even older song, Leave In Silence (from 1982’s A Broken Frame album). The inclusion of oddities like these, at the expense of some of the more well known tracks from Depeche Mode’s extensive back catalogue, meant that this was no greatest hits set, but the crowd (made up of a real mix of ages) didn’t mind.

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Depeche Mode by Daria Hlazatova

Depeche Mode by Daria Hlazatova

On stage, you could see the band had three very different roles – Dave Gahan was very much playing the rock star, spending much of the set bare-chested and spinning his mic stand, leaving Martin Gore to divide his time between playing keyboards and guitar (when not taking centre stage himself), with the bespectacled Andy Fletcher diligently prodding away at his keyboards and waving to get the crowd clapping along. All the while, a series of dazzling visuals, both specially recorded films and treated close-ups of the band, filled the wall behind them.

There were a few crowd pleasers thrown in too, with some selections from the band’s late 80s breakthrough albums, Black Celebration, Music For The Masses and Violator. As the set approached its end (well, until the encore at least), we got an extended version of Enjoy The Silence, which at times seemed in danger of morphing into New Order’s True Faith, and a slow, bluesy opening to Personal Jesus, before the song just took the O2’s roof off.

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During the encore, Depeche Mode went back to basics with that staple of student discos (and having played it as a student DJ myself, I should know) Just Can’t Get Enough, though it did seem a bit odd, especially considering how much darker the band’s material subsequently became, to see a tattooed, 50 year old Dave Gahan singing this light and breezy electro pop classic. The band finished the set with an imperious Never Let Me Down Again, with Gahan getting the crowd (when they weren’t all singing along) to wave their arms in the air.

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Depeche Mode by Daria Hlazatova

Depeche Mode by Daria Hlazatova

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And so we departed from the arena, some people braving the queues to get on to the Jubilee Line, some deciding to let the moment linger in the bar that was having a Depeche Mode theme night, with cocktails named after various DM songs and a playlist consisting (with the exception of the odd incursion from Erasure and the Pet Shop Boys) of songs from Basildon’s finest. One thing is for sure though, and that is, after over 30 years, Depeche Mode are showing no signs of slowing down, and they can still deliver an amazing show. Music for the masses, indeed.

Categories ,Andy Fletcher, ,Anton Corbijn, ,Buffalo Bar, ,Christian Eigner, ,Claire Kearns, ,Daria Hlazatova, ,dave gahan, ,Depeche Mode, ,Erasure, ,Gary Numan, ,Human League, ,John Foxx, ,Laura Collins, ,Lexington, ,Martin Gore, ,new order, ,O2 Arena, ,Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark, ,pet shop boys, ,Peter Gordeno, ,Sam Parr, ,Windmill

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