Classical Music Website • Creative Direction
Creating pianist Gunel Mirzayeva’s website, there were clear directives - A musician re-interpreting Bach, using Eastern ornamentation in Western Baroque music - conveying the atmosphere created by this fascinating union - it needed to feel unconventional, modern, and bold.
I was in charge of the full creative direction for the website, including the photography, graphic design, and web design, continually in conversation with the artist. The design process included work in Adobe XD, Illustrator, Photoshop and design realisation in Webflow. Researching patterns from historical Italian mosaic floors, using a colour scheme from Gunel’s home country Azerbaijan, sourcing a font that played with the idea of ornamentation, juxtaposing grand, architectural elements with a modern, minimalist box layout and design, placing the vibrant musician in an historical scenery - I also assisted with fashion styling to highlight a both classic and modern, ethnic spirit - these were all individual aspects that came together to create a cohesive, organic impression for website visitors. Purposefully rejecting a classic style CV in favour of a more innovative presentation consisting of a short biography followed by an interactive timeline - journeying vividly, by imagery, through important milestones in the artist’s musical life and career.
Fund Freelance Dance • Collaborative Art
With the pandemic of 2020 hitting the arts hard, and freelance artists of all creative disciplines having seen their livelihoods and work disappear, founder Jamiel Laurence, choreographer and filmmaker, set up Fund Freelance Dance as an initiative to provide the dance community with an opportunity to receive paid work while establishing an innovative style of creative engagement. A successful crowdfunding campaign enabled freelance dancers, dance teachers and musicians to work together over four Sundays, through classes and creative sessions, culminating in a mobile dance film released online, choreographed and filmed by Jamiel.
My role as photographer was integral to the creative sessions, documenting and collaborating with the choreographer and dancers, with an experimental and explorative approach to image making.
Darkness illuminated • Album Artwork
I was asked to create the artwork for classical pianist Nafis Umerkulova’s debut album ‘Darkness illuminated’. This included all photography, as well as the visual concept and graphic design of the CD cover and booklet. Featuring solo masterpieces by Scriabin and his lesser known contemporary Stanchinsky, the album needed to subtly convey visually, the relationship between darkness and light, the known and unknown - the inherent duality in the music.
The album was released by Ulysses Arts on Spotify, iTunes, and at an album release event at St John’s Smith Square in London.
In The Mists • Sound and Imagery
Pianist James Kreiling commissioned me to create imagery to be projected alongside his live performance of Janáček’s beautiful and haunting piano cycle In The Mists at a multi-arts concert series at The Asylum in London, supported by the Arts Council.
Janáček’s music speaks with a unique voice, steeped in mystery and folklore. It was crucial to visually convey the brooding, evocative atmosphere with which the work speaks. The idea of land previously occupied by man, reclaimed by nature, felt organic. The images were captured by me on a rainy spring day in a London cemetery - the resulting photos were projected on a large screen, as a new narrative, to intertwine with the trajectory of the music.