• CLOSE - Beam Me Up (Single).
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• CLOSE - Getting Closer (Album).
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• CLOSE - My Way (Single).
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It's been a real journey, and a long time since Will Saul contacted us about a new musical project that he wanted us to create a visual identity for. What started off as anonymous music project called CLOSE, Will sent us a few tracks, then eventually the album titled 'Getting Closer'. Will eventually 'outed' himself as the man behind the project with an amazing line-up of collaborators including Fink, Scuba, Joe Dukie & Appleblim.
The project finally got signed to the brilliant !K7 Records label and so far we have produced the artwork for the singles Beam Me Up, My Way and the album Getting Closer with another as yet titled single.
It's been really hard to sit on the album which we've had at various stages of completion for over a year and a half! It's an amazing album, and one we hope will get the recognition it deserves!

The CLOSE visual identity can be see on our site here.
A review of the CLOSE Fabric live show can be found on our blog here.
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Beam Me Up (feat. Charlene Soraia and Scuba) is out now, read a review here.
The album 'Getting Closer' is out on the 3rd of June.
My Way (feat. Joe Dukie) is out on the 10th of June, read a review/stream the track here.
Will also recently recorded a Radio 1 Essential Mix which can be downloaded here.
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CLOSE campaign.
Art direction, typography and design by Build.
Photography by Benjamin Grillon.

Twins (click image for larger view).
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B-Boy Boat (click image for larger view).
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Fencers (click image for larger view).
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Beekeeper (click image for larger view).
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GP-B2.
Photography by Jason Tozer.
Styling by Katy Ingram.
Art direction by MCP/Build.
For Generation Press.
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Notes from behind the scenes of the Generation Press 'B2' campaign.
We approached Jason (Tozer) to do the photography for the B2 shoot, after discussing the concept behind the shoot we got talking about photography, in particular authenticity, craft and the age pre-Photoshop. We decided to approach the shoot following a principle of 'No synthesisers', i.e. no retouching of the shots, no post-production, no re-touching...everything you see in the first 4 shots is as it was in camera.
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This from Jason about the B2 shoot—
I remember being told once that Queen on their first album had printed 'No Synthesisers' on the sleeve of their first album, as some listeners had mistaken their elaborate vocal multi-tracking and guitar effects as 'just' synthesisers. I'm sure in printing that, Freddie, Brian, Roger & John were revealing a dented pride in their musicianship & studio craft. Maybe those ego's were a little put out to hear that electronics were taking the credit for all their hard work.

Virtually every photograph you see today whether its an advertising poster or a magazine editorial in the dentist's waiting room has been manipulated in some way. It's been a steady unnoticed creep towards perfection, a universal flawless everyday perfection.

Mind you, I'm no luddite, for the last 10 years most of my work's had at least a cursory brush of the retoucher's pen.

Michael & Katy & I were discussing this in the pub one evening & the ways that people are now using to try & make their pictures appear more authentic, 'more real'. Leaving in the leads of the studio equipment or the edges of the background, grainy effects to appear candid, & other such things. But these are in the main constructs too, same as all the retouching.

When I was an assistant & for the first 5 years of being a photographer too, at the end of the job we delivered... A Sheet of Film, (& usually one a nudge darker & one lighter) & that was that. - "This is it. This is the shot. This is the best it can be with all of our equipment & our skills & our little tricks."

Before our conversation I hadn't realised that i missed those days, that there was pride in that 'no safety net' necessity of getting it all right in one exposure. There used to be skill! & of course there still is, but great photography, styling, hair & makeup, composition even, is too easily talked down as just good retouching. The credit's being hijacked. We''re none of us true believers anymore. The magic of Photoshops' miracle eraser had unknowingly dented my professional pride.

So, time to claim back a few points for craft. These 4 pictures mark a genuine return to authenticity; there's no photoshop, no retouching. Photography, styling, lighting, set-building all like we used to do it, without a safety net.

It was a very satisfying reminder of what we lost by having the opportunity to 'sort that bit out later'. What you see is what we shot. It took a little it longer to make them, but was all the better for it.
— Jason Tozer, 2012.
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(below) Behind the scenes at the shoot.
Big thank you to our models Joe & Rich Luxton.
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Joe & Rich Luxton, our fencing, snooker playing, table tennis stars!
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(below) Behind the scenes at Generation Press.
Big thanks to Scrub, Chris, Kevin, Graham, Kate & An&!
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Nave, St. Mary’s Church, Pirna, Germany, 2008.
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Chapter House, York Minster, York, England, 2006.
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Nave, St. Anne’s Church, Annaberg-Buchholz, German, 2008.
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Beautiful series called 'Vaults' by photographer David Stephenson from his book 'Heavenly Vaults - From Romanesque to Gothic in European Architecture' (2009) published by Princeton Architectural Press.
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Found at the brilliant - But Does It Float.

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Edgar Martins - This Is Not A House.
This is not a House formed part of an assignment for The New York Times Magazine, one that turned into an international controversy. The US sub-prime mortgage crisis, which has its roots in the closing years of the twentieth century, became apparent in 2007 and exposed pervasive weaknesses as well as deep-rooted inequalities within financial industry regulation and the global financial system. In the winter of 2008, Martins produced a series of photographs that explored the collapse of the US housing market. He photographed abandoned homes, golf courses, ski resorts, hotels and other building projects in sixteen locations, across six separate States.
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When the work was finally published in the summer of 2009, it became the focus of a heated debate as a result of Martins’ decision digitally to re-shape a select few images. What was a riveting polemic about deception and misrepresentation for some, was to others the re-surfacing of a tiresome, age-old, ontological, epistemological and moral chasm between Art and journalism. However, the public reaction to this article, in Martins’ view is better understood and contextualized when, against the backdrop of uncertainty, ruin and bankruptcy, journalistic ethics and woes, one also considers the resonance and imagery of the ruined shelter throughout US history.
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According to the author Peter D Osborne (who contributes and essay to the book of the project), America is a “Settler Nation” and so any disaster that involves the shelter or the settlement, “extends immediately into metaphor for a whole historical process.” Osborne elaborates, “ The history and imagery of the ruined shelter or settlement are required to furnish the continuing epic of travelling and moving on that is the USA, an epic of disasters endured and overcome for sure, but one ever attended by a sense of America’s precariousness, of its own brevity, its own uncertainty about where and if it belongs.”
This is the real context in which This is not a House appears, the ruins of the house–economy.
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UK readers of our blog can see 'This Is Not A House' at The Wapping Project (info below).

'This is not a House' by Edgar Martins 18 January – 04 March 2012
Wapping Hydraulic Power Station, Wapping Wall,
London, E1W 3SG 00 44 207 680 2080
Opening times: Monday – Sunday from noon to 10.30PM, Except Sundays to 5.30PM.
Admission free.
Nearest tube: Wapping.
Bus: 100

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Lovely work by Spanish photographer Maria de la Iglesia. Maria is working with us on a project at the moment, she came highly recommended by our photographer friend Davy Jones. Really looking forward to seeing the results, which we'll post here on our blog.

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Untitled.
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Untitled.
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Mogwai.
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Pantha du Prince.
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A Guy Called Gerald.
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Jon Hopkins.
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Untitled.
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The Cure.
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Diplo.
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Primal Scream.
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LFO (1).
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LFO (2).
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LFO (3).
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LFO (4).
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Global Communication (1).
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Global Communication (2).
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Global Communication (3).
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Global Communication (4).
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Bjork.
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Bestival 2011.
Photography by Michael C Place.
Recollection. Memories. A record of motion.
Witness. Enjoyment. Sights.
Hot. Cold. Wet. Mud. Grass.
Smiles...
Memories...