I have shot film for an artist documentary featuring the great potter Svend Bayer and also a throwing sequence in Japan featuring Ken Matsuzaki. I often work with fantastic filmmaker Alex Wright and conduct many of the interviews that form the narrative for his documentaries. Sometimes I even get to write and record the music too!

Svend Bayer | Artist Documentary

I was photographing Svend Bayer, one of the uk’s most respected potters, for a monograph on him and his work and was asked to take a video camera to interview him for a dvd. A bit shaky at first (I was holding an umbrella over the camera!), below is the resulting film. I also wrote the theme toon (with a little help from Elgar!), sang the theme toon…

 

Ken Matsuzaki | Throwing Chawans

While photographing the Japanese potter, Ken Matsuzaki, for the Goldmark Gallery 2007 monograph. I was asked to film Matsuzaki at his kick wheel throwing Chawans (Teabowls). The footage of him at work was to be used in a feature documentary about the artist. I asked Matsuzaki on the first day if I could film him working and he said no. I asked him on the second day if I could film him and he told me it was a private process. I asked him, very nicely, on the third day… and so on. On my very last day he told me to meet him at his studio at 3 which I did very nervously and, with all settings on auto, filmed and photographed the master at work! His studio felt like a temple. This is rare footage of one of Japan’s internationally respected potters at work.