Goldbären

image © David Sykes 2013 All rights reserved.

I was pleased to be asked to shoot another cover for Monocle magazine, this months issue is all about how the world needs the new Germans (and their sweet bear) I had to shoot a super close up of a Haribo bear we had to hold a Goldbären (Golden bear in German) casting which meant we had to buy lot's and lot's of Haribo it's a hard job but someone has to do it! Me and Sam my assistant are still working our way through the reject bears and other yummy Haribo's.

I also had to photograph lots of German stationary for this issue which was great for me because as I've always had a soft spot for some quality stationary from back in my graphic design days!

image © David Sykes 2013 All rights reserved.

sacred hearts

image © David Sykes 2013 All rights reserved.

Here's my recent valentines inspired test. I found these hearts in my local art shop and couldn't resist getting them, a bit of red spray paint later and voila!

This lady has been stealing men's hearts for years who's next?......

And the winner is...

Thanks to all those that took part in my christmas sock craft pack, apologies for the late arrival of the results, it has been a busy January!There were some great sock characters created and in the end I couldn't chose just one favourite so I've decide to award a bottle of bubbles to two creations. The winners are Marion Thibaudot from BBH and Alex Bamford from RKCR/Y&R. Both of them put a smile on my face so congratulations to you both! Here are the two winning entires

Below is the shot that started it all.

image © David Sykes 2013 All rights reserved.

Adventgram final 25

All images © David Sykes 2013 All rights reserved.

Happy New year!

Thanks to all of you that contributed to this years adventgram and followed the project. It was great seeing all the different ways people interpreted the project. I look forward to doing it again at the end of this year.

Hope you all had a great festive break here's to a great 2013

All images © David Sykes 2013 All rights reserved.

The proof of the pudding

All images © David Sykes 2012 All rights reserved.

This Festive season I decided it would be good to create a Christmas inspired shot that I could send out to the people I've worked with over the years, so I started to think up ideas and came to the conclusion that everyone loves festive food and presents at christmas so why not combine the two. That is how I came to create my sock christmas pudding, for those that have followed my work over the years you'll know that I have liked to create food images but not using food but everyday objects to create faux food. So I dusted off (and repainted) my giant 4 foot plate and went about creating my giant sock pudding, the pile ended up being 3 foot high and nearly 4 foot wide and Katie Cordell the stylist had to source over a hundred socks. It took us the best part of a day to create the perfect sock pile and at the end I was tempted to go for the flaming Christmas pud and set fire to them! But I couldn't as I needed them for the next part of my mailer.

All images © David Sykes 2012 All rights reserved.

I thought it would be fun to send people one sock from my pudding as a memento and as creative inspiration, I custom made some sock tags with a challenge on them to make the lonely sock into a festive stocking or christmas character. To help them on there way I supplied a starter kit of some fake fur some red and green felt, googly eyes and some buttons. (see below) I'm asking them to send pictures of the results so I'm looking forward to seeing the festive creations.

All images © David Sykes 2012 All rights reserved.

This will probably be my last post of the year so I'd like to wish everyone a merry christmas and a happy new year thanks for following my blog.

Adventgram 2012

This is adventgram from 2011

All images © David Sykes 2012 All rights reserved.

We are surrounded by numbers every day as a result they tend to go unnoticed, there are 1000's of different typefaces out there, some beautifully crafted some not so. I've decided to celebrate the humble number, and what better month than December the one month that most of us count down to an event, Christmas day. I'm shooting my adventgram project for the second year running. Every day I find and shoot the number of the day on my phone using instagram to publish it. This year I'm being joined by some fellow instagramers using the hashtag #adventgram

Monocle, the gift that keeps on giving

All images © David Sykes 2012 All rights reserved.

It's that time of year again the gift guide issue of Monocle and this year it's themed. All the gift ideas are from vienna (who knew they made so many cool things!).

I also shot some of the new Monocle mechanise they are selling this christmas, they have there own umbrella now and I have to say it's probably the best made umbrella I've ever seen but if you're thinking of getting me one for christmas don't I have a tenancy to lose them!

We had lots of fun with paper and boxes this issue and I thought Richard spencer-powells choice of colours for the boxes worked so well I had to give them there very own photo.

All the fun of the fair

All images © David Sykes 2012 All rights reserved.

For my latest piece of personal work I had the pleasure of working with Stylist Carrie Louise on this project we wanted to look at the great textures and objects you get at a fun fair and shoot them in an abstract way. It was a fun couple of days shooting, if not a little messy as we hired a candy floss machine for the day. I'm not sure I'll ever be able to eat candy floss again probably the stickiest day in the studio I've had so far, and rest assured that no goldfish were harmed in the making of this project just a couple of coconuts!

Michael Parkinson's background

All images © David Sykes 2012 All rights reserved.

I was recently commissioned by Sky arts to shoot some backgrounds for a couple of their new shows, here is the one I shot for the new Michael Parkinson show Parkinson: masterclass it starts on the 13th of November looks quite good. It's up on 48 sheet poster nation wide keep an eye out for them. Unfortunately I didn't get to meet the man himself the portrait was shot by their in house photographer. I'm sure parky is a fascinating man to talk to, maybe next time?

An object of desire

My Light breakfast was selected to appear in PDN magazines objects of desire competition it's in there November issue of the magazine out right now!

Pick your teeth

All images © David Sykes 2012 All rights reserved.

I found these whilst Halloween shopping. Thought they were such a fangtastic selection of ghoulish teeth I had to shoot them, I decided that they deserved there own halloween alter. Which one's would you pick?

Hope everyone has a Happy Halloween of trick or treating this weekend!

New vue

I’m very pleased to announce that I am now represented in the UK by Vue Represents have a look at my new work on there site.

Shooting medals

All images © David Sykes 2012 All rights reserved.

I was asked by Bloomburg Business Week to photograph the 2012 Olympic medals. I had to shoot them at the London offices of Rio Tinto who are providing the metal for the medals. Once we had cleared security we were taken to a room to shoot the medals. It was amazing to get to hold something as special as an Olympic gold medal, it was a lot bigger and heavier than I expected. I had only an hour and a half to shoot them, which is a lot less time than I usually take over a still life, but I'm really pleased with the results!

One interesting fact I learnt was that the gold medal is actually 92.5% silver, but I guess if you win one you don't care what it's made of!

Good luck to all the competitors at this years Olympics but as a Londoner, I will be cheering for team GB!

Jelly Jubilee

All images © David Sykes 2012 All rights reserved.

I found this jelly mould by Lydia Leith and knew I wanted to do a test shot with it unfortunately I have been so busy I didn't manage to do it before the jubilee so to wet your appetite I created this more simple shot for the jubilee weekend.

It's win win all round.

All images © David Sykes 2012 All rights reserved.

My latest Advertising work for Fallon is up and about around the UK. It was shot for Cadburys who are helping you to send a message of encouragement to team GB and you get to eat their lovely Chocolate so a win win situation all round! We built a giant pin board in the studio then pinned hundreds of cards to it, a few prick fingers later this was the result. If you run out of chocolate easter eggs over the weekend grab a bar of Cadburys Dairy milk and write team GB a message of support.

All work and no play makes jack a dull boy

All images © David Sykes 2012 All rights reserved.

Here is one of my latest pieces of personal work, and as we're in the middle of "Mad Men" fever I had to pair it up with my whiskey shot from a few weeks ago I think they work well together. If the rest of the series is anything like the first episode the hype is well deserved. Hope you enjoy my new work and Mad Men.

All images © David Sykes 2012 All rights reserved.

Five years and counting

All images ©David Sykes 2012 All rights reserved.

This month Monocle magazine celebrates it's five year anniversary and I was asked to shoot the cover and contents of it's anniversary special edition. It was great to go back through the archives with Richard Spencer Powell helping select from all the fantastic print they've produced over the years. (they've been busy!) I'm very proud to have had my photography in every issue of Monocle, it's been a lot of fun seeing all the amazing things they find. Some of my favourite shoots I've worked on over years have been the covers that I've shot.

All images ©David Sykes 2012 All rights reserved.

Hair of the dog

All images ©David Sykes 2012 All rights reserved.

Happy New Year!

I hope you all had a good holiday?

January might be known as the month of recovery, and of abstinence from the temptations of the festive period, but in my opinion the long winter nights need a bit of old fashioned warmth. So, for the first post of 2012, I thought I'd share my latest personal work, something traditional to warm the cockles as the cold bites. Oh, and in the spirit of recovery, here's the antidote as well.

Last minute gift ideas

All images ©David Sykes 2011 All rights reserved.

For those of of you who are looking for those last minute gift ideas have a look at the December issue of Monocle they have some fantastic gift ideas in there gift guide.

I was asked to create a Monocle version of a department store window display for each of there gift guide sections. I always love shooting Monocles gift guide as I get a sneak preview to all the latest and greatest gifts on sale (and I have to admit that quite a few were added to my charisma list.)

So this is my last post before Christmas so I'd just like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New year!

QR Riddle

All images ©David Sykes 2011 All rights reserved.

I wanted to promote the relaunch of my website and this blog with a bespoke shot and a mail-out. The QR code is the perfect example of something physical that links to the digital world, so I hit on the idea of building and shooting my own physical QR code and sending out a limited edition mailer. Just the QR photograph; no name, no other links or information, just that.

I wanted to play with the juxtaposition of a physical object linking directly to the digital, so I decided to build a 3D model of the code and create the image in one shot. This is in line with the way I like to work, I try to shoot as many things ‘in camera’ as I can. This meant scaling up and then building the 8 foot square model of the code. To create another link to my previous work I used objects from around the studio to build up the shot. Over three days, I worked with the stylist, Carrie Louise, to source the props, plan out and construct the QR city.

To further demonstrate the ‘in camera’ feel of the code I shot on film. To give the mail-out the sense of being a sheet of 10 x 8 film I retained the full frame of the shot, including studio in the background and rebates. I even presented it in the same bags you would get the film back from the lab in.

So, a brand new website via QR promotion with a traditional twist. An intriguing QR code arrives in the post, would you scan it?

Credits: Website designed by The Chase and built by Christian Duncan