The Dangerous Sports club invented bungee jumping and pioneered other dangerous and innovative sports. I first met David Kirke founding member of the Dangerous Sports club at a Piers Gaveston party in Oxford. He called me shortly afterwards to suggest meeting the next day at 5 a.m.at Beachy Head where he planned to bungy jump off. I couldn't make that but did make it to the surreal tea party at the Dutch Ambassador's house. - A beautiful Georgian country house in rolling countryside in Gloucestershire. David buzzed overhead in a microlight. A young Nigella Lawson played croquet from a sedan chair supported by 4 members of the club. A TV crew from Game for a Laugh off-puttingly kept asking everyone to repeat things so their cameraman could catch it. I went to St. Moritz for the years that the annual surreal ski race took place. The Swiss tourist board began advertising the race on the lines of 'watch the eccentric English '. Xan Rufus Isaacs managed to get his double decker ( complete with passengers who had won the trip as a prize in a tv show ) half-way up the slope. The plan was to attach skis to the bus. It was the smart bus conductors uniform he was wearing that probably made the Swiss realise he was deadly serious. It would ahve been REALLY dangerous to go down the slope in a bus. After watching Steve Smithwick's cruise missile go down at high speed narrowly missing the road the Swiss authorities refused to allow the bus to go down on safety grounds. We all stayed at an old fashioned sanatorium converted to a hotel halfway up the mountain that David had wangled from the tourist board. That was where I photographed the attempts to dive into an ice bucket from the bar by Mike Fitzroy and Mark Chamberlain. I look after an archive of pictures of club activities which include an early attempt at skiing on grass in the summer by attaching blocks of ice underneath skis..Despite their worldwide media attention and innovation they have never gained financially. In fact every idea and piece of work they created cost far more than ever came in. It was a seemingly impossible balancing act. There was an early attempt to capitalise on the club's fame by introducing a Dangerous Sports club wine. Much effort went into selecting a decent vintage and designing the label. But no-one knew how to market the wine. I think we were drinking it at a party David gave in Fulham. There was someone there who after drinking his glass of wine proceeded to eat his wine glass. I could hear the crunching sound..

My panoramic technique developed from experiments with an early VR software. I discovered if I was careful I could still stitch the pictures using a hand-held camera. I tried to capture the atmosphere of what was going on at social celebrity events. I wanted to cram in everything. There is an interesting random-surveillance aspect to some of the images as it is not possible to compose in the usual way. I like the feeling of time-passing and cinematic movement. For the pictures to work I can only stand in one place while photographing and simply pan around taking pictures while the scene unfolds. I stitch the pictures together and do as little manipulation as possible although the whole process is a form of manipulation. - I don't like to conceal this and like the feeling of motion that the occasional 'mistakes' give. In some ways the panoramas come closer to paintings I did years earlier at art school. I don't think it would be possible to put together these images without an art training. I did these first for Talk magazine. Then a series on the social season for the Tatler. After seeing my portfolio the art director Jason Shulman designed a slot for a panorama which stayed in the Sundat Telegraph magazine through several different editors and redesigns and grew into an opening double-page For 5 years I was on a roll with this weekly slot in the Sunday Telegraph and obsessed with doing these pictures. The weekly deadline to produce a double-page image was a challenge and also meant I was paid to do what I liked.

Sloane Rangers.

The Serpentine Gallery Summer party over the years

When I started photographing openings the art world was very small. A small group of lenders and donors attended black tie dinners. Artists were rarely to be seen. In the late eighties. Anthony Fawcett, who had been an assistant to Yoko Ono, had the brilliant idea of persuading Becks to provide free beer for openings. The idea caught on and suddenly there was free drink at all openings. Fast forward ten years At Art Basel Miami, the Krug party had an extravagant Krug fountain. By comparison, the Frieze Art Fair (which began in 2003) was cooler, but also more serious. It has its share of glamorous parties, but the social highpoint is the actual Fair itself (unlike Miami where the satellite shows and parties on the periphery were more interesting). 
As a rule, the best exhibitions have the best parties. There is a congratulatory buzz of excitement at seeing something new. When I first saw Damien Hirst's pickled cow and then Rachel Whiteread's beautiful lozenge casts in the early nineties, I could see that the art was something new. It works in reverse as well. There was an opening at the Hayward where the director, perhaps seduced by the name and potential publicity, gave a big show to an artist only a few years out of college. All the celebrities turned up but it was a disappointment and the party felt flat. 
 One of the landmark events in the nineties was a fundraiser at the Serpentine with the Princess of Wales as the guest of honour. Alongside the various aristocrats, actors, writers, pop stars, there was a small group of artists including Damien Hirst and the twins, Jane and Louise Wilson. There was also Jay Jopling, who was making a name for himself as Hirst’s art dealer, who spent the party snogging Annabel Neilson. They seemed to be having the most fun. Unlike most of the room, they were not fazed by the presence of the princess. 
 The art world knows how to party and make the most of having a good time. A party of rich bankers would inevitably be dull. But the mixture of the suits, Russian collectors, socialites, young artists, the newly rich, hangers on, models, some starving artists including journalists, makes for a good party. That formula has worked for the past 15 years. I began doing panoramic pictures to try to cram in more of the madness and variety going on. Later on, when the art world became awash with funny money, it was common for galleries to have parties in exclusive nightclubs like Tramp and Annabels. Or smart London hotels like Claridge’s or the Dorchester. Some galleries had VIP rooms with champagne, and beer for everyone else. Somehow one privileged class seems to have been replaced by another one. And after seeing Damien Hirst holding court at the country house Sudeley in Gloucestershire, having arrived by helicopter, I realised that the new establishment is now so entrenched it really has turned into the old one.


In this series I tried to capture the atmosphere of everything that was going on on the catwalk of the Red Carpet. I wanted to cram in the hangers on, the journalists, the PR's, the security. There is almost a religious feeling about the way these icons are surrounded by admirers. - What is missing from my pictures is the noise of the shouting media wanting eye contact and interviews.

I have a backlog of pictures. This folder is a collection of images I want to revisit.

Piers Gaveston Ball, Park Lane Hotel. London. 1983. In 1981 I set up in a small studio space in Jericho in Oxford. My plan was to do black and white Hollywood style photographic portraits. The commissions weren't exactly rolling in but at least I was shortlisted for a photography competition the Sunday Times were running.- The subject for the photo essay was - The Return of the Bright Young Things'- .Once I got into one fancy dress party I was invited to another. It was the first time I'd photographed parties. Pointing a camera at someone at crowded party and getting something that isn't banal is difficult . - I wanted to take photographs that recorded the memorable moments and described what was happening. I learnt as I took the pictures.. I lived at the time literally round the corner from Norreys Ave where some of my first Piers Gaveston pictures were taken. My early pictures led to a job and I moved to London as did many of the club members This was the last Piers Gaveston party I photographed. The Dress code was ' Garden of Earthly Delights' after the painting by Hieronymus Bosch.

My main work is as a magazine photographer. - But that doesn't mean that I don't do weddings.- The first wedding I photographed privately was a famous rock musician's..I learnt that I hadn't been chosen for my skills as a photographer. But because I'd been recommended as being trustworthy. This was a private wedding and the pictures were simply for friends and family. -Which is usually the case... Throughout my career I have always loved photographing weddings. I like to photograph in an unobtrusive, reportage way. Often in black and white. They are always wonderful occasions with lots of unexpected drama and memorable moments. A journalist acquaintance was surprised to see me at a wedding in upstate New York. He quietly confirmed that it was a union between mafia families.- Luckily the bride's mother was delighted with the pictures. Best of all is England with its ancient churches and buildings. The soft light is beautiful. A sense of tradition often with a twist. If it is windy or rains that can be part of the fun and often produces the best pictures..

In 1998 I discovered if I was careful I could still stitch overlapping pictures using a hand-held camera. Each panorama was taken on film, scanned and stitched using early VR software. - An intensive and time consuming effort. I managed to persuade art directors at the Tatler and Talk magazines to finance my first efforts. The Evening Standard then began using one every week. When the editor changed I switched to the Telegraph thanks to art director Jason Shulman and for an amazing period I was on a roll doing one every week surviving 4 different editors.There is a random-surveillance aspect to some of the images as it is not possible to compose in the usual way. I like the feeling of time-passing and cinematic movement. I did as little manipulation as possible although the whole process was a form of manipulation. I was trying to capture the atmosphere of everything that was going on at social and celebrity events and thought this was the best way to do this.

The first few time I went to Hollywood I covered Swifty Lazaar's party at Spago's in Beverley Hills overlooking in LA. Irving 'Swifty' Lazaar was a tiny but forminable character.. He used to leave the dining room constantly to examine the remaining place cards to check out who had the nerve to miss his party.. He would poke me quite hard with his cane to try to control my picture -taking.He was accompanied by a body-guard who stuck right by him the whole time. Along with Elisabeth Taylor, Warren Beatty and Jack Nicholson the newly appointed editor of Vanity Fair Graydon Carter was a guest at what was to be Swifty's last party.- I think this was where he had the germ of the idea of having his own Oscar night party. A year later Swifty sadly died and Vanity Fair began holding their Awards party. Graydon asked Annie Leibovitz to photograph but sitting down for dinner she didn't take many pictures. Maybe she thought it was beneath her. By default afterwards most of the pictures published were mine. . Meanwhile the LA photographer Alan Berliner shared with me his useful supply of beef jerky. At 10.30 p.m. Graydon was nervously smoking and waiting outside to see if the stars would arrive after the Academy Awards. and the lacklustre Governors Ball. - To relief all round they did..- the limos seemd to be in a jam all the way from downtown LA..- Vanity Fair laid on more of a spectacle outside for the media with topiary and branding. ( the branding even on the floor ) Also plenty of space for the press. Some guests seemed to spend more time doing interviews and posing for pictures than enjoying the party.- But that is part of what the whole thing is about. But once there was the LA establishment, money-men, screen-writers, film stars, PR's , a few selected journalists all enjoying themselves. The press machinery has always fascinated me. One of my favourite images here is the manic journalist facing the camera. As an experiment I did my first ever panoramic picture of the scene at the Vanity Fair party. It felt like an Eureka moment when my computer worked through the night to stitch 18 pictures together. One of my more memorable pictures was the one of Mick Jagger looking miserable. First Mick was sitting by himself looking bored, and then Madonna crossed the room to sit down next to him. She started talking and he became quite animated. Then Tony Curtis came along and sat down at the same table and started monopolising Madonna. - Jagger was on his own again. I was upset when the magazine didn't use this picture. - Each year the number of photographers covering the party increased exponentially. Each photographer given access seemed to bring an assistant who also took pictures. It should be easy but I find getting a decent meaningful picture of a party incredibly difficult.

In 1992 I managed to land a job working for the New York Observer, a weekly newspaper in Manhattan. It was an eccentric newspaper run from a brownstone on the Upper East side. I set up my darkroom in the basement . At the time the paper was edited by Graydon Carter. I was responsible for all the pictures in the paper. I travelled all around New York on foot or the subway taking photographs - a dream. ( Also for me a healthy relief from covering parties. )

Literary New York

Literary London

I’ve done some of my best work when employed by magazine and websites that sadly died- Some were spectacular failures. Pictures shown here from my time at Connoisseur, Talk magazine, peoplenews.com, , Park Avenue, German Vanity Fair and The First Post.- I learnt a lot and enjoyed working for them but they were all ventures that sadly had the backers or owners close them down. Once a photographer finds a niche they tend to cling on like limpets. (- Finding paid work as a photographer has always been statistically impossible ). When I began experimenting with digital stitched pictures my regular magazine employers weren't interested. - But I was obsessed with doing the pictures and had to move on. Recklessly going from safe well-funded publications to riskier but more exciting start-ups. ( Unfortunately the more established publications decided to take this as a form of disloyalty. ) But now even the really big names of media publishing are being threatened. It looks like these once sucessful publications may not be around much longer.. - Individual, eccentric and edgier publications that have never had much money behind them have more chance of surviving. Perhaps because they have always been efforts of love?

David Cameron and Rebekah Brooks. Book launch for Citizen by Charlie Brooks. Tramp. London. 1 April 2009. An invite arrived through the post to a book launch for Charlie Brooks's book the Citizen from Freud PR. The name of Brook's rang a bell . I knew he was someone in the posh horse world. Curious that Freud's had invited me.- I'm not one of their normal roster of tame photographers. On arriving I learnt that Charlie Brooks was the boyfriend of Rebekah Wade the editor of the Sun. I'd met Rebekah previously. The Sun was one of the first newspapers to publish Maciej Dakowicz's pictures of Cardiff. When I'd complimented her on this she's known exactly who I was talking about and said something about how telling they are as a picture of England. .- She seemed a very good editor. Outspoken Ex-Sun editor Kelvin Mckenzie was there. Simon Kelner, Peter Stothard, Also Will Lewis who at the time was editor of the Telegraph afterwards to go on to work for News International.. I was told that David Cameron ( then leader of the opposition ) was expected. - He duly arrived along with George Osborne. Several photographers were there and an attempt was made to herd us into the downstairs entrance area of the club . We were crowding the entrance so I wandered off into the party. The party was at Tramp the nightclub in St. james's which happens to be quite dark. I was using my Leica ranginder which works well at focussing in low-light. - It doesn't give off an off-putting infra red focussing beam on your subjects. . You don't miss a picture with it. David Cameron was talking to Rebekah Wade. I took a quite unflattering but strong picture where they look interrupted and annoyed.- Then David was led by Rebekah and introduced to a few people. I took another picture of this which was more balanced. Then left them alone and photographed the other guests at the party.Later David Cameron sat down with Madonna's ex-husband Guy Ritchie - This seemed to be the picture that the PR's Ie Mathew Freud had planned and it was pointed out to all the photographers to remind us to do it. A picture of this appeared in the next day's paper . .Although I submitted my pictures to the Independent of Cameron and Wade and also the interesting one of George Osborne, Matthew Freud and Rebekah Wade they were at the time unpublished. My impression was of Cameron and George Osborne paying obeisance to Rebekah. Dafydd Jones

Annabels night club, Berkeley Sq. London.