“ Backstage passes “ is a series of portraits taken backstage of various artists and speakers either before or just after their performance. This can be one of the most challenging but exciting assignments as a photographer. Respecting their process before a show, Precariously balancing not getting in the way but being a good hang and more often than not - only getting a brief few moments to actually photograph them before they launch themselves on stage, It’s a highly pressurised environment and I love it.

As ever this series was captured using a mix of film and digital- the portrait of Katherine Hamnett ( shot on a medium format Pentax 645 ) was taken before she gave a talk in Dublin in 2010 and was my first foray into this kind of work, In turn this marked the real start of my photography career. She was incredibly generous with her time and while I was photographing her she told me I really had something about me and to keep going. Still unsure 15 years later of what to make of that statement but keep going I surely will.

I photographed the American composer Philip Glass a couple of days later and he was quite different. When it came time to photograph him he barked at me “ Are you any good ?” I sheepishly ( and honestly - given my lack of experience as a young photographer ) answered “ No, Probably not yet “ . He replied - “ The last time I was photographed was by my friend Annie Liebovitz , Make it good kid “.

The portrait you see below that I took of him was taken on my old Canon Eos 35mm film camera, In the alleyway beside Dublins National Concert Hall, lit only by the camera’s pop-up flash. It’s no Annie Liebowitz but it is I think, an honest reflection of the man - and that for me, is all I can ask for from a photograph. Besides I wasn’t there on official business - I had blagged my way backstage after the show and talked his tour manager into getting five minutes with him so I had nothing to lose.

All of the other portraits were either magazine commissions that ran alongside interviews or I was directly commissioned by a festival, record label or by the artist. I will be adding to this series as more surface in my archive.