Alex De Mora

Amidst the chaos that was the Jabberwocky fall out, we had the task of pinning down The Bug’s Kevin Martin for a photo shoot while his team fervently scrambled to secure a last-minute show.

Fortunately, Kevin’s plane ticket from Berlin wasn’t wasted: The Bug played Corsica Studios and we managed to get some awesome photos thanks to Alex de Mora, who’d previously shot Canadian punk outfit White Lung for us, being able to make the shoot with just a couple of hours notice.

Alongside Crack, Alex’s work has been featured in Vice, i-D and Oyster magazine, and his portfolio includes photos of artists such as DOOM, Wiley, Charli XCX, Future Islands, Slash (yes, Slash) as well as commercial work with Nike, Red Bull and Converse. We got in touch with Alex to talk about working with brands, collecting jewellery with Fuck Buttons, and the Wu-Tang Clan’s efficiency.

Firstly, how was the experience of shooting The Bug? Kevin, Flowdan and Manga look great together, what was the vibe like?

I met Kevin at his hotel and he asked how I wanted to do things. I ran a couple of ideas by him, one of which he had no qualms in telling me he didn’t like. It was funny. I respected that though – it’s great when an artist knows what they want out of a shoot. When we got to the location, it was all fairly organic to be honest. Those guys are clearly good mates and I let them talk and move around as normal. Sometimes it’s better to observe than provoke. Saying that, I joked with Flowdan about football (he’s a Liverpool fan) to see I if could raise a smile, but he knew my game. He’s equally funny and scary. The shoot was probably 15 minutes long, and then it started pissing down with rain.

You’ve got some huge names and big commercial clients on your CV. Was there a project which felt like a big break for you in terms of your career?

It kind of depends. The first time I shot a huge artist, I reckon I was equally buzzing as when I shot for a big brand. I grew up obsessed with music, so will always gravitate towards that, I think. I guess financially, working for brands can be great, but for me it was pretty exciting and surreal when I shot MF Doom racing remote controlled cars around Haggerston BMX track, or when Slash walked into my studio in Bethnal Green. More recently, Red Bull flew me out to LA to shoot in the desert with Eagles of Death Metal. That was perhaps my best job so far.

Alongside super professional fashion shoots, you’ve done a lot of rawer and outdoor shoots with music artists. Do you enjoy the experience of working in a more spontaneous, looser context?

That’s why I like the variety of shooting both portraits and fashion. They have their different challenges. With fashion, you are working with a model and team to create something that’s more or less controlled. As much as directing a situation can be satisfying, I love the challenge of portraits, and reflecting something that is real and spontaneous. Usually you can’t choose time or location with musicians, so it makes you work harder. When I shot Raekwon, we had less than ten minutes to interview and shoot him, but it came out great. Actually, the same thing happened with Ghostface. Wu-Tang must work on a tight schedule!

Can you describe your creative process when you were working the Fuck Buttons artwork? Would you like to work on this kind of project again in the future?

Shooting the Slow Focus artwork was a lot of fun as it was quite removed from my normal work. I’ve known them for a while, and after hearing the album we had quite a specific idea of creating a set of dark but kind of glamorous, abstract images to run alongside the music.

Ben from the band began collecting the objects to shoot and I guess one of my main intentions was that the images looked like a set. We actually loved the project so much that I exhibited it all in London at the start of this year. I’d be keen to work on more stuff like this, for sure.

What projects have you got coming up in the next few months?

I’m actually working on another project with Ben from Fuck Buttons, creating some new artwork for his solo project Blanck Mass. We have come up with some pretty odd ideas together. I’m working on a few shoots for Vice at the moment. One is with a bunch of corpses, so that’s gonna be a fun day. I’m also shooting a personal project on Goths. The most under appreciated of all subcultures

Lastly, can you recommend any photographers/blogs/publications that are inspiring you right now?

Toilet Paper magazine is pretty amazing. It’s such a slick production. Some other photographers I love the work of are Eliot Lee hazel, Tyrone Lebon, Ryan McGinley. A couple of friends of mine have also started a really unique magazine called Special Request, which has a new issue coming out soon, and is definitely worth checking out