My teenage punk band was lucky to find a photographer as good as Porl Medlock. He came with us around Europe in the late 80s and early 90s and inspired me to start taking pictures. Here he is at home, in Pontefract, in the summer of 2022.
Kumon Y'all 2023 /
I went to junior school on the edge of Savile Town in Dewsbury. On a rain-soaked Saturday, I went back to photograph the annual Fun Day.
Lost Footballs /
The first stray ball I photographed was floating in Cardiff Bay in late 2005. I was working with the England team and one of the players had somehow found an open window in the kitroom during an over-enthusiastic kickabout. Since then, I’ve spotted them in all kinds of places and the excellent Twitter account @lostfootballs has given me even more reason to keep shooting them.
Amazon Prime Rooney Film /
I’m not at all bitter that none of the pictures I submitted to the production company made the grade. Still, I enjoyed searching the archive and remembering those training sessions, dog walks, car journeys, dressing rooms, shop visits, football matches, birthday parties and aeroplanes. Here’s a few of the highlights.
Without a Word /
Given the striking symmetry, I assumed these two were travelling together. Then they got off the bus from King's Cross at different stops and without a word to each other.
Inside the North London Derby /
The news that Spurs is the latest club to make an Amazon Prime documentary took me back to April 2007. Manager Martin Jol said no when the club asked to put a film crew in the dressing room for the derby with Arsenal and suggested I do it instead. I’d photographed Spurs behind the scenes for a couple of seasons but had no real experience with video so approached it as a stills photographer with a strange camcorder. I think it worked well, most of the time, but I learned to hold shots longer and the camera steadier. The random live soundtrack on this edit captures the mood.
Russian Visas /
Headshots for the England players' Russian visas, August 2007.
Smoking Girl /
I'm going through boxes of old prints in the storeroom and rediscovering some of the early photographs that made me want to pack the day job in. This is one of them, a Leeds school in the early 1990s.
Paddling Pool Painters /
I’ve walked past the paddling pool in my local park so many times but daren’t take any pictures with people in it. On Monday I finally got my chance.
Face-to-Face /
Lampard and Terry coming face-to-face again in the Championship Play-Off Final adds another dimension to 'the richest game in football'. I took this in Vienna back in September 2004.
45 Minutes to Soho /
Late last night I walked to the 100 Club on Oxford Street in London and took pictures on the way through Islington, King’s Cross and Bloomsbury.
Touch /
The picture above is the second I’ve taken on this corner, the other is of a dog standing on its hind legs. The ones below were snapped around the same time while travelling through London.
Sunday Morning Motorway /
Fantastic changing light heading south on the M1 early yesterday.
Back to School /
As local kids prepare to go back to school, I noticed some have a shorter journey than others.
Suresh Singh at Home /
One highlight of 2018 was visiting Suresh Singh at his house in Spitalfields, London for the 'Faith and Culture in the Home' project. We hadn't met before but it turned out he played drums for a band I saw in 1980.
25/25: Ole Gunnar /
25/25. Back in April 1997, when Umbro asked me to take pictures of him kicking an empty can of pop around, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was well on his way to becoming top goalscorer in his first season at Manchester United. It's unlikely this kind of thing would be allowed to happen now, or that there'd be no representatives from the player's agents, the club, or the client on the shoot. (For 25 Years of Mooneyphoto)
24/25: Euston Mexican Wave /
24/25. "One more thing - can you also shoot a Mexican Wave to run round the nine digital screens at Euston Station?". McDonald's Olympics campaign for Leo Burnett was complicated enough with just the one day to shoot a dozen posters and super slow motion films. It was a real team effort with a crew of more than 50 managing a 500-strong crowd and 20 actors. I had an idea how this element might work but my partners Keely Edge and Julian Hodsgon made it happen while I was outside shooting some fans in the rain. (For 25 Years of Mooneyphoto)
23/25: Allez Les Bleus! /
23/25. An element of chaos has played an important part in some of my best advertising work and this shot, for Sony’s World Cup 2014 campaign through Iris, is a good example. We cast dozens of actors to play fans and bussed in hundreds of extras to make up the crowd for our own mini-tournament. These three lads were from one of the 5-a-side teams taking part and, when they got knocked out, we had the stylists dress them up to fill a space in the stands. They went absolutely mad when another of their mates scored a spectacular goal and this is the result. (For 25 Years of Mooneyphoto)
22/25: Game Over /
22/25. Walking the streets with a camera is a good way for photographers to keep fit. Some days the benefit is purely physical but on others it can be spiritual, emotional and even material. This shot of a north London electricity sub-station made the Association of Photographers Awards in 2013. Not long after, the roof was replaced and the balls disappeared but just how many games did that chimney spoil? (For 25 Years of Mooneyphoto)
21/25: Auschwitz /
21/25. "Auschwitz is just down the road Tom, we should go and see it tomorrow." I was in the kitman's hotel room two days before England played Poland. "Not only are we going Mooney," he said, "we’re taking the boys with us.” And off he went, down the corridor to knock on manager Sven Goran Eriksson’s door. The next morning, an enterprising local photographer followed the team bus as it set off to a mystery destination on a day with no scheduled media activity. He got a telephoto lens version of this shot which made newspapers around the world and, a few months later, Sven was invited to talk about the visit at Westminster Hall in London on Holocaust Memorial Day alongside the Queen, Prime Minister and British survivors of the concentration camps. (For 25 Years of Mooneyphoto)