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Who is Michael valentine?
Robin Francis started Michael valentine Studio
just before his 40th birthday (not that long ago). He was unemployed
at the time after being made redundant for the 2nd time after 18
long soul destroying years in the IT industry. Though those years
were financially rewarding Robin felt he had reached a stage were
he just needed to do something ‘and be involved’ in
something he was passionate about. In 1996, Robin was fortunate
to be able to talk to composer / pianist Joe Sample. Robin had brought
his bulky Mamiya 645 medium format camera into the Jazz Café,
Camden during Joe’s gig and was lining up a great photograph.
Unfortunately (or fortunately) the camera battery died on him at
the very moment he was eyeing what would have been a great shot.
He recalls that heart sinking moment … “I could
have cried at the time, there I was right in front of one of my
favourite artists with hundreds of pounds worth of equipment, and
I forgot to re-charge the battery!”
Fortunately, Joe was kind enough to speak to Robin
after the gig and after hearing of his stupidity… ‘or
misfortune’, he invited Robin back to his hotel for a second
chance…“If you can get up very early in the morning,
you can take photographs of me before I leave for Paris…!”
He said with a warm smile. Robin admits that he never slept that
night in fear of over sleeping and missing the opportunity.
Robin never forgot Joe Sample’s kindness
and how much he enjoyed the brief conversation about music, his
son (Nick) and his journey. However, it would take redundancy in
IT ten years later for Robin to finally reach his epiphany. Music
has always been a major part of his life. Photography has always
been an art form that intrigued him. “Why not combine
the two?”
What is Michael Valentine
Studio?
“There are many great photographers around
today. There are well over a million great photography galleries
on the web. I respect them all. I wanted michaelvalentinestudio.com
to say a lot more than just musician photography. Yes, ‘a
picture paints a thousand words’, but I also wanted to find
out more about each musician and their work and share this information
with viewers. This would in turn help to promote the musician, sell
more great music and in turn educate the viewer. I also believe
it is important to promote the gigs I photograph, so I run a gig
guide page and newsletter which is currently distributed to over
1000 individual music lovers and musicians. Hi-Fi is also an important
factor in my music listening experience, hence the Hi-Fi reviews.
What I did not factor in all the above was the time it would take
for ‘me’ to complete these tasks. I am a control freak
with regards to this baby.”
Photographs are available to artists, PR companies,
record companies, music venues and collectors. Any 'little' finance
collected through sales is used for the running of the website,
camera equipment etc. I am not sponsored by Nikon, or Canon yet!
Most artists understand and respect the time and cost involved in
running this website. It takes on average two days of solid
work to build one artist page alone!
Artists who have been extremely helpful
to date
Joe Sample, David Sanborn, Tom Brown, Chris ‘Snake’
Davis, Frank McComb, Terri Walker, Roy Ayres, Danilo Perez, Randy
Jacobs, Peter White, Jaared, Madeline Bell Mindy Abair, Ian Shaw
PR companies who have been amazing
Serious
Venues who have regularly opened their doors
to me to date
PizzaExpress Jazz Club, 606 Club, Barbican Centre, Southbank Centre
Robin Francis
C/o Michael Valentine Studio Ltd. Reg No. 05698566
20 April 2010
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