Flickr: Duke Mule - Photography

Duke Mule - Photographer and Electronica.

'Allo Im Duke Mule and I have been photographing Bands, egos and Street Scenes worldwide for over 10 years. Starting out in 1996 with an old Nikon Camera and Black n White darkroom out the back of the flat, wedged between the washing machine and a pile of old 70's playboy magazines, I landed a freelance gig for W Mag on the Gold Coast, Australia - and spent the next 6 years shooting bands from Korn, Marilyn Manson, Silverchair and The Chemical Brothers among others at the Big Day Out...not all years were guaranteed entry, due to my coked up editor, but its amazing how you can bluff security with a media pass made from a shoelace from your one-stars, the outside plastic from a malboro pack and a 10% discount coupon for KFC - try it at home kids...but the key is the camera. I quickly discoved the magic power a camera has...when you march somewhere with conviction holding a camera aloft people will part the way, like when someone in a minibus spews..people scatter. So the next few years was of Summer festivals dodging security guards and crowdsurfers and Doc Martins as they rained down on you in that little area in front of the stage that looks like left over sets from Mad Max. I remember standing next to Tony Mott - Australias most well known music photographer whist the guy from Rammstein sprayed the crowd with a giant cock attached to a waterblaster..and I remember looking at the array of cameras and lenses hanging off him like the Christmas tree at the Kodak office..and I thought thats cool..I want to be payed proper to do photography, not just in film and Stellas as W Mag was paying..and I want to do it full time. So I went to Europe...photographing everything and anything - Sword dancing fishermen in Croatia to the Northern Aurora in the middle of winter in the top of Norway, Finnish drunks having shopping trolley races in Helsinki to Pirana feeding at a mates flat in Bethnal Green..Guv! I always got to have a camera handy, just incase the world needs yet another Britnay Spears snatch shot. Never gone the Papparazi route, although I could..If NZ ever gets some celebrities. I really like the dynamic nature of Band Photography and the diversity of the musical styles I come across...whenever I hear a band I usually get a very quick idea of the images that could be attached to them, I have shot hundreds of musicians and been commissioned to shoot Cd covers and promos for many indie bands and soloists..I prefer live and outside as I find a studio situation turns a band back into real people, and we dont want that!! Ive been living in Sweden until recently and finally landed a full time photography gig of the most bizzare nature. I was working for a company which had the contract to provide all the 360 photographs for all the Hilton hotel worldwide. A really different gig for me..and I really enjoyed it until I started waking up in the generic hotel rooms and having to think about which country i was in this week...seriously it happened....sounds fun, heaps of travel, photograph the world, stay in 5 star hotels, but in reality my life became Bill Murrays in Lost in Translation - minus the mid life crisis and Scarlett Johanson. Photographing hotel interiors for someone else had a limited creative lifespan for me, so on days off I would take the camera out into the streets to capture the scenes and characters that make up the cities - Much more interesting!! I have been published in music magazines in NZ, Australia, Ireland and Sweden, and now Im back focussing on building my own specialized "360 virtual tour" photographic company based here in New Zealand. It would be great to do panoramas of bands for the websites..I havent seen it done in the way Im thinking, and If youre keen to see the results check my website..www.360view.co.nz. Anyhow, Im always keen to get behind the camera, do some interesting shoots and check out a gig or a wierdo in your nieghbourhood..Contact Duke Mule for any photographic work needed...duke.mule@hotmail.com and check the website. www.360view co.nz