Dave, who appears in these photographs, was the central character with Luna, in a music video we created together for the band. While we were making the video, I had an instinct to capture still photographs alongside the moving image. I didn’t really know what they would become at the time — I simply felt there was something there worth photographing.
The video itself was conceptualised around suicide and bullying within corporate workplaces. I was beginning to work with more corporations and becoming increasingly aware of hierarchy, authority and the structures people were expected to operate within.
I was interested in the everyday struggle of people caught inside that machinery — the tension between the individual and the role they were expected to perform.
I wish I had photographed behind the scenes of every personal project I’ve made over the years. I didn’t. Fortunately, with this one, I did.
Nearly fifteen years later, these photographs have found their place again. What began as an instinct to make a few still images during the production of a music video now feels entirely at home within Pain, Truth and Freedom.
Sometimes the meaning of a photograph takes years to reveal itself.
As for the final video or raw footage? Lost. Only the recordings of me directing Dave survived.
