Showing posts with label Dazed and Confused. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dazed and Confused. Show all posts
Monday, 14 May 2012
Monday, 19 March 2012
Dirty Paraffin in Dazed & Confused Magazine
CT2012
Saturday, 19 February 2011
Dazed & Confused Lagos in Print
As I have posted earlier, I headed up to Lagos in late 2010 with the editor of Dazed & Confused magazine Rod Stanley to Lagos Nigeria for the MTV Mama awards 2010. The print article is out in this months print magazine. Check out the Tear Sheet below.
For more go and buy the magazine or check out Dazed Digital.
CT 2011
For more go and buy the magazine or check out Dazed Digital.
CT 2011
Thursday, 16 December 2010
Dazed Digital, Lagos and the Mama's
Last week I headed up to Lagos Nigeria with the editor of Dazed & Confused magazine Rod Stanley to cover a story on the MTV mama awards. The first little bit of the story is up on Dazed Digital.
I have pasted the text by Rod Stanley and the pics with it below. If you wanna see it on the dazed website please visit DazedDigital.
There is more to come with the print issue in a couple of months where we will release the full story with all its images.
Text by Rod Stanley
There ain’t no party like a Lagos party, or so they say. This weekend, Dazed flew out to Lagos, Nigeria for the third annual MTV Africa Music Awards and spent a few days and some late nights meeting rap, R&B and kuduro superstars from across Africa: names like Banky W, Fally Ipupa, Daddy Owen, Cabo Snoop and Radio & Weasel, from Angola to Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo and beyond, all huge stars in their own countries, selling truckloads of records despite rampant piracy and a rickety music industry. These guys are kind of the Jay Zs and Snoops of Africa, basically.
In our brief time in Lagos, we managed to get chased off the red carpet after walking out behind some stars as they posed for the TV cameras, incoherently advise the boss of MTV Worldwide on his business strategy (a man who had just arrived in a blacked-out 4x4 with two AK47-toting police guards), accidentally start a game of musical chairs with Public Enemy's Chuck D, and find ourselves abandoned by our hosts in a packed Lagos nightclub at 3.30am with only a bottle of tequila and our new friends the Angolan kuduro kings Cabo Snoop for company.
Our hotel seemed to have been lifted from the pages of a JG Ballard novel, featuring an impressive split-level outdoor pool with multiple water slides that absolutely no one was using, surrounded by razor wire and rusty freighters rumbling past in the rubbish-strewn lagoon. Inside, escorts touted for business in the main bar – one thoughtfully pressed her boobs up against the terrace window for us to admire as we choked on our burgers. To change money, you had to take your dollars down to the main gate, where a gang of ‘bookies’ would come over to your car and conduct business through your window. Beyond the gate lay a hooting, seething bedlam of motorised madness: weaving and honking cars, trucks and motorbikes rattling over potholes, while the street vendors selling everything from cold drinks to electric shavers risked life and limb twirling from window to window amid the roar.
Our time in Nigeria also coincided with Wikileaks revealing Shell’s insider dealings with the unimaginably corrupt Nigerian government. No one we spoke to, from street vendor to television presenter, seemed to be very shocked, sadly resigned to high-level corruption as a way of life in a country that is oil-rich but unforgivably spends next to nothing on its people. As Afrobeat legend and political revolutionary Fela Kuti's daughter Yeni said when we visited her at The Shrine nightclub she established in his honour, "If Fela was alive today, he would not be surprised."
When we sat down with visiting hip hop preacher Chuck D, he was similarly condemning and offered a slightly baffling analogy: “Wikileaks is the extension of the the digital monster not ever going back into the bottle. Governments now are falling to the leveling of the playing field. Africa is like a refrigerator. The world’s just been taking what it wants out of it for a long time, and now it is time to refill it with some soda.” Despite being a soda-less refrigerator, the good people of Lagos did not kidnap us or blow us up as we had been warned they would, and instead were funny, friendly and generous with their booze, even on the utterly terrifying Air Arik flight we took back to the UK: a 16-hour ordeal that involved a giant Airbus A340 being re-routed around Nigeria like a domestic shuttle, dumping 40 tonnes of jetfuel in the air so it could land, while a plane riot almost kicked off as they left us to bake without air-con in the African sun for two hours as it refuelled. Certainly it’s the only flight we’ve been on where a passenger committee was formed and read out its demands over the intercom. Arik? Air-Wreck, more like.
The awards themselves were entertaining in that stop-start way that performances for television are, aided by our drinking of pints of Hennessy in the local manner – the guest performances from Chuck D, Rick Ross and T-Pain were energetic and genuine, while host Eve threw herself into it with gusto. The finale with them all on stage together with the various African performers was oddly moving, while the final image of one of our boys Cabo Snoop leaving the stage with Rick Ross’s meaty paws draped over his shoulders is one to cherish. Many of the people we had met and interviewed over the two days picked up awards, including both Banky W and Sasha from Nigeria, Congo’s Fali Apupa ("These are men's leggings! Men's!"), Kenya’s Daddy Owen and Cabo Snoop from Angola, so we celebrated our surprising acuity and foresight at the ridiculously brilliant after-party by dancing and drinking more pints of Hennessy all night in a razor-wire surrounded club with all of the above and the beautiful people of Lagos getting wild by the poolside. Keep an eye on Dazed mag and Dazed TV in the coming weeks for interviews, photos and films.
Article from Dazed Digital.
All Photo's by Chris Saunders
CT 2010
I have pasted the text by Rod Stanley and the pics with it below. If you wanna see it on the dazed website please visit DazedDigital.
There is more to come with the print issue in a couple of months where we will release the full story with all its images.
 |
| Fally Ipupa who one Best of 2010 at the MTV Africa Music Awards in Lagos. Here he is with our two appropriately dressed body guards in the streets of Victoria Island, Lagos. |
 |
| Chuck D (Public Enemy) hung out with us at the EKO Hotel where the event took place to do a very thought provoking interview. |
 |
| Yeni Kuti, Fela Kuti's first daughter hung out with us at the 'New Afrika Shrine', which is the replacement for the famous original shrine where Fela spread his positive wisdom to his followers. |
 |
| Sasha the 'First Lady' of the Nigerian music scene performed an interview for us hours before the event kicked off. |
A LAGOS PARTY: DAZED AT THE MAMAS
Text by Rod Stanley
There ain’t no party like a Lagos party, or so they say. This weekend, Dazed flew out to Lagos, Nigeria for the third annual MTV Africa Music Awards and spent a few days and some late nights meeting rap, R&B and kuduro superstars from across Africa: names like Banky W, Fally Ipupa, Daddy Owen, Cabo Snoop and Radio & Weasel, from Angola to Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo and beyond, all huge stars in their own countries, selling truckloads of records despite rampant piracy and a rickety music industry. These guys are kind of the Jay Zs and Snoops of Africa, basically.
In our brief time in Lagos, we managed to get chased off the red carpet after walking out behind some stars as they posed for the TV cameras, incoherently advise the boss of MTV Worldwide on his business strategy (a man who had just arrived in a blacked-out 4x4 with two AK47-toting police guards), accidentally start a game of musical chairs with Public Enemy's Chuck D, and find ourselves abandoned by our hosts in a packed Lagos nightclub at 3.30am with only a bottle of tequila and our new friends the Angolan kuduro kings Cabo Snoop for company.
Our hotel seemed to have been lifted from the pages of a JG Ballard novel, featuring an impressive split-level outdoor pool with multiple water slides that absolutely no one was using, surrounded by razor wire and rusty freighters rumbling past in the rubbish-strewn lagoon. Inside, escorts touted for business in the main bar – one thoughtfully pressed her boobs up against the terrace window for us to admire as we choked on our burgers. To change money, you had to take your dollars down to the main gate, where a gang of ‘bookies’ would come over to your car and conduct business through your window. Beyond the gate lay a hooting, seething bedlam of motorised madness: weaving and honking cars, trucks and motorbikes rattling over potholes, while the street vendors selling everything from cold drinks to electric shavers risked life and limb twirling from window to window amid the roar.
Our time in Nigeria also coincided with Wikileaks revealing Shell’s insider dealings with the unimaginably corrupt Nigerian government. No one we spoke to, from street vendor to television presenter, seemed to be very shocked, sadly resigned to high-level corruption as a way of life in a country that is oil-rich but unforgivably spends next to nothing on its people. As Afrobeat legend and political revolutionary Fela Kuti's daughter Yeni said when we visited her at The Shrine nightclub she established in his honour, "If Fela was alive today, he would not be surprised."
When we sat down with visiting hip hop preacher Chuck D, he was similarly condemning and offered a slightly baffling analogy: “Wikileaks is the extension of the the digital monster not ever going back into the bottle. Governments now are falling to the leveling of the playing field. Africa is like a refrigerator. The world’s just been taking what it wants out of it for a long time, and now it is time to refill it with some soda.” Despite being a soda-less refrigerator, the good people of Lagos did not kidnap us or blow us up as we had been warned they would, and instead were funny, friendly and generous with their booze, even on the utterly terrifying Air Arik flight we took back to the UK: a 16-hour ordeal that involved a giant Airbus A340 being re-routed around Nigeria like a domestic shuttle, dumping 40 tonnes of jetfuel in the air so it could land, while a plane riot almost kicked off as they left us to bake without air-con in the African sun for two hours as it refuelled. Certainly it’s the only flight we’ve been on where a passenger committee was formed and read out its demands over the intercom. Arik? Air-Wreck, more like.
The awards themselves were entertaining in that stop-start way that performances for television are, aided by our drinking of pints of Hennessy in the local manner – the guest performances from Chuck D, Rick Ross and T-Pain were energetic and genuine, while host Eve threw herself into it with gusto. The finale with them all on stage together with the various African performers was oddly moving, while the final image of one of our boys Cabo Snoop leaving the stage with Rick Ross’s meaty paws draped over his shoulders is one to cherish. Many of the people we had met and interviewed over the two days picked up awards, including both Banky W and Sasha from Nigeria, Congo’s Fali Apupa ("These are men's leggings! Men's!"), Kenya’s Daddy Owen and Cabo Snoop from Angola, so we celebrated our surprising acuity and foresight at the ridiculously brilliant after-party by dancing and drinking more pints of Hennessy all night in a razor-wire surrounded club with all of the above and the beautiful people of Lagos getting wild by the poolside. Keep an eye on Dazed mag and Dazed TV in the coming weeks for interviews, photos and films.
Article from Dazed Digital.
All Photo's by Chris Saunders
CT 2010
Thursday, 5 August 2010
The Smarteez Dazed Digital Video.
Shot this video earlier this year with the Editor of Dazed & Confused, Rod Stanley in South Africa. The Smarteez are a subject I have been obsessed with for the last couple of years and owe a lot to them.
The video has slightly fucked up sound but its really cool and worth the watch. (Damn my Auto Overides on the 5dmk2).
Check out the rest of the story on the Dazed Digital website, http://www.dazeddigital.com/Fashion/article/7594/1/South_Africa_Special_The_Smarteez
Ct 2010
Monday, 5 July 2010
Dazed 2.0 - 'Chains' Stefan Ruiz Vs. Chris Saunders
In the new Dazed & Confused issue (Issue 87, July) I got the opportunity to be part of the new chains feature, where two photographers are asked to have a dialogue through images.
This month we where given the initial theme, 'Heroes,' which we then over a two to three week period sent images back and forth to each other without speaking at all about our motivation and image choices. later we divulged the ideas behind our replies, which lead to a good conversation and idea of how the process worked.
Good one Dazed.
Enjoy.
Ct 2010
Thursday, 3 June 2010
Dazed & Confused Magazine: South Africa
About a month and half ago I flew from my comfortable situation here in Treviso italy back to the madness of my home city, Johannesburg to shoot a story on my good friends the inspirational Smarteez.
This time we went in featuring them more as designers and street savy revolutionaries as apposed to the normal view point that they are just South African hispters.
It was a pleasure to work with Rod Stanley at Dazed and to be part of this amazing feature. A couple of my other shots where featured through out the South African section of the magazine too.
Check out the next issue for a narrative through images which I have just completed with well known photographer Stefan Ruiz.
Please check out Dazed Digital for the web to see the story. To see the whole feature on South Africa plus the other shots of mine that where in the issue please, buy the magazine in a store now!
Till next time,
CTS 2010
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