Having the last signing session of 2024! The matted £60 Christmas Edition has sold out but there is still time to get one of these freshly minted beauties in time for Xmas if you get off your arse and order soon! Chin chin, MCWine stains not included...
We’re getting to the end of another year which surprisingly wasn’t spent in Berlin but Budapest where I shot ‘Alien: Romulus’ for Scott Free Productions and was reunited with my pal Cailee Spaeny who you’ll starring in ‘Priscilla’ and ‘Civil War’ very soon. The spectre of Withnail loomed large this year and I got to photograph Richard E. for the poster of ‘Death of a Unicorn’ in Budapest. The last time I photographed his handsome chops was for Richard Curtis on ‘About Time’ and although we don’t see each that regularly the years melt away when catching up on who’s done what in Withnail World!It turns out that we have been busy this year… Bruce has finished writing his theatrical production of ‘Withnail & I’ which should have its premiere next year in Birmingham. Any casting suggestions?Titan Books published Toby Benjamin’s Withnail and I book ‘From Cult to Classic’ which is the definitive account of the film and features interviews with all of us who haven’t shuffled off and allows me and my images to bask in the sun once again. The cover of the book is a black and white photograph of Iconic PhotoShoot #2 on the steps outside Withnail’s flat and I thought it quite decent so I have made it the Christmas small mounted print for 2023 with a very limited run. (Wine stains not included!)I hope you all survive another year, with all this worldwide devastation there’s little to stop us reaching for the gin before noon..Chin chin, MC
Withnail goes to Edinburgh…
GALLERY CLOSE, EDINBURGHMARCH 16-APRIL 16TH 2023www.gallery-close.comExcited to let you all know that I am having an exhibition of my Withnail Photographs at the Close Gallery in Edinburgh. It’s not some dodgy insider job it’s a pure coincidence we share a surname. There will be all of your black and white favourites and few deeper cuts. 
Portraits of Cinema
I had a fantastic weekend in Seattle giving an Artist talk at the Leica Store in Bellevue. I always enjoy answering questions that people may have about my prior work and sharing some of the funnier moments. It was a great turnout particularly considering it wasn’t raining and was a beautiful Autumn day. There was only 1 person who was aware of Withnail so I had to do a quick overview which is hard without a glass of wine in your hand! MC 
What a piece of work...
In January Alex Garland called me out of the blue and asked to meet. Now, this is filmmaker I have wanted to work with so it was a bloody good start to 2022. His project is about two photojournalists in a combat zone. I got to give Kirsten Dunst and Cailee Spaeny a photographer’s insider tips and appeared as a grizzled war photographer alongside them, hopefully I’ll make the cut… My Hunger Games family reunited in June for ‘The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes’ in Berlin with a new cast of players. As one of the very small group who worked on all of the movies it’s a very special assignment for me. But before departing my studio I discovered an image of Richard from the Hamlet scene in Regents Park. It’s never been published so I thought it would be in good taste to release it into the world as our festive offering. Hopefully it will provide some distraction from all the shit that keeps raining down!They are not selling Boris wigs in Woolworths just yet so Chin Chin my dears.MCAnd the Winner is......
Sorry about the delay in announcing the competition winner but I had to go to New York by mistake and got snowed in. I had the most marvellous time reading everyones suggestions and it was bloody hard to pick just one but here it is… Simon Whittle in a rare moment of sobriety came up with thIs beauty. 'A Weekend’s Indulgence' which will be known for ever more as the title of the photograph. It was a hoot doing this perhaps we’ll do another one in the future. We’ll be in touch with Simon to get his address. Chin Chin. MCDeep Dive into the Archive...
Having been invited to exhibit my Withnail images again, my hand was forced into a deep dive of the black and white negatives shot in 1986.This entailed anchoring myself at a light box with a bottle or two for a few days with a 1960’s soundtrack. It’s been a while since the originals were taken out of the archive and it unlocked some great memories and unearthed some overlooked gems. Here’s a taster to enjoy, it’s untitled as yet, and I’ll be adding some additional photos to the website very soon.Chin chin,MCDown & Out in Paris..
Sometimes it seems remarkable to me that I am here writing this missive again and there are still people at the other end of the internet line. Although, I am very probably more often than not in junk mail folders!As luck would have it I am back with Keanu again and this time he is fighting his way to glory as Mr John Wick. My life has a curious way of repeating itself apparently…For this year’s festive release I thought that I would print a greatest hit. It is one of my most popular images in the Withnail portfolio and it is signed, mounted and ready to drop into a standard 10x8” frame for those who are too cheap to get it custom framed!I’ve only made 25 of these due to still being able to maintain gainful employment and being knackered after 19 weeks of night shooting.Just thoughts as always.MC
Brave New World
I’ve done a few interviews of late, I guess online rags have got some time on their hands, and the most common thing that they want to know is how my work has changed since moving from film to digital.This has pressured me into analysing my work process which I loathe doing but the truth is that the digital world has transformed my shooting process and not always for the best.Whilst the new world has placed control of my imagery back into my hands allowing me to delete, colour treat and effectively becoming the laboratory, it has taken away some of the purity. Cartier-Bresson’s ‘Decisive Moment’ has been eroded I fear.Withnail is a good example as I still have the original negatives and know that I shot about 1600 black and white images over the course of the filming days I covered. To give this some perspective, on ‘The Matrix 4’ which I recently completed I was submitting between 600/1000 images per day. The two films are entirely different of course, one had a budget of $200 million and the other was a bowl of rice and a bag of nuts but in some ways maybe when working with film we were more focused knowing we didn’t have an unlimited supply of ones and zeros to fall back on.I managed to capture the essence of the ‘Tea Room’ scene in 45 frames, lord only knows how many I would rack up today. Just thoughts as always…Unexpected fan
An actor pal of mine sent me this article from a while back which I was surprised and happy to read. It still surprises me the way Withnail & I touches people’s hearts. MC
https://www.redonline.co.uk/reviews/what-to-watch-tonight/a516310/jack-whitehall-my-favourite-thing/
I & Withnail
I’m excited to announce that I am finally able to offer the 30 x 40” pieces from Iconic Photoshoot #1 & #2 again. These 2 contact sheets show the famous images together with the less well known ones and are great examples of how the synchronicity of the actors and myself achieved the final results. Shot at Uncle Monty’s cottage and outside of the boy’s flat during gaps in filming, the exterior flat location on Chepstow Villas was never featured in the film but has become a Withnail shrine due to this photo shoot.
These Giclee prints will be made in collaboration with master printer, Francois Le Blond. I withdrew these images from the portfolio some time ago because I couldn’t find a printer that I had confidence in to print in this large format. We made some trial prints last week and the results were stunning. These images are truly statement pieces.
