MATTHEW MILES

2012-01-11T11:02:00.000Z

MATTHEW MILES VIDEO

Please head to www.matthewmilesvideo.com to watch my latest video projects for clients in the luxury travel, design, fashion and arts fields. You'll also find most of the videos on this blog - which I'll continue to update - but www.matthewmilesvideo.com is the new home for my production company.

Thanks for taking a look!
Matthew

Matthew Miles Video
W matthewmilesvideo.com
E matthew@matthewmilesvideo.com

Matthew Miles Video Showreel

2011-10-26T13:22:00.001+01:00

Videos I've recently directed, filmed and edited for luxury brands and design hotels - if you've got questions, or ideas, please email: matthew@matthewmilesvideo.com

Island Heritage

2011-09-22T13:36:00.005+01:00

This is one of six movies I've just directed. filmed and edited for Pearl Island - a sustainable luxury development in the Las Perlas archipelago, near Panama City, Central America. From dolphins and whales to coral reefs and rare subtropical dry forest, the area is incredibly bio-diverse.

A four-minute mini-documentary, we meet the people committed to protecting Pearl Island's incredible eco-system, understanding and preserving its rich archaeological history; working to improve the lives of the native population and also reintroducing pearl cultivation to the island.

Panama City - The Movie

2011-09-22T13:36:00.000+01:00

Pearl Island - The Movie

2011-09-22T13:35:00.000+01:00

Owners Dream

2011-09-22T13:34:00.001+01:00

Confidence To Invest

2011-09-22T13:34:00.000+01:00

Island Intrigue

2011-09-22T13:33:00.001+01:00

I created this short video as an introduction to Pearl Island which is a short speed boat or helicopter ride from Panama City. See more at www.pearlislandliving.com

Your Almyra

2011-06-02T20:10:00.003+01:00

I just filmed and edited this video, and the videos beneath for Thanos Hotels in Cyprus. The concept was a 'day in the life' mix of interviews and documentary style filming. This is the Almyra Hotel, in Paphos. It's one of the Design Hotels. The other featured hotel on this blog is Anassa, in Polis - a super-luxe 5-star retreat.

You can get a good feel for all three Thanos Cyprus hotels at www.thanosdiaries.com

Almyra For Families

2011-06-02T20:09:00.004+01:00

AlmyraSpa

2011-06-02T20:09:00.003+01:00

Cyprus By Thanos

2011-06-02T20:08:00.001+01:00

Anassa A Passion For Food

2011-06-02T20:07:00.001+01:00

Your Anassa

2011-06-02T20:05:00.001+01:00

Esben & The Witch - Warpath

2011-01-21T20:29:00.002Z

The video for Esben and The Witch - 'Warpath' - is out now worldwide. Worked with Agenda Collective on this one, shot in deep-freeze London just before Christmas. Behind the scenes shots and info a bit further down blog...

First Direct - Buddy Viral Video Campaign

2011-01-05T17:00:00.000Z

After devising a few concepts for reality-based virals with Minds Eye this autumn, it was good to go to work on this campaign for First Direct. The series was shot with multiple cameras over two days in London and is online now. The rest of the videos are further down the blog - or click on the 'Video' tag.

Power To 2011!

2011-01-05T16:07:00.000Z

Ripped Paper Snow, 2011

Here's to making good stuff and good times this year!

Esben and the Witch - Warpath Video

2011-01-02T19:22:00.001Z

In the frozen days before Christmas I worked with Agenda Collective on the new music video for Esben and the Witch's upcoming single, Warpath. I'll upload the video when it's good to go, but for now here are a few of my rushed behind-the-scenes pics from the shoot... If nothing else you'll maybe get a sense for how cold it was in the massive, maze-like Victorian factory we filmed in, just over the road from Liverpool Street Station.

Disorienting and - according to the security guards - home to two ghosts, it's not the kind of building you'd want to wander alone. But with loads of long views, secret rooms and rickety staircases the place suited the video treatment perfectly, in an edge-of-collapse kind of way. Esben on the Witch on the other hand are looking all fresh and new. They're one of the bands to watch in 2011... dark, introspective and maybe haunted by the ghosts of the Cocteau Twins it's music to get lost in.

The Big Guns Of Brit Art

2010-11-10T05:45:00.001Z

Gilbert and George, AXM 'Express Yourself' issue.

It was cool to capture this line up of British art talent and power as editor of AXM. Gilbert and George, Isaac Julien Joe Simon, Raqib Shaw, Wolfgang Tillmans, Stuart Comer, David Furnish and Stuart Shave were among the curators, artists and dealers to be photographed and interviewed.

Stuart Shave.

Wolfgang Tillmans.

David Furnish and dogs.

Going Over - The Film

2010-11-09T23:55:00.000Z

I produced this five minute film with Sledge for the Department of Health. The aim of Going Over is to encourage heroin users to call an ambulance if someone overdoses, and then to put the person in the recovery postion.

We recorded the real stories of heroin users and enacted the interweaving tales in a two-day studio shoot, using top talent, including Leo Gregory. Building sets and shooting on film rather than video, I had to wring every last pound out of a very tight budget. It was a tough job but worth it: Going Over has won numerous awards, and, I hope, helped save a lot of lives.

Prior to Going Over I was more used to producing glossy car commercials for companies such as Daimler-Chrysler, or high-end event videos for brands like Pespi, 02, T-Mobile and Yell.com. As a first foray into drama I'm pretty proud of it!

Hidden Rocket

2010-11-08T13:04:00.000Z

This fashion story was art directed/photographed by myself and Konrad Wyrebek for Rocket Magazine. It's called 'Hidden' and it got tons more love on the net from taste-setters like PoP Magazine, Diana Pernet and Filep Motwary. We shot in a Knightsbridge apartment crammed with Picassos but they clashed with the models, so none appear here – it's just good, clean carpet and chairs. Maybe a curtain.

Photography and Art Direction Matthew Miles and Konrad Wyrebek

Styling – David Bartlett

Hair and Make-up – Jo Adams

Models – Pippa @ Oxygen, Kyle Ledeboer @ Premier and Neil at Carpe Diem.

Lasvit by Miles Wyrebek Video

2010-11-07T16:07:00.000Z

I produced/directed this piece for Lasvit through my own company, Miles Wyrebek. Based in Czech Republic but with offices worldwide, Lasvit creates some of the world's finest crystal chandeliers and interior fittings - a feature of leading 5-star hotel foyers and designer fashion outlets. They asked us to make this short documentary video to showcase their innovative expo stand design and help introduce the brand to the wider UK market.

First Direct - Buddy Birthday Surprise

2010-11-06T16:08:00.002Z

Another one of the four viral videos for First Direct, shot in London, October 2010.

Interviews at 100% Design

2010-11-06T16:07:00.000Z

As Miles Wyrebek video we produced this short interviews-based piece for 100% Design at the 2010 event, including Ora-Ito and the pavilion stands by Norway, Taiwan and Designed in Brussels.

Before The Barriers

2010-11-06T16:06:00.001Z

Wrote this piece on the current Tate Modern Turbine Hall installation for London Insider and Fault Magazine.

No More Time In The Sun: Was Dust The Perfect Closure For Tate Modern Seeds?

The happiest person in London right now might just be the member of Tate Modern night-shift staff who dares wander alone in Ai Weiwei’s Sunflower Seeds, despite the health warnings.

Guests take to the seeds at the opening party at Tate Modern.

An already poignant symbol of globalisation was pretty much complete when access to the exhibit was barred due to pollution fears. The footfall of the masses on top of those hundreds of millions of seeds has resulted in ceramic dust that could, according to a Tate spokesperson, “be damaging to health following repeated inhalation over a long period of time."

Myself with artist Ai WeiWei.

Worse, it was the “enthusiastic interaction” of the general populous that caused the closedown. All that trudging, sandcastle making and sunbathing was too much chafing for the hand-painted ceramic seeds. It means that the press and the art insiders at the star-strafed opening party last Monday – plus a couple of thousand members of public – were the only people lucky enough to interact with/steal the art work as Weiwei intended. Unless, of course, creating a microcosm of earth’s transformation from ‘Eden’ to uninhabitable trashcan was part of the artist’s plan from the start.

The bar always wins.

But if you’ve missed out on the halcyon days of one of the Tate’s strongest Turbine Hall exhibits, don’t fret. Those excluded from last week’s elite can always touch a seed or two in a hastily filled bowl as they jostle for viewing position behind the safety barriers.

Architect David Adjaye and Leila Howell.

Sir Nicholas Serota (left) in conversation.

Antony Gormley, Jay Jopling, Rachel Barrett, Marina Abramovich, Anthony d’Offay, Julia Peyton-Jones, Konrad Wyrebek, Fran Cottell, Silvia Ziranek, Timothy Taylor, Angela Westwater, Nick Foulkes, Alice Rawthorne, David Meitus and Kenny Goss were among those crunching across the grey expanse at the opening party.

Go Ski!

2010-11-06T16:06:00.000Z

It's nothing more than a ski-themed photoshoot for men. I art directed my way out of an Easyjet location shoot on the slopes Bulgaria with this project – those are actually the I-Stock mountains in the background, in case you hadn't guessed. The story ran in AXM Magazine.

Photography and art direction Konrad Wyrebek and Matthew Miles
Styling - Andrew Edward Lister

First Direct - Buddy Drink Spill Rescue

2010-11-06T16:05:00.001Z

Being Human for GT Mag - Feb Cover

2010-11-06T16:00:00.000Z

Being Human, BBC3, by Matthew Miles and Konrad Wyrebek, GT Magazine.

Art directed this cover and editorial with the cast of hit BBC show 'Being Human' for GT Magazine's February issue. It's a good job they get along well (and that the bed was super-luxury comfort) as we were rearranging their limbs to get it right for ages.

Being Human cast - photography and art direction by Matthew Miles and Konrad Wyrebek

Talent - Lenora Crichlow, Aidan Turner, Russell Tovey

Styling - David Bartlett

Hair and Make up - James Anda

Grooming assistant - Lorenzo Rosi

Magnificence bed Vi-Spring

Ivory Silk bed linen GingerLily.

Being Human, Aidan Turner, by Matthew Miles and Konrad Wyrebek.

Lenora Critchlow, Being Human, by Matthew Miles and Konrad Wyrebek

Russell Tovey, Being Human, by Matthew Miles and Konrad Wyrebek.

First Direct - Buddy Forgotten anniversary

2010-11-06T15:59:00.002Z

100% Design Event Video

2010-11-05T13:33:00.000Z

Through my production company Miles Wyrebek I produced this video for the UK's leading interiors and architecture event, 100% Design. Also created a portfolio of marketing videos for them, featuring interviews with top designers and industry names.

Miles Wyrebek was set up by myself and Konrad Wyrebek to produce video and photography. In a few months we've already created videos for 100% Design, Sovio wine and luxury crystal company Lasvit. We also shoot photography - fashion, magazine covers and advertising.

Antony Gormley - Test Sites

2010-08-10T21:17:00.000+01:00

My arts and culture writing is published in places like Fault, Saatchi Arts and Music, Artillery, Jotta, Ponystep and FAD. After interviewing Antony Gormley about his show Test Sites at White Cube, Mayfair, I produced various articles. Here's one of them (and some of the published clips beneath)...

Antony Gormley – Test Sites

Science blurs with art to move your body through space.

Words MATTHEW MILES
Photography KONRAD WYREBEK and MATTHEW MILES

Anthony Gormley has become known as a creator of landmarks, the artist behind – or often cast and repeated – in high-profile 3D pieces such as ‘Angel of the North’ and ‘Event Horizon’, where sentinel figures jutted from the city skylines of London, and later New York. Embracing both art and science as he inquires into the connections between architecture, geometry and the body, Gormley’s works are nonetheless brushed off as ‘accessible’ or ‘fairground’ by some. Guess they’ll be among the very few not to be energised by ‘Test Sites’ – the artist’s latest exhibition in London is among his most interactive to date, and takes his career interrogation of our relationship with space and objects to the next level.

It’s ‘Breathing Room III’, in the White Cube’s large lower-basement gallery, that’ll lodge in the mind long enough to beckon you back for more. A giant installation of connected and empty cubic ‘space frames’, first impressions might run from the computer matrix landscape in 80s sci-fi flick Tron to a climbing frame for minimalist kids. Glowing a delicate UV blue in the total blackout, you’re enticed to pick a path between the struts, and look out from its empty heart. Get a friend to snap a picture, and you might appear to be dodging lasers in the bank vault of some movie starring Pitt and Clooney. Inside, your brain’s having to work a bit harder as it reassess its connection to your body and the space it takes. Your old reality tries to fight back, placing the experience in the known world – perhaps thinking of a 3D graph, and yourself as an avatar being created in a piece of computer modelling software. But keep panning the angles and tunnels in the frames and it’s clear you’re losing the battle – and your sense of size with it. Perspective swings around, sometimes you seem smaller, others larger. There’s a sense of floating jellyfish-like in the dark – or, as Gormley puts it, “Your body dissolving.”

This shape-shifting quality of ‘Breathing Room III’ is as gentle and meditative an experience as it sounds –until the lights flash on with a clunking, blinding glare. It’s an almost magnesium-white burn that Gormley intends to invade “the dreamy space with something hard and Stasi-like.” If you’ve ever been the last one dancing among a bunch of casualties when the house-lights come on at the end of a club be ready to revisit the horror. You want fellow-gallery goers to get out of your moment. You want to go back into the blue, and it’s ok – you can, in a minute or so.

Gormley is as open and welcoming as the other ninety-per cent of ‘Breathing Room III’ so, as he took us on a tour, I asked, what’s the nasty bright bit about? “There’s no good without bad, no beauty without terror,” he says. “When the lights come up you become an object in your body again, and you’re thrust back into proximity with other people.”

Leading us back up to ground-level Gormley explained that if “Breathing Room III is about space, then upstairs is about mass.” Here a new series of sculptural works in rusted cast-iron reduce the human body to conglomerations of blocks. Whereas downstairs you get lost in a CAD vector map, now we see human figures as crudely delineated as those in the first wave of home computer games. The pieces relate to the architectonic language of stacking, propping and cantilever, hinting at the way we allow the modern urban environment to segment our life space, time and bodies – to put stresses on us and insist that, from gym to office, we behave more like machines. But Gormley is acutely aware that given the likelihood of another 6billion years of some kind of life on Earth “we’re insignificant.” And with these sculptures he lets iron – “the metal at the core of the planet, that gives it its magnetic field” – have the last and longest laugh: its natural process of rusting will transform the surface forever.

“I’m anti-shininess,” explains Gormley. “I don’t want something that’s all stainless steel and polished to the point of finished. To me that’s a kind of fascism, and I resist it.” And, if you’re looking to expand and evolve the possibilities of your own journey through time and space, then ‘Test Sites’ is the temporary playground you’d hate to miss. Just try getting your body out of bed early to beat the crowds – ‘Breathing Room III’ is a lot bigger on beauty when empty; especially when the mega-watt lights flare up.

Antony Gormley – ‘Test Sites’, 4 June-10 July 2010, White Cube Masons Yard, London, SW1Y 6BU.
http://www.whitecube.com/

Istanbul

2010-07-07T20:00:00.000+01:00

If you can make it to Istanbul anytime soon, do it – a European Capital of Culture for 2010, the city is a vivid clash of cultures, styles and colour. Just about everything, from the meeting of the Asian and European landmasses to the mix of Islam and Christian, suggests different ways of living being forced together, yet getting along. I went out there in November to snap portraits of the city and some of its artists – including the international star Ismail Acar – and also wrote the travel piece for GT Magazine, some of which is here:

Istanbul, Turkey

Words Matthew Miles
Images Konrad Wyrebek and Matthew Miles

When a city straddles European and Asia you expect thrills, but with Istanbul it’s a case of ‘how much can you handle?’ From the first manic taxi ride with a Michael Schumacher wannabe (pumping Turkish pop and air freshener in equal measure), to the last, late night on a secret, smoky dance-floor, Istanbul delivered and did it double.

A short flight with a low-cost carrier like Pegasus lands you in the kind of scenery, smells and social shifts that ‘de ja vu’ Euro weekends struggle to muster. You could easily cram a visit with only fresh art, clubs and culture, but it would feel very wrong not to tick off at least a few of Istanbul’s landmarks - after all, they'd give the apocalyptic climax of a Hollywood blockbuster inadequacy issues.

The splendours of the Byzantine cathedral-turned-mosque Hagia Sofia (vast dome), and the Ottaman-era Blue Mosque (lots of minarets) are spirit-stoking enough to make that ‘I’m queuing for a major tourist attraction’ angst worth suffering. Meanwhile, further inland, the traffic-choked lines of the First Bosphorus Bridge (think Severn Bridge but sexier) are stress-busted by the thoughtful addition of ‘look at me’ disco-lights.

We flew into Sabiha Gocken airport and soon after, as we crossed the Bosphorus Strait – which divides Istanbul’s European and Asian sides and connects the Marmara with the Black Sea – the prominent artist Ismail Acar (http://www.ismailacar.com.tr/) gave us a call. He told us to ‘expect a city of contrasts’ and it had us looking for them everywhere; on one hand, the entertainment, arts and sightseeing musts of the European side, on the other the Asian half’s fish markets and football fanatics. Elsewhere, mazy bazaars and hazy shisha-pipe cafes throw shadows on designer boutique displays, while the club kids get a sweat on their Westwood.

The rest of this feature is in GT Magazine but for inspiration visit http://www.istanbul2010.org/ and
http://www.gototurkey.co.uk/

Nike iD - Design Your Own Trainers

2010-06-07T20:23:00.000+01:00

I wrote this piece on the design-your-own-trainers facility at Nike iD Studio, for an AXM fashion issue.

Colour Them Bad

The Nike iD Studio is where fantasy meets feet.

Customised clothing is usually either the real deal or just plain ropey but, as shoppers seek out exclusivity over homogenised high street style, design-your-own is the fad that might take over fashion. Given that Nike has long sold soles to both limited edition trainer junkies and mainstream sportswearers it’s apt that the NikeiD Studio at Niketown, London, helps you to build your own, unique trainers whatever the limits of your imagination.

The Studio is a jaw-droppingly cool glass and steel cube that takes the existing NikeiD.com concept to the heart of the store and then piles on both the SFX, and the options. The experience starts with the first floor’s iD Bar, a walk-in space where – with the assistance of a design consultant – you can get on a pod and customise a selection of 54 different styles of Nike footwear, using thousands of colour and material ‘swatches’. But if you aspire to the D.I.Y trainers of a hip-hop master, then you can’t top an appointment at the private NikeiD Studio upstairs. Put it this way, if Sports Direct on a Saturday afternoon is the Ryanair of footwear then this is the private jet – only with a little more room for your entourage.

The luxuriously high-tech iD Studio hosts four Mac stations, each manned by a dedicated sneaker-junkie design consultant, who’ll tap into your tastes and help you realise your design. Even those who missed out on the creative gene now have the opportunity to imagine their dream trainers into existence, only without the ‘I just threw up on my feet’ sorrow. Better still, as well as the product offered in the store below, iD Studio boasts five exclusive trainer styles for you to get busy with – the Classic BW, Dunk Hi, Dunk Lo, Women’s Dunk and Air Max 90.

The NikeiD Studio was the first of its kind in the UK but, when shopping’s this much of a buzz, it’s no shock that the customisation experience is already being imitated by other brands. If the era of mass individualisation is upon us you'd be wise to start sketching those special sneakers now.

NikeiD Studio, Nike Town, Oxford Circus, London, W1. To book an appointment call the NikeiD concierge service on 020 7612 0990 or visit www.nikeid.com.

Fault Magazine - Art Trend Report

2010-06-05T17:32:00.000+01:00

Fault Magazine layout for my trend report on emerging art in Hackney Wick, London. The mag came out in November 2010 with Rupert Grint on the cover. You'll find another piece on the Hackney Wicked art fair further down the blog, or check the Art Writing tag.

The image in this spread is one of artist Konrad Wyrebek's mixed media prints. www.konradwyrebek.blogspot.com

AXM - The Way We Did It 1

2010-04-17T23:40:00.000+01:00

Matthew Stone by Peter Paul Hartnett

As editor of AXM Magazine I wanted people power at the heart of the mag – to make it about new energy from the streets and colleges and dancefloors and less about the gay lifestyle cliches of muscles and mortgages. With the likes of photographer and writer Peter Paul Hartnett on board we captured intimate snap-shots of a new generation of artists, creatives, musicians and club kids. I got a kick out of evolving the design and direction of the mag issue-by-issue with Paul Mumby – we sought to reflect the scenes and characters that were shape-shifting day-by-day. In doing so we created a unique visual brand... and layouts that other style mags lifted.

Arthur by Peter Paul Hartnett

Fashion by Antonio D Marguet

Kingsley Wells by Peter Paul Hartnett

Vivienne Westwood – A Shaded View On Fashion

2010-04-17T23:00:00.000+01:00

Vivienne Westwood By Matthew Miles and Konrad Wyrebek

Contributed a written feature on Vivienne Westwood to Diane Pernet’s A Shaded View Of Fashion this month. It was published with these portraits of the fashion maverick, snapped by artist Konrad Wyrebek and myself in Mayfair.

Passionate as ever, ‘our Viv’ had a dig at A-list artists who repetitively cash-in on the style that made them famous – and we stuck with the recycling theme to get an update on her Active Resistance manifesto. Vivienne is all set on shaking up lethargy over climate change in a way that isn't just fashion forward, but unites diverse creative forms. Yet while the international eco warrior is bravely encouraging us to be less consumerist (why buy when you can reinvent?) it's not like she's taken her eye off the cutting room. In one of her own fresh designs – a billowing sari-meets-wrap dress – she looked almost as fierce as the rebel queen Boadicea.

Vivienne Westwood By Matthew Miles and Konrad Wyrebek

Spring

2010-04-17T21:30:00.001+01:00

I want to do a chandelier like this – only minus the shower cord. Fresher daffodils would be a bonus too. These ones were being chucked by Tesco becase the stems had seen better days.

Skins Girls For E4 And Diva

2010-04-05T16:15:00.000+01:00

I art direct/produce a lot of celebrity photography, and in February I shot the cover and editorial with Skins stars Kat Prescott and Lily Loveless for E4 and Diva Magazine. The shoot was a massive hit with the fans on E4's sites, and the issues of Diva was a best seller. The pics were also picked up by the tabloids, running in The Sun both online and in print. As usual, I worked as an art director/photography team with artist Konrad Wyrebek – was a cool day, with all the styling, composition and grooming ideas coming together well. Have chucked in some behind the scenes pictures beneath.

Photography and Art Direction by Matthew Miles and Konrad Wyrebek

Stylist - David Bartlett

Make Up - Nikki Wolff using Armani Cosmetics

Hair Stylist - Marcia H. Lee using Fredrick Fekkai and Bumble & Bumble

Photography Assistant - Teki Lebar

Location - Sanctum Soho Hotel, 20 Warwick Street, London W1

Clothing brands include Topshop, Imogen Belfield, Office, Belle Sauvage

Jimmy Choo, Ada Zanditon. Plus vintage Lanvin, Jil Sander, Givenchy, Prada

Behind The Scenes Lady Sovereign

2010-03-23T19:19:00.000Z

Just shot Lady Sovereign, the first lady of British rap, for Diva Magazine. The cover and editorial will be published in June, and you'll be able to check out the whole spread on http://www.mileswyrebek.com/soon after as well. There are a couple of preview snapshots of the editorial further down this blog too. But for now, here's some pis of us standing around doing nothing while Sov throws shapes.

Credits:

Lady Sovereign cover/editorial - photography/art direction by Konrad Wyrebek and Matthew Miles

Location - Profile Bar/Diner, 84-86 Wardour Street, London, W1F 0TQ www.profilesoho.com

Diva Editor - Jane Czyzselska

Stylist - David Bartlett

Make-up - Nikki Wolff at Naked Artists

Hair - Sean Nolans

Diva designer - Sylwia Myga

Photography assistant - Magda Bondos

It's the team and Lady Sov. I'm the menacing looking one with the brass-effect pineapple.

Hackney Wicked Art Festival Report

2010-03-09T20:48:00.000Z

I wrote this report on Hackney Wicked Festival for Saatchi Art and Music, Jotta and FAD. It's also been picked up by a lot of other art sites.

Emerging Art In Rude Health At Hackney Wicked

Words MATTHEW MILES

On the ‘wrong side’ of the Olympic Park blue fence, and hemmed in by a canal and a dual carriageway, the industrial warehouses of Hackney Wick might appear low on frills but they’re definitely high on art. The area is home or studio for many of London’s artists and, while the media fixates on the 2012 stadium beyond the fence, the third annual Hackney Wicked festival pulled focus to their creativity.

With a combination of permanent galleries, pop-up group shows, street performance, music, theatre, stalls and open studios, Hackney Wicked was a brilliantly varied three-day event which – in the energy, optimism and improvisation stakes at least – topped the capital’s more established art fairs. From DIY graffiti sessions to bands in car parks and the closing burning of the Wicker Man, there was a carnival spirit to Hackney Wicked – but it came with signs of serious intent from artists on the edge of a breakthrough.

Highlights included the video vultures of Greta Alfaro and installation by Blue Curry in ‘I See Myself There, Where I Am Not’ at the Foreman’s Smokehouse Gallery; a powerful all-round showing by The Modern Language Experiment with ‘Deceit’ and, also in the Blue buildings, the Gadjes collective show ‘Hackney Wickipedia’, curated by Sydney Southam and featuring young artists such as Alix Marie, Helene Butler, Uli Blanchet, Charlotte Kaye, Leo Cohen, Florian Valmont and Charles Garcin.

Konrad Wyrebek’s oil painting series ‘Beauty In Petrol’ was an arresting contribution to the Gadjes exhibition, which took over a giant warehouse. But for him, Hackney Wicked wasn’t without its challenges. “A lot of good artists with very different approaches show their work and it’s a demanding audience too, because so many of them are your peers,” says Wyrebek. “The raw industrial buildings are exciting to work with, but that desolate feel vanishes as soon as it gets busy. You have to try and present in a way that will be noticed.”

One artist taking that to extremes was Ben Woodeson, whose power-drills exploding into life with attached wires or hammers elicited screams from unsuspecting audiences at the Elevator Gallery’s ‘The Tomorrow People 2010’. The shocks came more subtly with Young and Fantich’s razor-blade gym at 92 White Post Lane, one of the stand-out works for Hackney Wicked director Joanna Hughes. “I won’t forget the ska band playing on the roof in a hurry either,” says Hughes. “But for me the festival is a journey of discovery every time. We’re not strict on quality control, it’s about giving artists space and saying get your act together – put something on. A lot of the artists are in the early career stages so it’s great experience – a chance to learn skills on the job and put on an exhibition or curate a show.”

With an estimated 18,000 visitors over three days – almost double the previous year – it’s also excellent exposure. And artists striving for a career boost will be encouraged by Gavin Turk’s appearance in the Agile Rabbit show and the presence of Tate director Nicholas Serota on the opening evening. “It’s too early to tell which other curators and gallerists visited, but every year artists pick up representation off the back of their Hackney Wicked exhibition,” says Hughes.

Yet while Hackney Wicked is a platform for artists to sell and be seen, with its strong community spirit and sense of DIY spontaneity, there’s also a markedly less commercial mood than some London art events. “I really want to stress the Festival part of the title,” insists Hughes. “I think art and music go hand in hand, so that side of it is growing all the time. But the biggest buzz for me is that we directors don’t know what’s going to happen every year. I love coming across all the posters for pop-up shows and performances in people’s studios.”

Rough round the edges and unpredictable it may be, but with a uniquely grass (or concrete) roots ethic, Hackney Wicked is rapidly becoming the pulse-point for tomorrow’s contemporary art... and the Coracle Regatta comes free too.

The Surreal House Art Review

2010-03-08T20:50:00.001Z

I wrote this review on The Surreal House show at The Barbican for Saatchi Art and Music magazine.

The Surreal House

Words MATTHEW MILES

“There’s gonna be some trouble, a whole house will need re-building – and everyone I love in the house will recline on an analyst’s couch quite soon,” insists a typically distressed Morrissey in ‘Now My Heart Is Full’. While The Surreal House might not have everything it takes to push you towards hired help – we’ll leave that to parents and lovers – the temporarily transformed Barbican Gallery is a twisting, turning abode in which darkness lurks under the stairs.

The show draws together art, architecture and artefact –including Sigmund Freud’s sinister desk-chair, its modernist leather trapped behind glass and seemingly shaped as much by the wired-up butts of death-row as Fritz Lang’s robots. It was Freud who insisted on the link between the fragile mind and the fractured house, but this show, directed by Barbican senior curator Jane Alison, is the first to explore the importance of architecture and the home in the development of the Surrealist tradition.

“The Surreal House is an intersection between architecture and the unconscious,” says Alison. “With Surrealism, the house is a key metaphor for the mind and the person in the age of psychoanalysis. Previously there’d been a connection between architecture and the body as harmonious proportions. But in the age of Freud and psychoanalysis that house becomes fragmented, distorted and prone to collapse.”

There are no fall-away floors at the Barbican (unless you count a clip of Buster Keaton’s collapsing house), but the gallery has employed architects Carmody Groake to break the lower space into bedroom, bathroom, living room and, naturally, toilet. A long way from an ideal show home, the subconscious rips through the fabric and becomes a trip-hazard – a nursery of reanimated toys; a choir behind that toilet door – while the Femme Maison paintings by the late Louise Borgeoius, with their housework trapped women, are all the more unsettling for being spider-free.

The Surrealists declared the home a platform for playfulness but, like the make-believe of kids, darker impulses kicked beneath the energy and absurdity; were sharpened by new shapes in modernity. At the Barbican, unease and claustrophobia are heightened by use of shadow and, particularly, by the discordant key-clatter of Rebecca Horn's ‘Concert for Anarchy’, a grand piano suspended above the central room, its innards spewing out with the notes. More random noise than music, Horn’s piece is an accurate focus for the exhibition, as violence and confusion erupts from the polished surface of an object designed for performance.

The tomb of Rachel Whiteread’s ‘Black Bath’ and the gender-gap discomfort of Sarah Lucas’ ‘Au Naturel’ (buckets and cucumbers for adults that never stop playing cars and garages), are the contemporary companions to the spirits of Magritte and Breton, all house guests at the Barbican, along with the likes of Edward Hopper and de Chirico. Dali was surely first on the list, and his presence is felt in the less-intense upstairs space, where connections between architecture and surrealism are more clinically exposed.

Here the slumbering, stilt-propped head of Dali’s painting ‘Sleep’ is juxtaposed with an architect’s model of Office for Metropolitan Architecture's nineties design Villa dall'Ava. “The link between Dali and Koolhaus was a revelation for me,” admits Alison. “It’s no accident that the most influential architect working today has been massively influenced by surrealism. I wanted to bring that out and make it central to the story.”

Having had the chaos of kitchens and living quarters pressed into you at every turn, upstairs at Surreal House is more like escaping to your room as teen. Watching films on benches – a silent tour of the completed Villa dall’Ava; a spell on the flat but fantastical roof of Casa Malaparte in Godard’s Le Mepris (Contempt); the torched home of Tarkovsky’s ‘The Sacrifice’ – this is space to apply your own narrative and un-logic to windows on a warped world.

Towards the close of the circuit, photographs of Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye in its post-war dereliction are displayed with a quote by Bernard Tschumi, declaring that architecture is at its "most alive, most meaningful, when on the point of collapse". It’s a reminder of mortality that echoes with Whiteread’s bath near the beginning; that insists our games and our ghosts will pale against the stage we lend them when the time comes to hand it back.

The Surreal House runs until 12 September, Barbican Centre

Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS.

Tickets cost £8 /£10 with discounts for online bookings. There are various supporting events at throughout summer.

www.barbican.org.uk/artgallery. Box office: 0845 1207550

Lost In Here

2010-02-21T18:58:00.001Z

This is fashion story I worked on last year with Konrad Wyrebek, as an art direction/photography team. We shot it on Hamsptead Heath at dawn in the summer and added extra mysticism and sparkle while the models, Karolina and Alexis, recovered from their attack by midges. You can see my fashion and celeb art direction & photography site at www.mileswyrebek.com.

Photography and art direction Matthew Miles and Konrad Wyrebek

Styling - Oliver Arlt

Models - Karolina Wyrebek and Alexis Caught

Girls Aloud - AXM Portraits

2010-02-19T10:48:00.001Z

Girls Aloud line up for a cover shoot I art directed for AXM. Cheryl Cole, Sarah Harding, Nicola Roberts, Kimberley Walsh and Nadine Coyle front the Prisoner Cell Block Pop looks, minus The Freak. The reason (or mitigating circumstances) for the dungarees will be explained in the next post down...

Antwerp - The Secret Fashion Capital

2010-02-18T22:49:00.000Z

Into the idea of a relaxed city break with cutting-edge culture and clothes shopping? Then it's worth considering Antwerp. After all, for many of Europe's most ambitious fashion students it's already the only destination on the map.

I headed to Belgium recently and met some of the city's top fashion talent – including young designer Tim Van Steenbergen, the latest graduate from Antwerp Fashion Academy to develop an international career. He's already dressed Rihanna and J-Lo, while his new line of traditional-yet-modern tailored menswear has got props from none other than industry giant Tommy Hilfigger.

Helping bright lights like Van Streenbergen hit bigger stages is David Flamee, project manager at Flanders Fashion Institute. His work is focused on promoting Belgian designers at home and globally so he's slightly biased, but for him, those looking to update their wardrobe should choose Antwerp over Paris every time. 'In addition to the Belgian designers, a lot of luxury, world fashion brands have been attracted to Nationalestraat (the trendy shopping street) and it's just snowballed,' says Flamee. 'Antwerp is really shopper friendly. You can do it all in one afternoon because the stores are so close together. In fact everything is close – the fashion museum, the art galleries and the restaurants. The quality is very high but it's easy to get around.'

If you can't get to your next fix of consumerism or culture on foot, a tram won't be far off – and two places you should definitely check out are the old meat-packing district (epicentre of the upcoming art and fashion crowd) and Cogels-Osylei, a street like nowhere else on earth. What seems a genteel suburb gives way to house after house of early 20th century art deco eccentricity, with each building a unique style statement. It all adds up to a neighbourhood so twisted that if you saw it in a Tim Burton movie you'd think it was CGI. But maybe there's something in the tap water, because Antwerp boasts imaginative architecture and daring design on virtually every corner – with plenty of public sculptures and pop-up shops to complement staples like the modern art gallery and MoMu fashion museum.

From where Van Steenbergen's standing the trigger for this easy-going, creative energy is a little more prosaic – he puts it down to the city's size. 'You get to know everyone in a way you can't in Paris,' he explains. 'Disciplines get mixed up and you hang out with all kinds of artists, from theatre to music. Everyone is collaborating and inspiring each other – the opportunities come naturally here.'

Antwerp is a 60-minute hop from the Eurostar hub of Brussels. If you want to find out more click http://www.visitantwerpen.be/.

Images in this piece by myself and Konrad Wyrebek.

David Flamee

Tim Van Steenbergen

Gareth Pugh - The Debut?

2010-02-18T22:27:00.000Z

Gareth Pugh at work in AXM

AXM Magazine was a champion of emerging talent and, if we weren't the first to interview the most exciting UK designer right now, then we were only a stitch-width away. Recently graduated from Central St Martins, Pugh's designs were just beginning to make it into magazine editorials but, as he worked late into the night, he told us 'it doesn't pay the bills.'

Pugh had this to say about the style trade: 'Ideas are important. It's not about trends or colours or textures or whatever. It makes me feel a bit sick... it seems so contrived.' And slaving away at a sewing machine, Sunderland's finest had little time for fashion flakes: 'My heroes are the people who want to do their own thing and get where they want to. Not by spending Daddy's money, or knowing some super-star model who'll wear your shit to a party and get in the "Daily Mail", but by doing what makes them happy, and doing the best with what they've got.'

It was AXM's 'Made In Britain' issue and Peter Paul Hartnett captured the portrait.

Tatton Park Biennial

2010-02-18T06:09:00.000Z

I wrote this piece for GT Magazine... Tatton Park is a grand country pile up in the North West with sweeping views and, every two years, a diverse show of contemporary art. The biennial is probably designed to attract visitors who'd normally be non-plussed by the idea of wall mounted deer kills and award-winning topiary, but whatever the marketing plan (and the occasional artistic misfire) it's worth it. Everywhere deserves a biennial. Even Catford.

Culture Clash -Tatton Park Biennial 2010, Cheshire

From mansion to maze, Matthew Miles discovers creativity, cheeky revisionism and the occasional blot on the landscape.

Running ‘til the end of September, Tatton Park Biennial sticks contemporary art into one of North West England’s most rarefied late-Georgian country estates. With a theme of ‘Framing Identity’, the house, gardens and grounds have become a stage for the imaginations of over 20 artists, all creating 3D or installation pieces that reference the location and its history – and sometimes rub it up the wrong way.

Deliberately creating a blot on Tatton’s romantically picturesque landscape, Jimmie Durham’s assemblage of bright-painted ‘leaking’ oil drums on a finely clipped lawn has outraged some members of the Tatton Trust. Referencing the artist’s history as a native American Cherokee, and his community’s land claims amidst the drive for oil, the piece has proved timely as the United States’ deregulated lust for petroleum results in its worst ever man-made disaster.

But while a biennial just wouldn’t be a biennial without at least some political provocation, there’s a lot more to Tatton than shock factor – and the most successful pieces tap into the surrounds in more subtle ways. Jem Finer Spiegelei’s installation at the edge of the Japanese Garden pond has something of the Victorian folly about it, thought it goes on to dreamily alter your perspective of the surrounding water, trees and sky in a manner that your average faux-castle struggles to deliver.

A mirrored sphere ‘sits’ atop a basic wooden shed and internally displays a three-way camera obscura image of the Japanese Garden. There’s room for one person at a time to enter the shed and stand with their head in the sphere, becoming immersed in a magically dappled 360-degree mirror image of the landscape – complete with silvery water and, if you’re lucky, the sudden flight of birds. It’s an unforgettable update to the science-bending practice of an artist, musician and composer who has worked in residence at Oxford Department of Astrophysics.

If there’s a fair bit of science involved in Spiegelei’s installation then Kate MccGwire’s work, sited in the kitchens of the mansion, is perhaps the most fantastical furthering of Tatton’s history. Game shooting and the preparation of the birds for eating was a major part of the estate’s culture and MccGwire’s installation combines thousands of locally sourced feathers, each coming from a bird that would have been cooked in the house. The end result is a freakishly silky ‘organic’ form – resembling a boa constrictor-size bird’s neck without a head – that emanates from the oven and takes over the space.

Even more unlikely, Neville Gabie’s piece centres on a block of ice brought to Tatton from the Arctic and kept cool by solar panel generated air-con units. While the process is more marvellous than the product, this iceberg in an ugly box chimes with the explorations of one of the more daring members of the Egerton family, who owned Tatton from 1598-1958. Meanwhile the social divide at the estate is explored in Annika Eriksson’s films, shot at Tatton and screened in her portable six-seat cinema. Back in the grand house, Helen Maurer’s delicate and enchanting kinetic offering drops from ceiling to floor in the Cupola Room, employing glass once used in chandeliers at Manchester Airport to recall the WWII parachute descents at Tatton.

The Biennial is curated by Danielle Arnaud and Jordan Kaplan, who describes it as, “an opportunity for artists and writers to immerse themselves in the histories of Tatton Park and question identity and place within the context of the estate and surrounding area. Throughout the summer Tatton becomes a creative laboratory, where artists’ experiments can bemuse, confuse and provoke visitors.”

From a giant rocking horse to a Blair Witch-esque horror in the bushes featuring an ominous, um, shed and a lot of dry ice, Tatton Park Biennial is at times eccentric, others esoteric – but the combined whole is an absorbing day in a stunning corner of the country.

Tatton Park Biennial 2010: Framing Identity. 8 May–26 September.

For opening times and travel information: http://www.tattonparkbiennial.org/

Tracey Emin - The Snapshot Interview

2010-02-17T19:02:00.000Z

I interviewed artist Tracey Emin for AXM and found her in the hearty but spiky mood we've come to know and mostly love. Discovered that we both see tidal waves when we're sleeping but that Emin 'finds it almost impossible to day dream. If I think something I always put into action.' She did get a touch icy when I suggested she spent half the budget of her film Top Spot on the final helicopter shot (with a CGI tsunami striking Margate, no less) - but we patched things up as she revealed that 'at the end of the day I like a really good hard fuck.' Thanks for sharing Trace!

Skins Luke Pasqualino

2010-02-17T16:48:00.001Z

Shot portraits of Luke Pasqualino, who played Freddie in series three and four of Skins, for AXM Magazine. Teamed with artist Konrad Wyrebek on the photography and art direction mix and also interviewed Mr P for the mag, discussing mostly the good/bad/ugly things 18-year-olds get up to – and how near the E4 show is to the truth. You can check it all out at http://www.axm-mag.com/

Photography and art direction - Konrad Wyrebek and Matthew Miles

Styling - David Bartlett

Grooming - James Anda

Nicholas Hoult - AXM's Shooting Star

2010-02-14T21:39:00.001Z

Bagged this exclusive cover interview with Nic just as Skins launched him in the direction of Hollywood. Art directed the shoot, lensed by Frederic Aranda, which was a winner for AXM - and helped boost the actor's profile at just the right time. He's a cool, down to earth guy (he drove to the shoot with his mum, yikes) so it's great to see him doing excellent work in movie-world.

Write It, Photograph It, Spray it

2010-02-08T21:13:00.002Z

This is a piece on new summer men's fragrances - I produced the image and wrote the copy for GT Magazine.

Fresh Up!
From remixes of big hits to signature scents of designers of the moment, it's no longer about the musk of a man who arrives at his own party on a jet-ski - androgynous Eastern promise leads the way.

Words and Photography MATTHEW MILES

Scents in image, clockwise from top:

Davidoff Cool Water Ice Fresh, 125ml, £29.00

This sprightly re-working of a rugged hero wouldn’t win awards for originality if it all it offered was zinging notes of lemon, mandarin and grapefruit. But luckily our Ice Fresh baby also packs a punch of basil and sage (thems fighting herbs) and is rounded off with a juniper base. Surprising.

Calvin Klein Eternity For Men Aqua, 50ml, £36

A little bit citrus, a little bit Orient, this one’s also a whole lot of top-seller. Darker notes of patchouli and musk fortunately suggest ‘guy with hidden depths’ more than ‘got thrown out of the kibbutz because I never washed my tie-dye yoga pants.’

Chanel Allure Homme Sport Vaporisateur Spray, 75 ml, £64

Love to look good on a yacht but can’t afford one? Time to meet your ‘get cruised in the Ibiza super-club anyway’ card. With a smack of orange and mandarin (they do smell different, honest), Chanel’s ever-young classic also has something of the sea about it. That’s Pacific rollers rather than dead crabs off Norfolk.

Calvin Klein Eternity For Men Summer, 100ml, £32

A livewire blend of kumquat, pineapple and bergamot fused with bamboo, cardamom and cedar leaf. Dries down with gualac and teak wood and a ‘hint of sea salt mist,’ apparently. We say it’s a winner for summer days at work – unlike your tired-and-tested camo shorts and trainers combo.

Marc Jacobs Men, 75ml, £40

It’s manly, sensual and on the money trend-wise, combining woody, herby hints with spices that smack of wild nights in Istanbul. It also boasts our new favourite press release descriptor with ‘watery fig leaves’ paying homage to those infamously hedonistic pool parties in the Garden of Eden. Possibly.

Sun On Berlin

2010-01-24T00:07:00.000Z

This image is from the upcoming Michael Joo and Damien Hirst collaborative show at Hanch Of Venison gallery in Berlin. It's by Joo and I like it for it's graphic lines and art-meets-science approach.

X-Factor's Leon Jackson Enters The Matrix

2010-01-22T23:30:00.000Z

X-Factor winner Leon's stay in the charts wasn't as long as he would have hoped, but at least he got into The Matrix, thanks to this shoot I art directed for AXM. I needed a concept that would shake off Leon's crooner image and guarantee some publicity action in the newspapers and online. Quite a lot of post-production later Leon and his kick-boxing clones hit the target with coverage in The Sun and The Sun online, The Mirror and Heat.

AES Group - Video Art Gets Virtual

2010-01-22T07:45:00.000Z

Last Riot by AES Group

You may have caught a screening of Last Riot when it showed in London a couple of years back. It's makers are AES, a trio of Moscovites, two of whom graduated in architecure and began their careers working on 3D computer models for conceptual buildings. Last Riot was a combination of CGI and live action that played out on three screens. It imagined its young protganists living and fighting in a sensationalist virtual world in which the norms of behaviour were based on the graphic violence and nihilism of many video games. AES seemed to be exploring not just the effects of video gaming on players but also the way military technology is beginning to mesh virtual with real warfare.

AES continue to create and investigate the blurring point of real and virtual worlds. One of their more recent films, The Feast of Trimalchio, recasts the former slave as the nouveau riche host of feasts lasting several days in a luxury island hotel. The mix of intellectuals, bankers and society beauties try to lose themselves in an orgy of hedonism, but the paradise is proved temporary as a series of catasrophes visit the island.

I'm really inspired by the meeting of real and virtual, and interested in both the possibilities and possible side-effects for those who throw themselves at this new frontier. If you want to see more eye-popping video art and installation from AES, including Last Riot, hit this: http://www.aes-group.org/

The Feast of Trimalchio, Part 1, by AES Group.

Girls Aloud Cover Interview... And The Press Go Wild

2010-01-19T09:04:00.000Z

I art directed this cover shoot with Girls Aloud for AXM Magazine, and did the interview too. We dressed the girls as retro construction workers/hardened inmates of a women's prison – I know, what was I thinking? Oh yeah – making sure the tabloids and celeb mags went mad for the girls-as-boys pics.

The interview was a blast too, as Cheryl and Kimberley got stuck in to their spat with Charlotte Church and Sarah and Nadine detailed the horror of seeing brutal paparazzi pics after their nights out – to which Cheryl (a little prophetically) added: "Sometimes Ashley's gone to me 'You look fine' and then I see the pictures and just want to punch his head in."

Meanwhile, when asked what she would do if she could be a real guy for a day Sarah said: "Everything a boy can do that a girl can't, put it that way." Hmm...

These stories in the The Sun, The Star and The Record were the first time I launched a PR campaign at the wider media, to promote AXM. After that, as AXM editor, I scored successes several times, including double-page photo features in the likes of Heat, The Sun and Now for AXM's famed Naked Celebs campaigns, original portraits of celebs like X Factor winner Leon Jackson and also for the AXM Summer Party events. They proved a great circulation booster.

The Future Of Magazines?

2010-01-17T23:02:00.000Z

I was all psyched up for the debut digital issue of AXM Magazine, delivering a fresh-faced re-design and a popular cover star in Freddie from Skins. On one front at least, the digital version was a massive success – readers accessed in their droves, not least because it was free and very easy to get in email boxes and on Facebook walls.

Increasingly the model for publishing in the future appears to be to give away a lot of content and charge for premium subscriptions to niche channels within your brand. At the core you need a strong advertising and sponorship base but, despite a multitude of features such as audio and video capability, and direct links to websites and sign up pages, advertisers weren't quite ready to climb aboard AXM Digital.

One criticism was that the page-turner technology is still a little clunky, but that's beginning to change. As i-Phones, digital readers and pads go properly mainstream, interactive digital publishing will surely take off, rather than merely being a promotional tool or add on to traditional print titles. I don't expect the printed page to die anytime soon - and really hope it doesn't - but young, light-reading audiences in particular are hungry for a more fluid way to tap into the multimedia content of their favourite titles and brands... and drag it into the shape they want.

Dougie McFly Wings It For AXM

2009-12-19T17:55:00.000Z

Dougie McFly, AXM Magazine

He took quite a bit of convincing ('we just want to see your tatts' etc) but Dougie eventually gave in to my demands for a cover shot befitting AXM's 'Heatwave' travel issue. The band were loved by the AXM readers (despite never matching the heights of debut 'Five Colours In Her Hair' in this editor's opinion) but as well as being semi-bonkers (they pick fights with Aussie rules footballers when drunk, that kind of thing) we also discovered they're very business-focused. They'd just set up their own label and absolutely refused to trade in their established surf look, a move which left our fashion editor grinding his teeth as he re-packed his enormous suitcase of Prada and Dolce&Gabbana micro-shorts.

Dougie, McFly, 'We're more interested in hotel porn than smashing up the room.'

Danny, McFly, AXM

McFly pile into the AXM photobooth.

McFly, still eagerly awaiting 'a Lindsay Lohan sex tape',' interview for AXM.

Sharp Scents

2009-12-18T20:41:00.001Z

I art directed/styled this still-life men's fragrance shoot for AXM Magazine and OhLaLa.

AXM - The Way We Did It 2

2009-11-18T21:11:00.000Z

Some pages and layouts that I put together as editor of AXM Magazine.

Oi, Skinhead!

2009-11-18T19:23:00.000Z

In fact, these are models and the styling for this shot isn't exactly Combat 18, but you get the idea. You can see most of the shoot at http://www.mileswyrebek.com/ – it was a whole 10-pages of hit in AXM Magazine. Oh yeah, and the models have both gone on to big things too, which is cool as they were a good laugh and totally up for it.

AXM Naked Celebs Campaigns

2009-11-16T19:22:00.000Z

As editor of AXM Magazine I partnered with national charities to launch four naked celebrity photo-feature campaigns. These were a massive success with the readers, giving us record circulation figures and helping to further awareness of issues such as anorexia and bulimia with Mind and the need for testicular cancer checks with Cancer Research.

As well as desperately convincing Big Brother evictees to strip for the camera, I also drove the press campaign each time - picking up much print coverage in the national tabloids and celeb mags such as Heat, as well as a deluge of online activity. Highlights included trying to tame the seriously OTT Basshunter, convincing people that the bit of card from Rymans they were holding was going to become a giant ruler (see above) and the eccentric, bare-skinned appearances of drag stars like Jonny Woo, Jodie Harsh and Lady Lloyd.

We were grateful for the support of all the celebs and also companies like Virgin Rail, who came in very handy when it was time for annual Hollyoaks run to Liverpool!

Dior – Ray Of Light

2009-11-14T14:06:00.000Z

Doing It For Dior

Hot model + neat shades = sunglasses editorial/campaign.
Shot this one with Konrad Wyrebek as the photography/art direction team Miles Wyrebek. www.mileswyrebek.com

AXM - The Way We Did It 3

2009-10-16T19:03:00.001+01:00

A last batch of random pages from my time as editor of AXM Magazine.

Bangkok Beat

2009-10-15T21:01:00.003+01:00

Headed out to Bangkok in February to make portraits of the city's freshest young artists and the place itself. Spun this into a travel feature for GT mag's May issue, but we got tons of material out of the trip – barely slept.

Highlights? Meeting Warhol screenwriter Ron Tavel, the week before he sadly died... A one-off show from young performance artist Henry Tan in a night dark warehouse above a busy highway – he delivered an eerie, strobe-lit piece with the moan of passing traffic as soundtrack... Shooting stills and video from the top of the Centara Grand tower (and getting fine complimentary cocktails because we couldn't leave the room before the crown prince of Thailand departed his private restaurant suite – it's a custom, honest)... Plus the food, the heat, the concrete and neon and gadgets – all that stuff grinding to a halt as the national anthem got played on echoing tannoy speakers in the shopping district.

It's shocking to see the problems between government and protesters in Thailand spilling into occasional violence. But, having visited the friendly, safe and gentle country on travel assignments (and the obligatory back-pack trip) three times, it's really hard to envision the situation escalating to civil war. However, the tension and blooodshed is intensifying and the Foreign Office are currently advising against Travel to all of Thailand. It's definitely not somewhere you'd want to host an event right now – and BK is never a good place to film – but knowing the hot-spots to avoid, I'd probably brave a solo trip back tomorrow. I certainly plan to drop in when I head out to Asia on a photo/feature tour later this year. Hopefully things will be nearing normaility by then.

Here's an excerpt from the piece published in GT:

BANGKOK BEAT

The Thai capital's hottest artists share big city secrets.

Words Matthew Miles
Photography Konrad Wyrebek and Matthew Miles

Bangkok is a full-on clash of ancient culture, technophilia and concrete. Oh, and there’s neon – lots of neon. We hooked up with young artists, filmmakers, club kids and pop stars (ok, one pop star) to discover the secret scenes that your average tourist misses in the stampede for gold leaf Buddhas/elephants on street corners/lady boys with number badges on knickers.

Party
Youth energy kicks up Bangkok’s veins – from the J-pop kid-klones to the LED screens in Siam Square beaming boy bands at commuters. But believe this: nowhere is quite as loud, bright and improbably attired as monthly club-night Trasher, where students and poseurs go nuts in looks that were born to be camera bait. Having fronted electro band Futon, Gene Kasidit (www.myspace.com/genekasidit) is an icon to many Trasher party peeps. Now solo, he gave us a tour of the hottest spots, including the hip bar Happy Monday (Ekami Soi), which mixes fine cocktails with 80s and 90s tunes. Yet a decade after launching, Bangkok’s catwalk queen is still Bed Supperclub (www.bedsupperclub.com), which resembles an alien cocoon – only unfortunately without cocktails on IV drip.

Art
Life isn’t all about getting wasted and dancing with 18-year olds and we discovered that Bangkok’s art scene is way better at conversation. Our guide was performance artist Henry Tan, who spun us a ghostly private show in a blacked out warehouse, before zipping us to an underground art rave by the riverside. If you can’t get your hands on a Henry then a copy of BAM (www.bangkokartmap.com) is all you need to start navigating. Trips to Art Gallery Bangkok (artgallerybangkok.com) and leading independent Gallery Soulflower (www.gallerysoulflower.com) are musts.

Culture
So by now you're a shopped-out, party-wreck, right? A river trip that takes in a temple before winding up at Koh Kret might just be the only thing that can make you human again. The 'green island' is car-free but you can cheaply hire a bike for a spin past traditional stilt houses and wetland meadows. This is traditional Thai life in a microcosm and with it the frenetic modern city across the water seems to vanish – there’s even a pottery museum for budding Grayson Perry’s to pick up tips/a pressie for mum.
A far less sedate taste of Thai tradition can be sweated out at a kick boxing gym. The friendly, no-frills, open-air ring at Muay Thai Sasis Prapa (www.muaythaisasiprapa.com) churns out champs – but even losers like me can get a pumped-up introduction to the basic moves from its top trainers. If nothing else, it'll toughen you up for the kind of four hours sleep per night schedule you'll need to get the best out of Bangkok.

The rest of the article ran in GT Magazine, but here's a good place to start if you're trip-planning: www.tourismthailand.co.uk

For a PDF of this feature or to talk about other material and images, just drop me an email.

A couple of quick snapshots of Bangkok. That's electro-popster Gene Kaskidit above.

Out-space - The Advert

2009-10-15T20:43:00.001+01:00

Coming up with sharp copy and creative for marketing was part of the deal when editing AXM. We launched a social network to tie in with AXM Digital. T'was called Out-space and this was the body copy:

'AXM is kick-starting a red-blooded, fast-witted future online and on your mobile. Get bitching celeb news and exclusive access to sexy stars. Download new music and sizzling eye candy. Launch your own out-space profile and hook up with guys as fresh as you. Blog and build with AXM to create the content you want.'

Fave AXM Covers 1

2009-10-12T17:23:00.000+01:00

I edited AXM Magazine for five years, collaborating with some amazing people – this is one of my fave covers. Worked with photographer Antonio D Marguet on this concept/shoot, and really like the way the styling, the model and the coverlines boost each other – although ultimately it's all about the cherry ear-rings, no?

Lady Sovereign For Diva Magazine Preview

2009-10-12T15:10:00.003+01:00

The Sov strikes back! Higher up you can check out behind scenes pics from the Lady Sovereign cover shoot I just did with artist Konrad Wyrebek. This is a quick portrait I snapped of her to share here, plus a sneak preview of a rough image, before the cover and feature comes out in June issue of Diva Magazine. Will post the full series around then, and also on our art direction/photography site www.mileswyrebek.com.

This is Lady Sov's vid 'Love Me Or Hate Me'.

Jump The Fence - AXM Festival Fashion

2009-10-12T12:39:00.002+01:00

Created this fashion story for AXM. It's summer/festival fashion for guys and, after splashing the cash on some of this stuff, you'd probably need to jump the fence to get in. These days of course, I'm reduced to swilling around the VIP bit nibbling mini roast-dinner canapes with Lily Allen. Art directed this shoot with artist and photography Konrad Wyrebek – you can see more at our site www.mileswyrebek.com.

Being Human – From The Shoulders Up

2009-09-28T19:36:00.000+01:00

Aidan Turner, Being Human

Here are a few portraits of the Being Human cast. I art directed/photographed the guys with Konrad Wyrebek in February for GT Magazine. The trio's supernatural skills come back for more on BBC this year.

Russell Tovey, Being Human

Lenora Crichlow, Being Human

Buy! Buy! Buy!

2009-09-26T15:27:00.000+01:00

One of my quick concepts for an AXM fashion issue.

Smash City!

2009-09-22T14:19:00.000+01:00

I art directed this fashion story, shot with Konrad Wyrebek – it was published in AXM magazine and around four months later a very similar looking ad campaign hit the billboards in London. Whatever, it's probably just a sky-scraping coincidence – I'm not exactly the only person in the world to be inspired by Kong Kong and freak-ass Japanese toons.

Untitled

2009-09-12T23:57:00.003+01:00

Some pictures I'm working on, and might show in Barcelona later in May.