THE DISCIPLES by James Mollison

CHRIS BOOT NEW BOOK PRESS RELEASETHE DISCIPLES by James MollisonAn original and hilarious take on the fans of rock stars, emulating their idolsRetail price UK£40.00 / US$75.00 CAN$85.00Binding Hardbound (with metallic foil)Category PhotographyPublication date October 2008ISBN 978-1-905712-12-0Extent 128ppTrim size 10 x 14 inches / 26 x 36 cm(landscape)Photographs 58 colour plates plus 58illustrationsBetween 2004 and 2007, James Mollison attended pop concerts across Europe and the USA witha mobile photography studio, inviting fans of each music star or band to pose for their portraitoutside the gig. He subsequently combined portraits of 8-10 fans for each performer into a singleline up, making a single panoramic image in each case. With a total over 500 individual portraits,in 58 panoramic images, The Disciples, an original, sharp and highly entertaining take oncontemporary music culture and the tribalism invoked by popular music stars.Included are the disciples of the Arctic Monkeys, Jimmy Buffett, George Clinton, the Cure, theDamned, P Diddy, Snoop Dogg, the Dresden Dolls, Yossou N’Dour, Bob Dylan, Missy Elliot, 50Cent, Iron Maiden, Elton John, Tom Jones, Kiss, Led Zeppelin, Jennifer Lopez, Madonna,Madness, Marilyn Manson, George Michael, Morrissey, Motorhead, Willie Nelson, the New YorkDolls, Oasis, Dolly Parton, Iggy Pop, Prince, Radiohead, Shabba Ranks, the Red Hot ChiliPeppers, Cliff Richard, the Rolling Stones, the Sex Pistols, Shakira, the Spice Girls, Rod Stewart,Angie Stone, Take That, ZZ Top, U2 and the Wailers.With a foreword by Desmond Morris, ethologist, writer and broadcaster (whose previous booksinclude The Naked Ape, 1967), The Disciples also features a commentary by Mollison on hisencounter with the fans of each star. The book is exquisitely designed and produced on a largeportfolio scale (each image featured appears at 70cm/28in wide), and is published in a limitededition of 3000 copies.Each of the five photographs featured in the press release are available for press usage,providing no more than 2 are used in any context, and providing the book is referred to.For other picture rights, please contact Chris Boot Ltd.FOR FURTHER DETAILS, FEATURE OR IMAGE REQUESTS AND REVIEW COPYREQUESTSPlease contact Chris Boot Ltd, London, info@chrisboot.com, tel: + 44 (0) 20 7639 2908

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATIONJames Mollison was born in Kenya in 1973 and grew up in England. After studying Art andDesign at Oxford Brookes, and later film and photography at Newport School of Art and Design, hemoved to Italy to work at Benetton’s creative lab, Fabrica. Now independent and based in Venice,Italy, his work has been widely published throughout the world including by Colors, The New YorkTimes Magazine, the Guardian magazine, The Paris Review, The New Yorker and Le Monde. Hisprevious books include The Memory of Pablo Escobar (Chris Boot, 2007) and James and OtherApes (Chris Boot, 2004). Mollison is a gallery artist of Hasted Hunt, New York.Desmond Morris is a primatologist, psychologist, writer and broadcaster who has studied thebehaviour of animals and humans for over 45 years. Best known as the author of the seminal TheNaked Ape (1967), now translated into 23 languages, his many other popular books include TheHuman Zoo (1969), Manwatching, a Field-Guide to Human Behaviour (1977), The Soccer Tribe(1981) and The Naked Man: A Study of the Male Body (2008). Morris is also a widely exhibitedsurrealist painter.BOOK CONTENTS• Foreword by Desmond Morris (700 words)• 58 panoramic photographs• Commentary on the fans by James Mollison at the back of the book (500 wordintroduction plus 150 word commentary on each picture, each illustrated with aphotograph of a concert Tshirt)EXTRACT FROM JAMES MOLLISON’S COMMENTARY: A few years ago, on a trip toLos Angeles, I noticed how many girls looked like Britney Spears. I wondered if it was a consciousdecision on their part; and thinking there might be a project idea in it, I set up a website calleddoyoulooklikebritney.com.I didn’t get any responses. I would have gone to a Britney concert to investigate, but she wasn’ttouring. I took my camera to a Marilyn Manson concert instead.Manson’s fans were amazing, but when I got the film back, I was slightly disappointed with theindividual portraits I’d taken. No-one stood out particularly. When I looked at the portraits as agroup, however, I thought something much more interesting emerged. This is how I began makinggroup photographs of music fans.At the beginning of the project, I always tried to get permission to be inside a concert. But oftena venue wouldn’t give permission, because they had been hired by the promoter; the promoterwouldn’t give permission unless the band manager said OK; and then the band manager – whomight, at best, get back to me two hours before the concert began – usually said no. They wouldtell me they couldn’t give permission because I was photographing the fans not the band, orbecause the band wouldn’t be able to control the images, or because the pictures wouldn’t makemoney for the band, or they’d tell me some other reason. For the most part, I simply set my studioup in the street outside the venue, wherever I could find a spot.I had help. Not long after the start of the project, I met Amber (now my wife), who was with methroughout. She did most of the asking. Big Rastas loved her, women felt safer, parents feltreassured.… Her manner and her determination made it all feasible. Generally, fans were fascinated by theproject and nearly everyone approached said yes enthusiastically. Damian, my friend and regularphotography assistant, would come when he could and help look after the studio.

Before each concert, Amber and I would look at pictures of the band to familiarise ourselves withtheir look. Once at the venue, we would scan the crowd for that same look. Usually that’s what wewould go for in the photographs – though sometimes something else would surface which took usin a different direction. The people chosen for the final image were, for us, representations of theaudience, which is a kind of truth but not a whole truth. Audiences were often more diverse thanthe photographs suggest. I’m aware that focusing on a certain type of person often means youdon’t properly register the others.As we progressed with the project, I began to see how concert audiences are like surrogatefamilies for music fans. They offer a chance to get together with people who share their connectionto the music, or to relive their youth, or reach out to a scene or an attitude that existed before theywere born.James Mollison, Venice, 2007Rod Stewart Manchester, UK, 4th July 2005 & London, 20th December 2005‘Do Ya Think I’m Sexy?’ was the answer I got when I asked one of the Rod lookalikes if I couldtake his picture. For fans of the jet-setting, once-naturally-blond rock’n’roll crooner, ‘Rod is God’.He lives the life of their dreams. We started photographing fans in Manchester but had to give upafter being moved on by both the police and the venue’s security. We finished the portraits inLondon, where we were able to work in the venue foyer. We could have gone for the women ineither of the audiences of 50-somethings, with their leopard-skin capes and peroxide hair. But theRod-lookalike men were just too irresistible.Photographs and texts © James Mollison/Chris BootEach of the five photographs featured in the press release are available for press usage,providing no more than 2 are used in any context, and providing the book is referred to.For other picture rights, please contact Chris Boot Ltd.

Sex Pistols Brixton Academy, London, 8th & 9th November 2007Unashamedly crude and intensely emotional, the Sex Pistols were the original punks. They firstterrorised Britain three decades ago but self-destructed after just 2 years, so I was happy whenthey re-formed for a short run of reunion gigs. The audience fell into three distinct types: die-hardpunks still living the punk lifestyle; youngsters wanting to be part of history; and men coming torelive a moment of their youth – some bringing along their sons to show them how dangerous theyhad once been. What really surprised me was how much tartan was on show, so we went for that.Björk Hammersmith Apollo, London, 10th & 14th April 2008Björk is Iceland’s most famous export, a singer-songwriter known for her uniquely expressive vocalphrasing and flamboyant, elfin appearance. On my way to the concert, I felt a sense of regret thatI hadn’t photographed her fans ten years earlier, when Björk was at her most avant-garde. Butthe crowd at Hammersmith turned out to be edgier and more alternative than I had imagined. Withslightly more women than men, they all expected more than just a rock concert. They were therefor Björk’s inimitable art performance as much as for her music.Photographs and texts © James Mollison/Chris Boot Ltd.

Madonna The Forum, Los Angeles, 21st May 2006More than 20 years after ‘Like a Virgin’, the diverse audience for the iconic queen of pop had adistinctly camp edge. The photography was a nightmare. Because we had flown to Los Angelesespecially for the concert, I made a real effort to get permission. I don’t think the request ever gotto Madonna herself, but I was told she handles these things personally and no way was she goingto give consent. So I rented a removal truck and drove it into the venue car park. I had to pay amassive limo fee for the space, and all the security guards were suspicious, thinking I waspeddling T-shirts. Then we had to sneak people into the truck without anyone seeing. The fansdidn’t mind – they all wanted their picture taken.The Cure Pala Sharp, Milan, 2nd March 2008Robert Smith, of the goth hit machine the Cure, is known for his iconic wild hair, pale complexion,smudged lipstick and usually-gloomy and introspective lyrics. During the early 1980s the bandhelped define the gothic rock genre. We photographed Cure fans in Milan against a fence behindthe illegal T-shirt sellers, who were ducking and diving from the venue’s security men. Everybodywas dressed in black. Many of the fans were much younger than the band, in their 20s and 30sand from all over Europe. Many, we learned, were following the tour from country to country. Wecould have done pictures of the gothic girls, but we went for the Robert Smith look.Photographs and texts © James Mollison/Chris Boot Ltd.

Kiss Arena di Verona, Verona, Italy, 13th May 2008Famous for their iconic glam metal look, face-paint and pyrotechnic performances – and for leadsinger Gene Simmons’s long tongue – Kiss were high on our list of bands from the beginning. Weconsidered going to Tokyo for two performances in 2006, but were told that Simmons would onlygive permission if we did the book entirely of Kiss fans. We didn’t go. But then, as we werecompleting the project, they announced a gig at Verona’s coliseum – appropriately, the site ofgladiatorial combat in Roman times and grand opera today. Outside the venue, thousands of Kissfans – mainly men, and many much younger than the band – hung around, painting their facesand wagging their tongues at each other.Motörhead Hammersmith Apollo, London, 16th June 2005My ears continued to ring for at least three days after hearing ‘the godfathers of speed metal’,Motörhead. Lemmy, the black-leather soul of the band, doesn’t like the ‘speed metal’ label (hesays it’s rock and roll), but the concert was played blazingly fast. It was almost impossible to tellone song from the next. The audience at Hammersmith were in their 30s, 40s and 50s, most ofthem with a dirty biker look. I got the impression that these were people who lived in these clothes,rather than got dressed up for the concert. I’m sure if I met any of them on the street, they’d lookexactly the same way.Photographs and texts © James Mollison/Chris Boot Ltd.

EXTRACT FROM DESMOND MORRIS’S FOREWORD TO THE DISCIPLES:Man is a tribal animal. For a million years our ancestors lived in small groups of a few hundred orless. Then, in a rush, we became an urban species and found ourselves living inside huge citiesand towns where most of the people we met every day were strangers to us, even though theymay have been our neighbours. We adapted to this – we are the most flexible species that hasever lived – and we struggled on, making our own little tribes within each of these huge supertribes.Our tribes now consisted of family and friends, colleagues and acquaintances, and our addressbooks held the names of just a few hundred (at most) people who made up our little group, scatteredthrough the teeming masses of the cities and interwoven with thousands of other similargroups. We did this because we have not had enough time to become a new, ant-like ‘urban ape’.The human character was formed by those hundreds of thousands of years we spent in small prehistoricgroups and we are still, even today, loyal tribesmen at heart.But our new tribes lacked something. Our family and friends did not look very different from othertribes. The Browns did not have a special costume that distinguished them from the Smiths. So,although we could still enjoy the feeling of belonging to a small group, we were not able to enjoythose special occasions when a true, prehistoric tribe would celebrate its special identity with agreat feast or some other kind of tribal ceremony. On such occasions, the ancient tribespeoplewould dress in a special way and decorate their bodies with vivid markings and colours. For a fewdays they would shout out to the world, ‘We are the Brown Tribe’ or ‘We are the Smith Tribe’, andeveryone within those tribes would feel a strange sense of strengthened social identity.So how do we recover that lost feeling which is part of our inheritance as human beings? Theanswer is that we join sports clubs, learned societies, specialist organisations, street gangs, politicalparties or some other kind of social group that gives us the chance to dress up in an unusualway and show ourselves off with a ‘display of belonging’. This sets us apart from the great massof humanity in which we bravely survive and under the weight of which we sometimes feel totallysubmerged.There is another form of tribe, which this book of remarkable photographs illustrates so vividly:the concert tribe. Music was always an important part of primeval feasting and group ritual. Today,tribal passions are re-created by rock, pop, rap and all the other styles of modern music. Individualsbecome fanatical followers of particular musical styles or, more specifically, particular individualperformers. They flock in huge numbers to these events and, once there, lose themselves in thegroup celebrations of their idols. It is not enough simply to attend; they must also don the tribalcostumes and decorations and demonstrate their allegiance visually.Text © Desmond MorrisFOR FURTHER DETAILS, FEATURE OR IMAGE REQUESTS AND REVIEW COPY REQUESTSPlease contact Chris Boot Ltd, London, info@chrisboot.com, tel: + 44 (0) 20 7639 2908Chris Boot Ltd79 Arbuthnot Road, London SE14 5NPwww.chrisboot.com