Manu Delago:
Publicity and cover for Kings Place magazine.
The shield-like object behind Manu is a hang; a weird and wonderful musical instrument developed in 2000 by Felix Rohner and Sabina Schärer. Visually, it looks like a flying saucer, but, musically, it has the deep, meditative resonance of a gong and the percussive qualiities of the steel pan. Manu is a virtuoso of the instrument, and when not pursuing his own projects, he plays alongside Björk. For this session we were intending to have him jumping in the air looking as though he was throwing the hang like a frisbee along with some other toy and miniature instruments that he uses. Unfortunately he had damaged his knee so we had to fake it by photographing him from above in a ‘jumping’ position. For this particular image used inside the magazine, I concentrated on the more spiritual aspect of the music, hence the allusion to the halo. A lifetime of admiration for the Dutch still life painters sits in my head and are reflected here in the subtle play of light on the hang. It reminds me of all those pewter goblets and plates.