The secret nuclear bunker shoots came about as a result of John Henry and myself living in Brentwood only a ten minute drive from the bunker itself. Its one of those places you are always aware of as there are signs in the centre of Brentwood pointing to the place, and everyone would laugh.. 'Hey someones given away the secret'
I never actually visited it until around 2004, despite living in Brentwood since 1986. I turned up with my kids, switched on my camera and it wouldnt work. 'Right everyone home' I wasnt going in without my camera.
In 2006 shortly after joining Net-model.com (when it was a great site) I saw that an Essex model was trying to organise a social/groupshoot. She was asking for possible locations. A day later I was driving past the bunker so I popped in to see if it could be a possible venue, and was allowed a free tour. It was empty and spooky and I jumped a few times, nobody told me I would bump into mannequins strategically positioned to make you have a heart attack.
After my visit I thought this is the place! I let the model know, and she asked my to organise the shoot as she was only 16 and unable to do so on her own. Now I'd only been to a couple of poorly attended groupshoots and both were weekdays, so I assumed this was the norm. I tried to organise a date, got very little interest from all the people that had been clamouring for somewhere unusual to shoot and promptly threw my camera out of the pram! ( I think at the time I just told everyone to Fuck Off!)
At that stage I hadnt met John I just knew that there was another Brentwood photographer called GothX that had joined NetModel around the same time.
It was then that John had his first go at organising the nuke bunker shoots, and quite sensibly picked a weekend date. (duuurh suddenly people can make it!) I sent over links to what I'd already found out about the place and also went round to Johns to actually meet him. John was the organiser and put in a tremendous amount of work to get this to become a viable and successful event. I did lots of sexy bits like get in touch with models and beg them to come. Once we'd got some well known names aboard, more people got interested. We were very much the new kids on the block at NetModel and I'm sure everyone looked on waiting for this non-event that was doomed to fail... but It didnt. It was a great event.
It was a fantastic venue, lots of mods and togs, and lots and lots of socialising. I can still remember the look of frustration on Johns face when we had models coming out of the changing room in some great outfits waiting to be shot while some togs hadn't even got their cameras out by half way through the evening...jabber jabber jabber, whatabout some photography? I wasnt frustrated I was loving it, heads down no nonsense, shoot those models get those images!
Bunker 2, in June 2007, once announced was quickly snapped up, the first one had really stormed in as a great new event, and now lots of people were interested, coming from all parts of the country. Bunker 2 showed that this wasnt a flash in the pan, and again a great success. I'm sure it pissed off quite a few old hands on net-model as neither of us were interested or swayed by some of the 'bigger' names out there, and the new kids were actually showing the old hands how its done.
It was about the time of Bunker 3 in Oct 2007, that I was organising a shoot with a model based on computer game warriors as in games like Soulcaliber. This escalated into a groupshoot, and whilst I was organising that, John suggested offically combining forces and using the land around the bunker for the fantasy warrior shoot and then head off into the bunker for the evening. So Bunker 3 became a Mega Shoot.
Bunker 4 in April 2008 was the same Mega format , but there was a big difference. There were alot of new faces, and all these new faces were very excited and were planning their individual shoots months ahead. This was more like it, we were finally getting through to people that the combination of unique location and the bringing together of all this modelling and photographic talent could lead to some great and unique results. Results that were not possible in any other way.
By the time of Bunker 5 in Oct 2008, the demand for places was amazing, and we decided to bring in something to boost the quality of the shoots further. We introduced vetting. Just as you would put up a casting and choose who you want to work with based on your own criteria, so too this was applied to the bunker shoots. Too many of the people that lived on net-model always got in first while others that didnt hear about the shoots until later, would go onto waiting lists. This meant that models and togs that you really wanted to attend might not get in because they didnt spend every minute scouring the latest news on net-model. So we had to narrow over 200 people down to 50 (how to lose friends!).
Not only did we introduce vetting but also started to invite people that we wanted to attend that we thought could bring in something new. I spent so much time corresponding with models selling them why they should come. I had two models that were coming from Scandinavia. I'd shot with Festival of Sins for their promo material and invited a whole bunch from that shoot with a view to opening out a whole new set of events in partnership with them.
The amount of work that went into Bunker 5 was huge, it really felt we needed a secretary just to keep up on all the admin...the results were very bipolar. I dont think we've ever had a shoot where we had so much great feedback. Not just the usual 'Thanks' 'What a great day' etc, we received so many very personal messages where people said that they had found their lost mojo, they had gained a new boost, they had suddenly got lots of work, it was almost as if we'd provided a photography therapy session. But I felt very let down personally. The Scandinavian models both got ill (genuine illnesses which I followed on Myspace) a couple of models that I'd shot with a few times dropped out but I only heard via a friend of a friend, they hadn't bothered to tell me, and a few of the models that I'd met through Festival of Sins no showed or gave incredibly pathetic last minute excuses . All that recruitment work had basically backfired, and made me question was it all worth it?
The next shoot at the bunker wasnt an 'offical' bunker shoot. It was a collaboration of John with Pamperd (Pam Hughes) she wanted to run a fetish shoot as the bunker. Pam uses a website with a dancecard system to book individual slots during the day. It worked very well and on the night I loved the fact that I could set up in a prearranged spot with prearranged model, shoot and then pack up and set up again in another spot with another model. It does make you get organised and focussed. We'd invited Festival of Sins and given them quite a few slots for people to be models. Their own togs didnt make the grade during vetting and their very poor attempts at getting involved in booking up dancecards lead them to pull out under the excuse that it wasn't a fetish shoot it was just a shoot with alternative models. How short sighted, we had great fetish togs and models and even one of the countries leading riggers, the results spoke for themselves. Yes how very shortsighted!
Also in the fields surrounding the bunker we had a shoot with Classic Cars. This time a model called Verity that was involved with classic car collectors had approached John to co-organise a shoot. Unlike classic car meets we had alot of space for each car, enough to make each car look completely by itself . The cars were fantastic , the day was brilliant fun and the results could have been published as a book in its own right. What it did show was that the nuclear bunker shoots arent a success by virtue of a unique location, but also by hard work and organisation.
In October 2009 we had our last bunker shoot - bunker 6. It was back to evenings only as many people had found that a full day completely drained them (lightweights!). It was an 'efficient' shoot. Everyone knew what where when and how, we'd continued to use the dancecard system. It was abit strange though, bumping into people you hadnt seen in ages, saying Hello and then having to move on 'Cant stop got my 7.30 to setup in the surgery'. I think we actually had a 100% turn out for this one. In fact the population increased by one as we had the birth of an alien baby courtesy of MUA Sammm Agnew and model Franka as the Mum in childbirth and model Lex Dublinski as the midwife.
There were no bunker shoots in 2010, instead we had two amazing shoots at Laredo wild west town in Kent. The bunker needed a rest. Whenever a bunker shoot had finished and we'd all been posting our results, the next one would be anounced and so there has always been one running in the background. Unfortunately the better organised and more efficient that we got and whatever extra we could provide became very much taken for granted. The shoots were never money making ventures for ourselves. The costs were purely to pay for the venue. We were never providing a paid for service, but many times peoples reactions were as if they were attending by some kind of right and John and myself were the paid custodians of a public event.
Bunker 7 we advertised on NetModel as we had done with all the previous ones. However even after vetting etc we decided to pull the plug on using Netmodel, its no longer a site that we want to have associated with these shoots. I think we are both quite disgusted with what it has become.
So in October this year we have Bunker 7, the first bunker shoot for two years., and organised using facebook. As far as I can see only two models have been before, so its all new faces and new excitement. If you've managed to read this far without falling asleep or slitting your wrists, then you may have realised that these are not like other groupshoots. They are only called groupshoots because of the numbers of people involved, they are a full shoot that you have commited to as an individual. If you have any doubts as to your commitment to this then let us know now. We will be expecting a 100% turn out.
As this has turned into such a long spiel I'll have to write another about the October shoot, as there is lots to discuss, about how to get the most out of the day.
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