Biomed AGM - Event Shoot

𝗜𝘁 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝗳𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗰 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗜𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗶𝘁𝘂𝘁𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗕𝗶𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗦𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗔𝗚𝗠 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝗡𝗲𝘄𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗹𝗲 𝗮 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗸𝘀 𝗮𝗴𝗼, 𝗶𝗻 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗮𝘁𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘀𝘁…

If you’re from Newcastle, St James Boulevard has had an increasing number of really interesting cutting edge buildings going in – Lumen, Helix, Catalyst, Biosphere and I’ve shot in most of them apart from the most iconic one. The Catalyst, which is near enough the first one that went in, with the gold and gloss black, a curved oval of a building but with gold cross sections across it. It’s absolutely stunning.

This is an international event so there were people dialling in on Zoom from all over the world. But it also happened to pair with some rail strikes. So it meant that even people in London and Birmingham, trying to get up was incredibly difficult. So it went from an event that was supposed to be in person around 200 people down to kind of 60 or 70. And that dynamic obviously changed the pictures a little bit because there was less people, you can’t show a massive full room of people when there wasn’t as many there. But that’s just part of the challenges that I face. And the joy of my job is to try and find new ways of doing these things.

It was also really interesting that there was a lecture there from a local professor who was a chemist, even though he’s working in the field of biomedical science. We had a quick chat (because obviously with my Master’s in chemistry) and it was interesting to see his periodic table tie, which I gave him a lot of credit for and he was completely confused why a random photographer was giving kudos on his tie, and then I explained and it was all good.
To hear him do a lecture on his specialism felt like being back in a lecture hall at university, it took me back to a way of learning that I haven’t done for many years. The event itself was a mix of onstage, some portraits, some events stuff going on around the coffee breaks and that sort of stuff. An event that has such a varied mix always makes me smile and allows me to get creative in different ways on the shoot.

So there are some pictures below. I’m looking forward to potentially shooting their next event. If you’ve got an interest in science and an interest in more specifically the medical side, it’s worth keeping an eye on them as an organisation because it’s fantastic the work that they do and the research that they’re providing on such an array of topics.