She’s Not Bossy

The last few months have been great fun. I’ve been shooting everything from album covers to poster campaigns. It’s now mid October and last month I even shot my first Christmas ad of the year for Irish International (Harp). August was my busiest August ever and September was very quiet by comparison. In this business nothing is predictable.

April I got a text from Sinéad O’Connor asking me if I’d be interested in doing some promo shots for her new album. I was really chuffed and a few days later we were in a coffee shot discussing a plan. Hair was the key as she wanted to create a bit of a stir around the new album. She knew the media would be all over it. She’s a clever lady.

I suggested locations(the main one being an abandoned building) and we shot everything over a two day period in May. We then sat down and narrowed down everything to our 7 favourite shots. The album cover and title had already been decided earlier in the year and gone to print, so basically my stuff was to be used for promo

Anyway, I sent the shots to her record company in London and the response was amazing. Sinéad rings me next morning and says “Hey, are you sitting down”? I say “Yea, what’s up?”. She says “They fucking love the shots and the ones with the hair have blown their fucking minds”. “That’s brill” I said. “No, no, they love the one in the black wig so much that they want to pull the entire album cover print run and replace it with yours”. “That’s fucking brilliant” I said as I try to contain myself. One of the lovely things about shooting an album cover is that it will still be there long after you’re gone.

About a week later Sinéad pays me the biggest compliment of all. Late one night she calls and says “Hey Donal, can you do me a favour?”. I say “I’ll try” and she asks me if I could call the album designer in Los Angeles and tell him the way I’d like the shot cropped for the cover. “Once you’re happy with the cover and interior layout, then give him final approval please”. “Call me in the morning”. What a client! Sinead not only got her new album cover but even managed to convince her record company to change the title from ‘Vishnu Room’ to ‘I’m Not Bossy’ I’m The Boss’.

Thankfully the world of advertising keeps me pretty busy but I need to continue trying to keep as many creatives in town aware of what I’m doing and hopefully find some new clients too. There are quite a number of art directors in town that I’ve still not had the pleasure of working with and even after all these years it can be hard to break in.

Speaking of “breaking in”, I’m still in love with the abandoned building mayhem and continue to find a few gems

Next year my plan is to try discover some Urbex/Rurex fun overseas. Detroit is my idea of heaven,

Homelessness and in particular the portraits and lives of those who have major drug problems still occupy some of my days off as does the world of those that participate in Irish Amateur Boxing.

I update my Facebook page quite regularly with all that’s current on my personal projects https://www.facebook.com/DonalMoloneyPhotography?ref=bookmarks

‘Art is Making Something out of Nothing and Selling it’ is a sort of Ironic/Tribute to Zappa/Urbex/Experimental style video I put together recently that may not make sense to anyone other than myself unless the copy is read. Even then some may not get it but that’s ok too.