A few weeks ago I was reminiscing about theatre trips. I realised I hadn’t been to the City Varieties in Leeds for ages, maybe 10 or 15 years. So I looked online for tickets, there was a burlesque show. Well, I have never seen a professional one of those and luckily there was a couple of tickets left, right at the back but that was fine. I bought them and decided to figure out who to ask later. I didn’t even research the show and decided just to be surprised on the day.

I ended up asking Mandy Left, I figured she might enjoy the location if not the show, the varieties is a very traditional, historic theatre. She had reservations, a burlesque show?? But why not.

Well the day came, we took our seats and it was great. The dancers were fun, there was a comedic juggler and then, to our surprise, a Marilyn Monroe tribute performer. She was mesmerizing. She commanded the stage. I didn’t know this would be part of the show, I love Marilyn Monroe and often watch her movies. My favorite film is Bus Stop. The show is still traveling the UK for another year, I highly recommend seeing it. Mandy was also a huge fan of Marilyn and looked at me like…did you know?? Nope, but wow!

So how does this relate to my blog post and photos? Well, on the way home from the show I decided to research the Marilyn performer and found her Instagram page. I wanted to say how much I enjoyed the performance and made an Instagram story, tagging her in it. The next day she replied, saying thanks! I immediately told Mandy. After text shouting, she said she wished she could take her photograph. It was such a complimentary conversation, I thought I would screen shot it and send it to Isabella, an ego boost. She wrote back again, asking if we were photographers.

Now at this point, I would usually be very British and reserved, but I decided to go against my natural instincts and said yes, why yes I am… and so is my friend. I left it there as I didn’t want to come across like a stalker or too eager. But then 🙂 “Oh, would you be interested in photographing me at the varieties tomorrow, I love the location and it would be great to capture it.”

Isabella doesn’t know this side of the story, but she will now. But I nearly dropped my phone, once I recovered I wrote to Mandy who also screamed. I then wrote back to Isabella, actually, I think we are both in Leeds tomorrow so sure, just let us know the details….Great, I will message when I get to the theatre around 2pm as I will need to ask permission.

The next day, I went into Leeds quite early and wandered, ending up at the darkroom with Mandy where we waited, waited for a call or a text. It got to 5:30pm and there was no message. We were disappointed but happy that we almost got the chance. At that point, I decided to load my camera anyway and take some photos of Mandy in the darkroom.

I had to stand on a stool to get this shot, and as I was up there my watch buzzed. There was a message. It was on!!!

We rushed to the theatre for 6pm. We had 30 minutes before the show to take some shots. As we walked there we talked about lighting, film, and also staying cool, just relax and be cool.

I had brought with me the Rolleiflex Old Standard and Canon A1, two different cameras. I chose the Rollei as it looked amazing, and the Canon A1 as I had an f1.4 lens which would be useful in the dark of the theatre. As for film, I had some 35mm Agent Shadow as I knew I had pushed that to 6400 in the past so it could handle the dark. I also had 120 Kodak Tri-x which I could also push. If there turned out to be grain, great it would make the shots look more Marilyn’s era. I also took with me a portable light which turned out to be very useful.

The actual shoot went by in an instant. Isabella was amazing, no direction needed so it went very smoothly. We both managed to get lots of shots in the short time. She even introduced us to the other cast members, by that time I had run out of film..sacrilege I know. Mandy took a the Mercury CX which was one of the cameras that captured many photos of Marilyn in her heyday. It was over before we knew it and then I had to develop the film. That was nerve-wracking, begging myself not to make a mistake.

The 120 film didn’t come out great, the camera was lovely but just didn’t have to low aperture range for the situation. On the other hand, the Canon A1 with the f1.4 and Agent Shadow was a star combination.

Here are a few of the 120 shots.

And here are some of the 35mm shots.

I think the grain in the film really adds to the feel of the photos, I was going for an authentic Marilyn look. Isabella was very pleased with them and has posted some on her instagram feed.

As I said, Isabella introduced us to some of the other artists and we took some photos of them too. Unfortunately, I didn’t have much film left and the audience was starting to come in.

The other artists features were Mat, Belle, and Ivy

And then it was over, we got the job done.

Once we left the theatre all our composure left with us, we literally jumped up and down in the street hugging each other. It was by far one of my favourite photography experiences. I loved how well Mandy and I worked together, how professional Isabella was, being able to go behind the scenes of the wonderful music hall location. Isabella said she would love us to photograph her again. I might hold her to that.

I am very proud of the results.