Some months back, I was in Valmont with Erika and her friends, and found myself talking to this guy about guitars. He seemed really into it, I just like to play for pleasure. He mentioned that he had a signature guitar coming out, would I do a shoot, and would I take a guitar as payment?  I was like “sure”.  I’d had a bit to drink and I don’t have a bass guitar. I took the guy’s number:  Stuart someone “Denver” no Zender, “cool.”

He said he was a pretty good bassist, I said I was pretty good photographer.

I wasn’t completely ignorant of who he was, but I do try and take everybody as they come. Stuart seemed cool, a bit of a joker, who loves his daughter and breathes music.

Next day I get a txt “I’ve ordered the guitar when can we do the shoot?”

I went down to the studio for a meeting, he told me to ask for Mark Ronson. As I walked though the door the first thing I heard was coarse language coming from a guy called George, who at first I thought was an engineer or a roadie, he was blunt anyway. I like blunt people.
When they introduced him “this is George” they had a good laugh, you don’t know who this is do you? I twigged and found myself apologizing to a very amused but unmade up Boy George. Stuart and Mark refer to him as the original Lady GAGA.

I sat quietly and slightly out of my depth at the back of the room while Stuart laid down tracks for the Mark Ronson sessions. Mark has this encyclopaedic knowledge of music. He was wearing some of his own range Gucci shoes which were pretty cool, he was polite and professional, without being over familiar. I left with a lot of respect for the guy.

I met Josephine later on that day too, and had someone to talk about images with, which was great. At some point I hope to work with her, she has the most amazing face and approach to work.

Stuart and I had our meeting.  He wanted something fashion, he wanted to be represented in cool way – after all he is kinda cool.  He mentioned “oh shit Mark’s asked me to dinner, but Leo’s in town he wants to go to dinner” It was Veronica’s birthday and she was having a party at Jalouse. Stuart ended up bringing Leo Di Caprio to Veronica’s birthday.  We had a good night.

A few weeks latter we did a test shoot with Stuart, and he gave me the guitar – which is really beautiful, by the way. The shots won’t be going anywhere, but I like them as portraits of Stuart, so  I wanted to post them for you.

They were shot on Stuart’s birthday. After the shoot we went to the Notting Hill arts centre. Samantha Ronson was DJ and Mark had dragged Stuart out to celebrate his birthday, Mark was singing over Virtual Insanity, “futures made of” became “Stu-art Zen-der.” I was touched that both Mark and Josephine remembered me.

Got hammered.  Had fun.  Took loads of pictures.

For the full shoot, I called in Francessca Marotta to style Stuart, and Jonas to do a little grooming. We did a proper shoot in a big studio, the pics look great and will be seen in Bass Magazines soon.

Its been a strange ride since that night in Valmont.  Although I do shoot well known people regularly, normally it’s just professional.

Stuart Zender can be heard on Mark Ronsons new album “The Business” to be released In July.

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