A History of Salvation – Polaroids
In the early days of Redemption during the 1990s digital photography hadn’t really become a thing and to check the lighting and general look of the model or set-up polaroids were taken before using actual film.
Usually, the polaroids would be discarded or thrown away at the end of the shoot, but I always kept them and during a recent clearout, I found a box of them. These go back to about 1990 and cover shoots that I did for Redemption’s video sleeves, our magazine The Redeemer, the Redemption calender, Cradle of Filth and similar commissions, plus our other labels and projects like Purgatory etc. These polaroids go up to about the year 2000 or so when digital photography pretty much made the polaroid redundant.
Here is a random selection in no particular order with captions.
This was a fashion shoot for The Redeemer magazine, issue one, using clothes from Chanel’s latest collection which were literally straight off the catwalk. I can’t say who, but a friend of mine at the time was fashion editor at a leading style magazine and this collection was biked over to us on condition that we got it back in a few hours!The clothes were quite fascistic and SM-like, all leather and big boots, so I added guns and blood with the theme ‘Go Loco with CoCo’ which made for suitably OTT results.
This cover shoot was for one of our first Purgatory releases, Micheal Ninn’s SEX. One of pair of legs belongs to the lovely Rochelle, the model for our Purgatory logo, and the other I’m not sure?
Taken in 1996 or 1997?
(See also Polaroid No 2)
This is another polaroid taken during the ‘Go Loco with Coco’ shoot taken for The Redeemer magazine, issue 1 (See also Polaroid No 1). Model is Suzi holding two Uzi machine guns.Taken summer 1992.
The Uzi guns were hired and would just not be allowed now.
This was taken for the cover of Mario Bava’s Baron Blood, an early Redemption video release.Taken in 1994
This was a test shot for the Redemption video cover of the wonderful Czech film ‘Valerie and Her Week of Wonders’ which Redemption rescued from oblivion and released in 1993 or early 1994.
The dove is real.
This was taken during a fashion shoot for The Redeemer magazine, issue 2. The theme for the whole issue was bad aristocrats and the fashion pages were titled. “Regal Rotters’. We had hired a real, full-sized guillotine and kitted the models out in ballgowns, French style wigs and armed them with Uzis and pikes! The heads in our upside world, of course, belonged to the peasant classes.
See also pics 25, 26 and 27
Living Dead Girl?
Another Polaroid from the ‘Go Loco with Coco’ fashion shoot for The Redeemer, issue 1 with Marie Harper and Suzi.See also Pics 1 and 5
Another adult cover for the Purgatory label.
This was actually for a Redemption Christmas card. If you look closely you will see in front of the model’s marvellous bosom the remains of ‘Randolph’ the reindeer who she is happily nibbling on. Probably taken in October/November 1994.
This was taken for the cover of our US Redemption release of Jean Rollin’s Living Dead Girl. The model is Nancy Sorrell who would go on to marry Vic Reeves and appear in TV shows like I’m a Celebrity …Get Me Out of Here! and Antiques Road Trip.
This was taken for the cover of the US release of Black Magic RItes and again before the use of photoshop so we had made up a pipe with holes and a gas cylinder – effective but really dangerous!
The lovely Eileen Daly getting ready for the pictures that would become Redemption’s logo and the cover of issue 1 of the Redeemer.Taken in the summer of 1992
The model is Suzi and this picture was taken to illustrate an article on Nunsploitation by Michelle Perks that ran in The Redeemer, issue 1.Taken in the summer of 1992.
A very early Redemption release, this was taken at a shoot for the cover of Deep Red. The image, meant to mimic the scene in the film where a woman is pushed through a window, shows our model Suzi (see polaroids 1 and 5), reflected in a broken mirror, as without photoshop, everything had to be done in camera.Probably taken in the summer of 1993.
Another Polaroid was taken during the ‘Regal Rotters’ fashion shoot for The Redeemer magazine issue 2. The model is Cookie who became famous for her appearances on the James Whale late night TV show.See also pics.
See also pics: 10, 26 and 27
Another Polaroid was taken during the ‘Regal Rotters’ fashion shoot for The Redeemer magazine issue 2. The model is Cookie who became famous for her appearances on the James Whale late night TV show.
See also pics: 10, 25 and 27
Another Polaroid was taken during the ‘Regal Rotters’ fashion shoot for The Redeemer magazine issue 2. The model is Cookie who became famous for her appearances on the James Whale late night TV show.
See also pics: 10, 25 and 26
Another polaroid from The Redeemer issue one shoot ‘Go Loco with CoCo’ (see polaroids 1 and 5) this time with model Marie Harper getting a Chanel boot in the face. Taken in the summer of 1992.See also Pic No 1, 5 and 14.
This is a still from the video shoot for The Nun’s track White Slave which was on their album New York Vampires which we released on our Triple Silence record label. The video was directed by Jake West and was completed in, I think, 2002 or 2003?
The girl is Mistress Kris, who along with Jennifer Miro and Jeff Olener, essentially made up The Nuns at that time, unfortunately, Kris’s wild side led her into some very dark places and she tragically ended up being murdered in a hotel in Times Square in 2007.
This rather marvellous shot was taken for the cover of a Purgatory release called ‘Dog Walker’ which, despite its name, was actually centred around horse riding.
Taken in 1996 or 1997
This was taken during the shoot for our very first Redemption release, Mario Bava’s Mask of Satan. The model is Eileen Daly.Taken during the summer of 1992
This was taken for The Redeemer, issue 1 as part of a series of photos to illustrate a feature on vampire films. The model is Michelle. I would later license them to Cradle of Filth.Taken in 1992.
is was taken for the video cover of Jean’s Rollin La Vampire Nue aka The Nude Vampire which was one of our first Redemption releases. The model is the glamour model Teresa May who gained a certain notoriety in the tabloids for sharing her name with the former Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May
Taken in 1993
This was taken for a very early issue of Darkside magazine, I think number 16, which included a special on the films of Jess Franco. At the time Redemption had managed to get Franco’s Succubus through the censors and had released it on video (our seventh release) and we were in the process of licensing titles like Female Vampire and Sadisterotica so helping to publicise Franco made a lot of sense.
The model is Eileen Daly and the severed head was a leftover from our ‘Regal Rotters’ shoot for The Redeemer, issue 2 –
See pics 10, 25, 26, 27.
This picture was taken during a fabulous fashion shoot for The Redeemer issue 4. Called Gun Gun Girls it was probably my most ambitious up to that moment and consequently, pre-photoshop, involved all sorts of additional material being shot to make it all come together. Unfortunately, issue 4, although completely put together was never published and the finished photos have never been seen – they’re great btw!
Taken 1998 or 1999?
This was taken during the setup and shoot for the Cradle of Filth album Dusk and Her Embrace. I wanted a kind of Last Supper / Beggars Banquet look to this picture with the added bonus of the model Rochelle doubling up as a depraved Pope which the band seemed to enjoy!
See also pics 38, 39, 40 and 41
Another Polaroid taken during the setup for the shoot for Cradle of Filth’s album Dusk and Her Embrace.
Taken 1996
See also pics 37, 39, 40 and 41
This was also taken during the setup and shoot for the Cradle of Filth album Dusk and Her Embrace. This was for the actual front cover and the idea was that the model would look like she was growing out of the forest, that she was part of it. The stylist I worked with at this time and whose is just coming into shot was Spencer Horne who went on to work with Alexander McQueen
See also pics 37, 38, 40 and 41
Another Polaroid taken during the setup and shoot for the Cradle of Filth album Dusk and Her Embrace, again showing the setup for the front cover. Apologies to the model but I don’t have her details to hand so can’t give her a namecheck, unfortunately. Love the mobile though :)
See also pics 37, 38, 39 and 41
Another Polaroid taken during the setup and shoot for the Cradle of Filth album Dusk and Her Embrace, again showing the setup for the front cover. Apologies to the model but I don’t have her details to hand so can’t give her a namecheck, unfortunately. Here she is ready to go.
Taken in 1996
See also pics 37, 38, 39 and 40
This was a shoot that I will never forget. It was for the cover and a feature in Metal Hammer magazine on a new all-girl US rock group called Kittie. They wanted a hard look so the set was like a burned out building with a naked man hanging upside down in the background, all bloody and bruised.
That’s not what made it memorable though… The day was September 11th 2001
At about 1 o’clock my office called to ask how things were going and mentioned that a plane had just crashed into the Twin Towers… Then Jennifer from The Nuns called from New York and said that the US was under attack, which I guess it was. The girls in Kittie were all American and about 17 or 18 and I think they were due to fly to the US the next day and were getting understandably upset and worried and once the TV in the studio came on it was just really hard trying to get everyone focused.
In the end, I had to insist that the TV and phones were turned off just to get the shoot done. I remember finishing and sitting in the back of cab going to the West End from Wapping where the studio was and it seeming like a surreal and very sad dream. It stills does in many ways.
This was taken for the cover of Salon Kitty, one of the five films that launched Redemption, the other four being Mask of Satan (see pic 31), Lisa and the Devil, Tis Pity She’s a Whore and Killer Nun. We shot all five covers that day and the vampire pictures and cover for the first issue of The Redeemer (see pics 31 and 32). The amazing thing is that girl standing up wasn’t even a professional model but the photographers assistant who volunteered to stand in when one of the models we had booked failed to show up. She did a fabulous job.
Taken in the summer of 1992
This was taken for the Giallo film, The Case of the Girl in the Yellow Pyjamas, which was released on Redemption (RETN 072). The girl in the film is murdered and washes up on a beach wearing yellow pyjamas.
Taken, I think, in 1998 or 1999.
This was taken during the set-up for the first US release of the film Nude for Satan. The US Redemption covers had to be in colour as our US distributor said that otherwise, peopleMwould think that the films were all black and white.
This shot of a woman with beautiful psychedelic breasts was taken for a Jezebel release but wasn’t used for some reason!
Probably taken in 1996/7
This was taken for the cover of Mario Bava’s Baron Blood, an early Redemption video release.
This Polaroid was taken during the set-up for our Metal Vamps poster set. There were Four key images in total.
Taken in 1998.
I don’t think the photos from this shoot have been used yet and I can’t actually remember what they were taken for? Probably one of our more Sadian titles.
The model is Nancy Sorrell.
Taken in 1998
See also No 19
This Polaroid was taken during the set-up for a shoot to illustrate an article on fairies that was scheduled for our magazine The Redeemer. This was for issue 4.Probably 1994/5
This Polaroid is from a big shoot for the cover of Daughters of Darkness, one of the short-lived books in our exploitation publishing venture.
I called it a ‘big’ shoot because it was also filmed by the BBC who used it for a segment in their programme, ‘Bookmark’, which went out on BBC 2 and was usually fairly highbrow and a bit stuffy.
This episode was devoted entirely to exploitation paperbacks, namely the Skinhead novels of Richard Allan and separately all the titles that we were republishing, in particular, the infamous seventies Hell Angel themed books, Chopper and Mama.
We met with the UK Angels and agreed with them that they couldwrite a forward to both books and in turn, our PR people arranged for the BBC to interview the Angels to discuss the books on film.
I was also interviewed and featured as I was republishing not just theHell Angel titles but also books like Straw Dogs, Countess Dracula and of course, Daughters of Darkness, the subject of the Polaroid.
Taken in 1996
See also No 53 and 54
This was taken for the cover of ‘The Art the of Nasty’, the book on the video nasties that Salvation published in 1999 and was republished by FAB Press in 2009.I wanted an image that would combine the suggestion of ‘art’ or an art gallery with something exploitative, nasty and suggestive of film, hence a framed naked girl nailed to a white wall draped in ripped celluloid. I think it worked rather well.
Taken in 1998/9
This was taken for the cover of ‘CHOPPER’ one of our Redemption Books series. Chopper was originally published by NEL (New English Library) in the very early seventies. CHOPPER, along with MAMA another title we republished, dealt with the violent exploits of bike gangs loosely based on the Hell’s Angels and these books, together with a series of similar Skinhead titles by Richard Allen, became synonymous with numerous exploitation paperbacks aimed at teenagers that were published in the 1970s.
Redemption Books were intended to sit alongside the Redemption and Jezebel video labels but unfortunately didn’t work commercially.
Shot was taken in 1994 or 1995.
This was taken for the cover of another Hell’s Angels inspired Redemption book, MAMA, by Peter Cave. This was essentially the sister book to CHOPPER which was a major commercial success when it was originally published by NEL (New English Library) in the early 1970s.
Redemption’s edition included a forward by the UK Hell’s Angels and a 12-page photo section which was shot to illustrate the book.
Taken 1994 / 1995.
This was originally shot for the cover of the gialli, My Dear Killer but a variation with a was also used for Schizo. The model here also posed for the US cover of Nude for Satan and the cover of The Art of the Nasty book.
Taken 1998 / 1999.
This was taken for the cover of Mario Bava’s Lisa and the Devil, one of Redemption’s earliest releases and shot on the same day as the bloody vampire
images used in the first issue of The Redeemer. The model, who was actually the photographers assistant, posed for the Redeemer vampire images and the cover of Salon Kitty all on the same day.
Taken in August 1992
This was taken as one of a series of photographs to illustrate the covers of our first US Redemption releases through Image Entertainment. Image had insisted that we use colour images rather than black and white for the covers to avoid people thinking that the films were black and white.
This picture is from the shoot for Jean Rollin’s Requiem for a Vampire. The taller model is Nancy Sorrell who would go on to marry the comedian Vic Reeves and star in various TV shows including I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here! and Antiques Road Trip.
Taken in 1998
See also No 19 and 49
This wonderfully curvaceous and cheeky model is posing for the cover of a Jezebel release, the British sex comedy, ‘Can You Keep it Up for a Week?
Taken in 1994
This was taken to illustrate an article on Salome for the Redeemer No 3 and uses one of the heads that we had made to illustrate the fashion feature, ‘Regal Rotters’ in Redeemer No 2. Very much a case of ‘Waste not, want not’. The model is Amanda.
Taken in 1994
See also No 19, 49