This Too Shall Pass

A Tattoo on the arm of Aron Ross

The main warehouse at Whitelight in October 2020, at what would usually be a frantically busy time of year.

Rolls of carpet pack out the shelves at Exhibition and Event Carpeting.

Sonny "Scully" Evans Sound/ Video/ Lighting entrepreneur and Surfer Sonny is a hustler. He owns an amount of sound kit/ video equipment/ lighting that he has accumulated over the years and keeps in his lock up in East London. Since the event industry stopped, he has been getting by in a myriad of ways, buying in furniture from unused office spaces cheaply and selling it on or buying kit from companies that have gone under. "I bought loads of palm leaves, flamingos and shit. There are fucking cactuses out the front..!" Despite this, his monthly turnover has decreased significantly. He enjoys a road trip to Devon with his camper van and surfboard and has spent more and more time doing so of late. "If you are resourceful, you can get through..."

Stockpiles of lamps at the Static Light Company

Ben Cash - Flare Lighting Lighting Designer and collector of Guitars and Hair Care Products. Ben, a lighting designer by trade, established Flare lighting with his business partner, Dave Amos, in 2008. Past clients include Kylie Minogue, Taylor Swift, Rihanna and Sam Smith. They have had small bits of work since March and continue to trade, albeit at an small percentage of their previous capacity. "Misfortune is funny..."

A GrandMA Lighting Desk sits quietly in the fixture testing area at Whitelight.

Leigh Porter - Production Manager and Blackberry Aficionado. Leigh has worked in the Events Industry for just over 30 years, initially as a stage electrician and now as a Production Manager, budgeting events and delivering them. Leigh has spend most of his downtime cooking, walking and watching daytime TV. He lives alone and has made the decision to stop drinking at home. Leigh suffered a minor seizure over the summer which resulted in him breaking both of his shoulders. He has found the rhetoric from the chancellor frustrating. "30 years in this industry and I am told to "Do something different". So I went onto the governments career website. Do you know what they suggested I do as a viable career? Become a boxer! A fucking boxer!" Leighs boxing career didn't ever take off and he is currently working part time in a Covid testing station.

light cases pack out the warehouse at Whitelight. A flight case is a shipping container specifically built to protect musical instruments, audio and lighting fixtures and other sensitive equipment when it must be frequently moved between locations by ground or air. The history of flight case design is based on an airplane parts packaging specification and it was designed by airline packaging engineers in the USA. The specification is ATA 300 Category I. The first ATA 300 spec was published on August 1, 1960. ATA 300 Category I cases are designed to withstand a minimum of 100 round trips. In January 2020, the former head of Renault–Nissan–Mitsubishi Alliance, Carlos Ghosn apparently escaped from Japan hidden in a flight case.

Duncan Holmes - Production Manager and Chicken Keeper Starting out as a Lighting Technician for the NEC group, Duncan now works as a Freelance Technical Production Manager, tending to work mainly in the corporate sector. His last job before the onset was at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where Climate Change Activist Greta Thunberg and Golf Club Owner and Part Time Wrestling Promoter Donald Trump famously clashed on the subject of climate change. Since then, Duncan has spent his time at home, taking on various projects to

The Foyer at the Static Light Company

Mark "Donny" Donovan Monitor Engineer and Amateur Horticulturalist Donny (as he is known to his friends) is a touring monitor engineer. Clients include Simply Red, Emily Sande, Shakira and James Bay. He lives in his Flat in Hitchin with his girlfriend, Mickey. After a busy year on the road, Donny stopped working in December 2019 as touring went quiet for Christmas and January (as is fairly usual). Sadly, in 2020, it never picked up again. Donny has not been eligible for any help from the governments self employment schemes and has relied on his savings and universal credit. Donny lost one of his front teeth at the beginning of lockdown and is awaiting an appointment with a private dentist. "I'm not very good at staying in touch."

Lucy Taylor - Producer and Wreath Maker Lucy doesn't like spending her time not doing anything. With the collapse of the events industry, she moved back home to Norfolk to work on her families farm. This involves early mornings and hard physical work. Work is about more than just money for Lucy. "You have to spend time doing SOMETHING." Last year, Lucy found herself in Brazil, Venice, Mumbai, Barcelona and was one of the producers on the award winning opening ceremony for One Young World at the Royal Albert Hall. Lucy has recently started a small operation making bespoke Christmas decorations, wreaths and garlands. "I am grateful and lucky to be in the position that I am in."

Louisa's Cross Stitching

Louisa Smurthwaite and Kizz Lighting Designer and Carbonara Specialist Louisa is a lighting designer. Her clients in the past have included Keane, Jarvis Cocker, Florence and the Machine, Kylie Minogue and Rag N Bone Man (for which she was shortlisted for a "Knights of Illumination Award.) Louisa took some time away from the industry for some professional development spent 2019 undertaking an arts foundation course. Having completed this, she relocated shortly before lockdown to partner with another lighting consultancy. With the onset of Covid, this fell through leaving Louisa in a new place with no work. Louisa was recently commissioned to do an installation for the Wembley Park art trail called "Legends Calling". Subsequent to this photo being taken, Louisa took on the post of Head of Lighting at Mountview theatre school. "I used to be a member of Soho House, but now I'm a member of the Co-Op. Ultimately, I think that I prefer the Co-Op."

A Shelf full of Unused Dimmer Racks at Whitelight Dimmers are devices connected to a light fixture and used to lower the brightness of light. By changing the voltage waveform applied to the lamp, it is possible to lower the intensity of the light output. Although variable-voltage devices are used for various purposes, the term dimmer is generally reserved for those intended to control light output from resistive incandescent, halogen, and (more recently) compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) and light-emitting diodes (LEDs).

Gary and Sandra Collins Lighting Designer/ Events Manager and Part Time Pig Farmers Gary, a lighting designer is married to Sandra, an Events manager. They live in a small village in Surrey. Gary has had dribs and drabs of work doing an amount of technical drawing work and shortly after this photo was taken was heading off to Sweden on a tour bus. In the quiet times, they have spent their time gardening and going on family walks. (“It has been kind of like retirement.”) Gary and Sandra have differed slightly in their reactions to the situation. Both have considered retraining. Gary freely admits that he "doesn't really know how to do anything else." "I looked at where else I could apply my skillset, but going through this journey made me realise that this is what I really want to do. I have this kind of blind faith that it will probably all be ok." Sandra doesn't share Gary's blind faith. After a previously successful career as an events manager, she has struggled to find work (there are simply not that many events happening.) "I am not entirely sure what to do." Work in the emerging world of virtual events is thin on the ground and extremely competitive. She has been working a little bit for an estate agent, showing people around properties. Either way, both believe that the industry will change immensely as a result of this and people will be less willing to work without a formal guarantee of payment, even with cancellation. (Many peoples contracted work simply disappeared with no compensation.)

Power distribution Boxes on a Rack at Whitelight

Caroline "Boris" Simpson and Toes - Showcaller and Collector of Antiquities Caroline (known as "Boris" to most.) is a show caller. A show caller is a specialist role. They will create and follow a ‘show flow’ which details a very aspect of the show. They will brief and rehearse anyone involved in the event team and then ‘call’ the cues so that every element is delivered seamlessly. Once a show is live, it is the show caller that is in charge. Leaving home at the age of 14 to train in theatre, she now works on commercial events all over the world from car launches to medical conferences. Boris is currently in the process of selling her house of 20 years and downsizing owing to the downturn in work this year. She will miss the sense of community. Throughout lockdown, she was affectionately known by her neighbours as "Manure Lady", distributing manure from her horse in Kent to those on the road with gardens. Boris also played an important role organising everyone on her road into impromptu door step choirs to sing "Happy Birthday" over the first lockdown period. Boris has appeared a little in the national media discussing the industry's plight. She was somewhat perturbed when a day time talk show host referred to "The Actors, the musicians and so on and so on..." "I haven't worked for 40 years in this fucking industry to be described as "and so on and so on"…!" Boris is optimistic about the future, believing that the human element of events means that they will come back.

A Collection of Theatre Posters collected by Boris through her early career.

Nick Lavender - Freelance Technician and Erudite Student of Life Nick lives on an estate built in the 1980s in Stockwell. A well spoken raconteur, he has worked in the event industry for over 30 years and hasn't been clean shaven since the 1994 World Cup. He is struggling with the effect that the lack of work is having on his mental health. "I find myself experiencing a general lack of purpose when I wake up. I have been sleeping in later and later each day and struggle to get into the mindset to do anything." His uncle suggested that he became a train driver but Nick isn't convinced by this as a career path. "It is the not knowing. (when things will go back to normal.) If I knew, then I could make a plan. I might get a few shifts a week in my local pub." (Nick is well known there, not least for his ability to win the pub quiz.) “It’s a catch 22 situation really..”

Aron Ross - Director of Audio and Amateur Tattoo Model Aron, originally from New Zealand, started his working life 30 years ago as a touring sound engineer before settling in the UK. He is passionate about what he does. "It doesn't matter what the show is. The skill and the satisfaction comes in making it work seamlessly." Working for various large scale audio companies at director level, until recently, he was Director of Audio for Blitz, who were formed in 1989. They were bought out by GES in 2014 and had contracts as the technical production supplier for some of the UKs largest venues. This photograph was taken the day after Aron found out that he had been made redundant from Blitz, who went into liquidation. "The industry is more than just a job. It is a way of life. It is something that we love doing." Aron has had struggles with his mental health in the past but has now been sober for 4 years and is an active member of AA, helping support others on their journey. He has a number of references to this in the tattoos on his arms.

A " For Sale" Sign outside of Boris's House.

Jenna Marie George - Freelance Logistics Manager and Gin In a Tin Bon Viveur Jenna manages all things logistics. She works out, schedules, budgets and books hotels/ travel/ food/ visas / venue contracts and a myriad of other elements for the crew and client. "I am not creative." She works mainly on automotive events. Over the summer she had an amount of work planning for a few small corporate events although things are considerably quieter than usual. "I find that work stops me drinking. I have been extremely disciplined over lockdown and stuck to me "no drinks before midday" rule. I am a bit scared of wine now..." "Lockdown has taught me that I am quite Green Fingered. In quite an obsessive way! Ryan has just offered me a cutting of his cheese plant..."

Lighting Gels and a Pallet Truck at Whitelight Gels are thin sheets of coloured polycarbonate, polyester or other heat-resistant plastics, placed in front of a lighting fixture in the path of the beam. They are used to colour light. In Shakespeare era theatre, red wine was used in a glass container as a light filter. This evolved to coloured water or silk. Later, a gelatin base became the material of choice owing to having no melting point, with the name sticking to the current day. Gelatin gel was available until around 1979. However, gelatine became brittle when heated and By 1945, more heat tolerant acetate based materials started to be developed such as Roscolene. These, in turn were replaced by polycarbonate materials and polyester based filters. In the 1930s, Strand Electric provided the first numbering system for the swatches, which spread around the world. Gels are typically available in single 20 in × 24 in (500 mm × 600 mm) sheets, which are then cut down to the appropriate size before use. The size originates from the gelatin days: it is the same as a standard baker's sheet, which was used to cast the sheets. (the rolls photographed are larger than this and are 1.2m x 15m, giving them more versatility.) Traditionally, most designers choose a limited colour palette for generic applications because it is financially and logistically difficult to have access to all colours for a single show. However, with recent developments in intelligent and LED lighting, where gels are no longer used, this is becoming less necessary. Manual pallet trucks are used to move heavy pallet based objects from one place to another. They have existed since at least 1918. Early types lifted the forks and load only by mechanical linkages. More modern type uses a hand pumped hydraulic jack to lift.

Darrell Pugh - Co Owner of Exhibition and Events Carpeting and Keen Golfer ("When I get the chance...") Darrell runs Exhibition and Event Carpeting with his business partner, Damian. Established in 2011, they supply floor coverings for events all over the UK from small promotional stands to entire arenas and Exhibition halls such as the NEC. When this photo was taken, it would usually be peak exhibition season in the UK. With live events being extremely limited, Exhibition and Events have been trying to pivot, offering carpets to other markets, although competition is stiff. "Everyone wants grey carpets!" The downturn of events has also meant being forced to cut back on his full time staff. "I had to make ten people redundant in the middle of the pandemic. It was the worst night of my fucking life! I went home and got absolutely bladdered..!"

A Mac Aqualight The history of intelligent lighting, part 1 There are many patents for intelligent lighting dating back from 1906, with Edmond Sohlberg of Kansas City, USA. The lantern used a carbon-arc bulb and had cords that were operated manually to control pan, tilt and zoom. 1925 saw the first use of electrical motors to move the fixture, and with it the beam position, by Herbet F. King (US patent number: 1,680,685). George Izenour made the next breakthrough in 1969 with the first ever fixture to use a mirror on the end of an ellipsoidal to redirect the beam of light remotely. In 1969, Jules Fisher, from Casa Mañana area theatre in Texas saw the invention and use of 12 PAR 64 lanterns and utilising 360 degrees of pan and 270 degrees of tilt, a standard that lasted until the 1990s. In Bristol in 1968, Peter Wynne Wilson refers to the use of 1 kW profiles, with slides onto which gobos were printed, inserted from a reel just like on a slide projector. The fixtures also had an iris and a coloured gel wheel and were also fitted with mirrors. They were brought to prominence being used for a Pink Floyd gig in London. The 'Cycklops' was also used for music in the USA, although it was limited in terms of capabilities. With only pan, tilt, and colour functions, and at 1.2 meters long and weighing in at 97 kilograms including the ballast, they were heavy and cumbersome. These units were designed more for replacing unreliable local spotlight operators...

Andy Mama - Static Light Company Owner/ Director and Barbecue Chef Andy started the Static Light Company 20 years ago, supplying lighting mainly to the automotive industry. At the time the photo was taken, he was operating at approximately 10% of SLCs usual turnover for that time of year. Prior to Covid, SLC had just celebrated the most successful quarter in the companies history. Andy was on site at the Geneva Motor Show when the event was cancelled a day before the doors were due to open. Andy is passionate about nurturing new talent in the industry as well as looking after his long term employees. He has stopped employing freelance labour and has cut back his full time staff to a skeleton team of 7 people to run the warehouse. "I can claw back a few grand here and there by getting the team to do the stuff that we would normally employ other people to do. I have the graduates that I employed last year cleaning the toilets and the windows. This time last year I was flying them all over the world to work on shows. This way, I can at least protect the core team." Andy has taken on immense amounts of personal debt to keep the business going. "I am now so deep into it, I can't afford to go bankrupt. If I lose this business, I lose everything." "Sometimes I feel, heartbroken and completely depressed. And then I think how hard it must be for other people. So I think "Get on with it you fucking door licking cunt!" "Our industry will disappear if we don't get help. It is difficult to plan as every time we decide to do something, the government changes their plans."

Shipping Containers and Truss sit unused at the back of Whitelight A truss is an assembly of beams that create a rigid structure, or, in engineering terms, "a structure that consists of two-force members only, where the members are organized so that the assemblage as a whole behaves as a single object." Truss for the event industry is usually constructed from aluminium, making it extremely lightweight and strong. Truss is used in an events context for a myriad of reasons including building structures and sub-hanging from existing points in buildings and used for hanging lighting/ sound/ set/ power runs (or anything else that might need hang. Truss as we know it today was initially developed towards the end of the 1970s. At that time anything was used to hang equipment, from round steel tubes to antenna masts or riveted angle profiles. Truss was developed as a form of demountable lighting bar for touring shows, truss structures and with the ability to hang approximately 400kg of lighting. Today, demountable rigging systems are designed to safely carry multiple tonnes of equipment.

Nas Hussain - Graphics Op, Content Creator and Events Industry Community Leader Nas is a graphic designer by trade. He creates graphic and video content for events and shows as well as running this during the live show. Over recent months, Nas has been fairly busy on Virtual Events, designing 3D virtual studios for virtual events. Nas comes from a fairly humble working class background in Manchester. Many of the friends he grew up with are scaffolders and builders. His brother is a scientist and his parents struggle to understand what it is Nas actually does. "As far as they are concerned, all I do is draw pretty pictures..." On Facebook, Nas runs a page called The Live Events Freelance Society (LEFS). It currently has about 3000 members. He started this in 2014. "I originally started it as a bit of a place for me to rant! However, it now gives an idea of the current Zeitgeist of the events industry in the UK." The page is a place for people in the industry to discuss ideas and network. It has also been a mouthpiece in defence of the industry and campaigned successfully in 2018 for Leiths catering to considerably improve the crew catering at the venues that it operates in. LEFS also ran a series of free training courses, talks, lectures and discussions throughout 2020 to allow people to share knowledge from their area of the industry. Nas is optimistic about the future although believes that there is work to do. LEFS are in the process of putting together a "Charter for LEFS". - An agreed way of working for those involved in the industry, particularly in a post-Covid world. "We all saw our rates go down after the financial crash of 2008. LEFS is a way of keeping peoples morale up by helping them see the bigger picture. If we stick together, we will get through this. Kind of a new approach to a Union. A bit like the unions in the US. But more British...!"

Signage on a Workshop Door at Whitelight

Steve Thomas - Carpenter, Owner at Blackfriars Scenery and Aspirational Elf Blackfriars scenery was set up in the 1970s. Steve, along with his business partner Perry, bought Blackfriars scenery in 2016. At the beginning of the first lockdown, Blackfriars Scenery moved from their workshop in Blackfriars to a new workshop in an industrial estate in Charlton. They have had 3 or 4 small gigs since March. All of their full time staff have been furloughed. Steves parents drilled into him the idea of "saving for a rainy day" which he believes is why he has been able to keep afloat as long as he has under the current circumstances. Apart from the furlough scheme, Blackfriars have received no help from the Government. Steve is a big fan of old school rave and celebrates his affection for the genre via the medium of his socks, which he is well known for within the industry.

Genie Lifts at the Static Light Company Mobile Elevated Work Platforms (MEWPS) used to access lighting when it is rigged at height sit unused in SLC's warehouse.

32A Cables Sit on a rack at the Whitelight Warehouse

Paul Thandi CBE - CEO of the NEC Group and occasional Golfer The NEC Group was established 45 years ago. Paul has been the CEO since October 2006. Coming from a business background, Paul took the NEC Group from Birmingham Council ownership to a £307 million management buyout in 2015. Since then, Paul has grown the business considerably, attracting further investment. Paul has also championed a range of development programmes within the NEC Group. As of December 2019, the business employed 1600 full time staff, 829 full time equivalent workers and was estimated to support 29,000 full time jobs in the supply chain. Paul was awarded a CBE in the 2020 New Year Honours list for his services to the economy. As of March 2020, the nature of the business changed significantly and the NEC was forced to close its doors, along with most other venues in the UK. The NEC is the location for the Nightingale overflow hospital for the Birmingham area. This was offered free of charge by the NEC group. On the day I photographed Paul in early October the NEC would usually be at the height of exhibition season, booked out with back to back events. The spaces were deserted. Also on the day the photograph was taken, it was looking like the NEC group would undergo significant restructuring the next day, leading to a number of job losses. There was a last minute reprise based on the Chancellors announcement on the 9th October, suggesting that there might be some support for the sector. The support didn't come through and on the 16th October, 450 full time positions at the NEC group were made redundant. "We gave the government the use of our halls for the purposes of the Nightingale hospital at no cost, because this was the right thing to do in the situation. When we were struggling, as we are now, what have they done for us? Fuckall..!"

A crate of 16A "Rayguns" sit unused at the Whitelight Warehouse

Gary and Sandras Garden, Surrey.

Sarah Rushton Read - Creative Director of the The Fifth Estate, new grandmother and Camper Van Enthusiast. Sarah owns The Fifth Estate Ltd, which specialises in PR and digital communications for the live entertainment technology sector. Starting out as an actress, Sarah moved into stage management, studied electronic engineering and went into opera lighting design and management. She ran her own event lighting and power distro business with her husband and lit a silver medal winning garden at Chelsea Flower Show. Around 20 years ago she moved into trade journalism with Lighting&Sound International and then into freelance copywriting from where she built her PR and digital marketing business. Fast forward to last year and with the onset of Covid restrictions in 2020, the live entertainment business shut down overnight. Around that time, Sarah was diagnosed with Breast Cancer: “It was a lot to process at the best of times. Managing the business transition from being office-based with six staff to a work from home operation was difficult enough. To do it at the same time as having transformative surgery, in a hospital just getting used to dealing with Covid restrictions, was so insane it was almost impossible to process! I also had to make an early call to cancel the Knight of Illumination Awards in the UK and USA, a project that we were already heavily invested in. This was especially difficult because back then most people were trying to assure me that things would be back to normal by September, I felt differently! It was a lot of pressure.” At the time of photographing Sarah, and as we sat on the beach in the last of the summer sun enjoying a sandwich, Sarah was still processing going through a major life event in isolation and without her usual support network, which had been severely restricted by Covid lockdown rules. Sarah has established an ongoing project to photograph the costal landscapes in her local Sussex area which can be viewed here... @the_natural_light_project. It is nearly a year since Sarah’s diagnosis, and despite two further cancer scares and more surgery, Sarah has been cancer free for 8 months and remains optimistic and upbeat.

Duncans Chickens, Godalming, Surrey

The Whitelight Warehouse.

...normal service shall resume shortly.

I See Red People

Portraiture