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The Rolling Stones last night at Sydney's Allphones Arena.

It was such a thrill to finally shoot this band.

WAY back in 1995 I was a 15 year old and my first job was selling ice creams at big events at the Sydney Cricket Ground or Football Stadium.  I carried a tray which held a chunk of dry ice and about 30 magnums and cornettos, and I'd wander the aisles selling them to punters.

It was mostly football and cricket matches, but in '95 The Rolling Stones came to town on their Voodoo Lounge tour, playing at the SCG, and I got the ice cream shift on it.

A vivid memory I have is realising that because I was staff, selling these ice creams allowed me to walk pretty much wherever I wanted.

So several songs in I waved my way past security, to the expensive front section right at the foot of the stage. For about 5 songs I stopped spruiking ice creams and lost track of time, just soaking it all in, the showmanship of the band, the bombast of the staging.

Then a security guard tapped me on the shoulder "Hey mate, don't you think it's about time you got back to work?"

I thought, "Can't you see i'm having a MOMENT here!", and quietly returned to make the motions of selling ice creams.

That thrill of being so close to a massive rock concert was etched into me.  I didn't realise how I'd do it, but I wanted to experience that again, and again.

It took over 10 more years to figure out photography was my ticket into that world, and that's largely why I started shooting shows. More for the excitement of being so close to my favourite musicians than a lofty appreciation of the photographic arts.

An 'old hollywood' style shoot I did with Tony Vacher from Sterling Hair.

I made a video for Andy Bull's lovely song 'Nothing is Wrong'.

Before we did this Andy did an interview where he was asked about our work together. I think it illustrates our process pretty well.

Over the years I’ve noticed that you’ve worked with Sydney photographer Daniel Boud a lot. Has this kind of resulted in something like a creative partnership?

When I started working with him I just felt like there was no reason to change. He’s a good partnership guy; he kind of learned how to take photos of me and I learned a bit about how to be a photographed. Being photographed is a strange thing – it’s not normal, you have to learn how to do it. And it took me a while to learn how to do it; ironically it’s more about doing less than it is about doing more. A lot like acting in a way, you’ve got to be there as a performer – but not get in the way of the photograph.

I just feel like I learned how to be photographed by Dan and we started to get a little bit more creative along the way as well.
I guess it is kind of a nice gentle creative partnership, I really like doing stuff with Dan. It’s become really nice and easy and I think we’ve got a good understanding.

I’ve noticed that you’ve worked together over the years. It seems like you’ve got just a nice complimentary relationship.

A visual understanding I think. He’s very tolerant – like i’ll talk at him a lot and he manages to understand it visually. Not all photographers have that either. I think it’s possible to be a very good photographer, but also someone who tries to dominate the proceedings rather than letting the photograph be the most important thing.