The Flying Monk
John finds the hidden colours of night time
John Maher seems to end up making happy accidents into career choices. But then, would
you expect any less from a child of the punk generation?
John started his grown-up life in the way most of us can only dream about: he was a drummer in a punk band. Buzzcocks were one of the most influential bands to come out of the era, taking the movement out of London for the first time in the late 70s and making Manchester the UK’s second city of punk.
Now, John has other outlets for his artistic creativity and intensity. The former, he satisfies by taking some of the coolest, most colourfully surreal night photos of Harris you’re likely to see; the latter has its outlet in building high-performance engines.
“I built my first race engine in 1987,” explained John. “I used to race my own cars, and people started coming to me for engine builds. Gradually, the performance engine side of the business took over from everything else.
“I start with brand new parts, and take it from there. The performance level is dependent on the customer’s intended use. At one extreme, it could be a drag race engine producing in excess of 400 horsepower, which will cover a standing start quarter mile in less than 10 seconds at 150 miles an hour.”
It’s not always about massive power, however. Sometimes, it’s about putting a new spin on retro cool.
“I’ve got a lot of customers who own vintage VW camper vans, and they want them to perform on a par with modern day vehicles, especially when they’re all loaded up with their family and camping gear,” explained John. “Each engine is different – it’s part of my job to tailor the specification to suit the customer’s requirements.
“Following the relocation to Harris, there were some initial concerns orders might drop off due to the remote location. The distance issue might be a factor for some but fortunately, the specialised nature of my work allows me to operate from what many would regard as a bizarre location for a high-performance engine workshop. But in the eight years I’ve been on Harris, the list of people in the engine build queue has always been a lengthy one.”
For John, the engines are his bread and butter. His photographs were just for fun – until he discovered that just about everyone seems to love them.
These photos are undoubtedly different, depicting island scenes in a way the naked eye could never see them. John photographs mostly at night, using slow exposures and playing with colour and light; so what you end up with is funky, kitschy and eye-catching. In one, a nearly eerie red light glows from the windows and roofless topside of a ruined house, giving the effect of a cuboid jack-o-lantern. In another, a ripple-effect circle of stars surround the behemoth of an imposing yellow digger. In all of the night photos, most of the scene is surrounded with an eerie kind of atmospheric grey, just as it would be at the 3am no-man’s-land between sunset and sunrise; but buildings and machines and various debris are lit with bright, striking, completely un-natural colours.
Most people, says John, are surprised to learn that none of the photos are digitally altered. All of the effects are achieved with LED and strobe lights, and by manipulating shutter speed.
“I was always a keen-ish photographer, and took plenty of photos with my old 35mm when my wife Helen and I were visiting the islands on holiday. But when we moved here eight years ago – well, you feel less need to take photos of the sights you see every single day!
“Until last year, when I saw an interview with photographer Troy Paiva, who was taking long exposure night shots of abandoned locations around the west coast of America. I absolutely loved his work. I realised the Outer Hebrides provided the perfect backdrop for a similar treatment and set about developing my own style.”
While the photos were impressive to John, he had little idea at first that others would feel the same way; but he decided at the last minute to enter a few of his finest in this year’s Grinneas nan Eilean Exhibition, which welcomes artistic submissions annually from any quarter.
“I quickly got six prints together, had them framed, took them up to Stornoway, and they ended up on the walls.”
The night the exhibition started, John and Helen were happily perusing the multitudes of other artworks. Within the first 10 minutes, two of his photos had sold.
“It was a great feeling,” he smiled. “You think ‘wow, people actually like this stuff enough to want to buy it!’
“I think a lot of the time I’m capturing scenes people on the islands know so well, and have seen photographed many times before in a more traditional style. My photographs are a different way of looking at the familiar.
“Because I mostly shoot at night, exposure times often last three to four minutes. That gives me sufficient time to light the subject and surroundings as I choose.
“I could use these techniques to manipulate just about any scene, but if it’s an uninteresting subject or is badly composed to start with, the end result will be dull, no matter how much light I throw at it. My aim is to enhance an already interesting scene and turn it into something special.”
For a visual impression of John’s photos, see the gallery at www.theflyingmonk.co.uk; and if you want to know more about high performance engines, go to www.johnmaherracing.co.uk.
John’s photographs will also be on exhibition in the balcony bar area at An Lanntair from early November to mid-January.
