Tom Oldham is a prolific photographer. That old adage about quality over quantity doesn’t really apply to the 40 year-old lens man though. Over the course of twelve years working as a freelance photographer, Dorset born Oldham – now residing in east London – possesses a rare skill not often seen in music photography today. What you see is what you get. There’s no sense of pretence from his chosen subjects. Whether it’s Dave Grohl’s boundless good nature, Janelle Monae’s enigmatic stare or N*E*R*D’s complete and utter cool, Oldham, simply put, has a knack for making his shootees feel totally at ease.

With his pictures frequently gracing the front cover of The Fly magazine, Oldham also works as one of V Festival’s regular snappers. Photography is his passion, and being heavily involved in Riders for Health – an organization dedicated to providing transport solutions for medics in rural Africa – has fuelled this urge to shoot more. Be Here Now is a new music project the photographer is working on – Brainer caught up with Oldham to find out more.

Tell us about the project.
It aims to capture the most exciting artists in the most candid and revealing of ways, in the seconds prior and the seconds immediately following their live performance.

What was the reason for doing something like Be Here Now?
I shoot loads of live music, have done for ages and I love it, but sometimes when there are ten really good music snappers in the pit next to you, using the same kit, it doesn’t always feel like you’ll personally capture anything unique. We’re only allowed the first three songs with no flash normally which means the sweat, anguish, effort, joy and everything else we associate with a great gig normally occurs when we’re on the bus home. I was getting into shooting more portraiture and the concept I hoped would illuminate the true live music artists that give their shows everything they have.

Why War Child?
Have you seen their work? It’s astonishing. Deep – very very deep. My kind-of agent Ed Bartlett at Future Tense is a friend to War Child (www.warchild.org.uk) and he suggested we tie in War Child as they are the music charity of choice in music and a hugely deserving cause that we knew any artist would want to be involved with, if they weren’t already. We’re hoping we’ll raise a fairly significant sum for them through this.