Image via Complex Original
Very few 22-year-olds can claim to have as exciting of a come-up story as Conor McDonnell does. After sneaking into a concert for the band The Subways when he was 14 years old, Conor began an exciting, prolific career in music photography that's landed him commissions for popstars like Ellie Goulding and Rita Ora. After shooting them on and offstage, in a variety of stunning, one-of-a-kind moments, McDonnell got noticed by Kanye West and photographed his wedding to Kim Kardashian in Florence (replacing Annie Leibovitz, who Kanye initially hired). Jay Z apparently likes the work Conor has done with Rita Ora, too, so we doubt this is where the road ends for him.
Here, Conor explains his favorite images in his own words. He is undoubtedly a master of capturing the perfect moment at a thrilling, emotional height. Follow him on Instagram to keep up with the exciting projects he's sure to do in the future.
“Rita takes me on the road with her everywhere to document. This photo is from rehearsals for her big summer shows last year, which saw her playing on the famous Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury to basically every other festival in the UK and Europe. It was a great run of shows, and Rita killed it.”
“These photos are from a recent video shoot with Rita. These girls were extras in the video. They were all very pretty, and the way they stood waiting in between takes looked really interesting, so I couldn’t resist taking some shots.”
“This one is from Drake's UK tour in 2012. This is also one of my favorite live photos I’ve ever taken. I love photographing Drake. His show is an amazing sight.”
“Ella Eyre is one of my current favourite newcomers. She has an incredible voice. I’ve worked with her a little bit recently, and she’s an awesome person to work with. This is from a recent show she did in my hometown Liverpool just before she hit the stage.”
“I took this one during Ellie's recent summer festival run. This was in Belgium. It was a very busy summer with Ellie. She played at practically every festival in Europe. Lots of traveling. This was one of my favorite shows from the run, as the crowd was absolutely mental. It was so awesome.”
“This is from a video shoot with Ellie that I worked on. I love this photo of her. It was taken in Buckinghamshire in England very early one morning on probably the coldest day of the year. Ellie was wearing a small dress. She’s a trooper!”
“This is a shot of Ellie Goulding at Wembley Stadium. It’s one of my favorite shots I’ve taken so far. This was one of the biggest crowds Ellie played to this year, and I love how happy she looks in this. She always has so much fun on stage and gives 100%.”
“Last year I celebrated Iggy's birthday with her and her friends. I took my camera along and took some photos. It was a great day. Iggy is awesome!”
“I took this photo of Joe Clegg, a great friend who is Ellie Goulding's drummer, in Oslo, Norway. It was one of those split moments where everything worked perfectly—his pose, the lighting (which I had no control of), and the crowd. I love this one.”
“These are probably my most recognized photos. I was honored to get this job. I still find it crazy that I took the most liked photo ever on Instagram. Mental! "
“This is a result of Rita and I being bored in her flat. She had just gotten two new books that had body parts on them, and we thought it’d be funny to take some photos with them. Rita is always up for fun photo shoots, which is super cool for me!”
“I can’t remember where I took this photo of Rita. It was on tour somewhere in Europe. I just really love this one.”
“This is another one from Kosovo with Rita. The police were escorting us through the city when we were shooting at the different locations. It was too good of an opportunity to not take some photos. It looked awesome!”
“This is from a video shoot I worked on with Rita. We were in Kosovo, her birth country. We were shooting up on a hill with the capital city Pristina in the background.”
