Muir focuses on the stars

HARD man gangsta rapper 50 Cent fixed photographer Muir Vidler with an icy stare that almost dared him to take a shot.

Crammed into a tiny hotel room, surrounded by his entourage of bodyguards, the toughest man in music cut an intimidating figure.

But the former Edinburgh Academy pupil turned A-list photographer to the stars is no stranger to dealing with nasty, tough and intimidating characters - mild-mannered Muir had already been on the receiving end of a painful nip from Sharon Osbourne's positively vicious Pomeranian pooch, Minnie.

Cameraman Muir, 31, laughs as he recalls his brush with danger.

"I was given a job to photograph Sharon Osbourne at her Berkshire house.

I put my hand down to pat the dog and I swear it attacked me instantly. I got my hand away just before it did real damage.

"We did the pictures and I got Sharon to relax on a couch. She yawned at one point and I snapped her. She gave me a bit of a funny look, as if she was about to complain, but I laughed it off saying: 'You can't yawn in front of a photographer and not expect him to take your picture'."

That picture - eventually used by a Sunday magazine - and the icy shot of 50 Cent are now among Muir's bulging portfolio which features some of the biggest names in British and American entertainment, including comedian Johnny Vegas, punk godfather Malcolm McLaren, hip hop figure Damon Dash, Cher, Ray Winstone, Stephen Fry and star of The Office, Mackenzie Crook.

It's not a bad line up for a former cruise ship photographer who grew up in his parents' B&B on Dalkeith Road wanting to be a vet because he quite liked animals.

"I never had a camera as a kid, never took pictures and had no real interest," says Muir, now one of London's hottest names in photography. "Anyone who went to Edinburgh Academy with me wouldn't associate me with a camera - they'd just remember me with lots of ginger hair and a big mouth. I was quite an uppity little kid, totally obnoxious."

He first picked up a camera when he was 17. "I thought it would be nice to be a photojournalist so I used to go to little news events - protests, rallies, that kind of thing. But it didn't amount to much," he admits.

After graduating with a sociology degree, Muir moved to London, where he got his break.

"I had a friend who worked as a croupier on cruise ships, so I blagged my way into a job as a photographer, using pictures of my friends and family," he recalls. "Within a few days I was sailing from Dover to Norway."

"It was cheesy stuff, and I was in the passengers' faces 24 hours a day with my camera. But it was enough to give me a kick up the backside and realise that I could take things to another level."

Back on dry land, he completed a one-year photography course at London College of Communication. His end-of-course exhibition - a look at rebellious older people including a tattooed gran and a fire-eating pensioner - was snapped up by a Sunday newspaper's magazine section.

Within weeks, Muir was juggling completing his own projects - including a trip to Israel where he pictured death metal fans - with a string of celebrity portraits commissioned by Sunday newspapers, glossy women's mags like Vogue and Grazia, and publications in Switzerland, Germany and New York.

Five years on, he often finds himself face to face with one of the world's biggest stars, usually in a cramped hotel room and running to an even tighter schedule.

"Sometimes you get the chance to build up a rapport with them, others all you get is five minutes. Stephen Fry, for example, was great, he did everything I needed. So was Alicia Keys - brilliant.

"But Cher was the worst. I wanted to take her next to a window, but her people wouldn't allow it. And I couldn't use my own lights - someone had already set up the lights to flatter her.

"It became a real celebrity circus, with a British PR calling the American PR to find out if I could move Cher closer to the window.

"I decided, spur of the moment, to go for a wide shot - something that showed it wasn't a beautiful portrait session, just two minutes in a hotel suite surrounded by lights." The end result is a striking image - Cher dwarfed by those enormous lighting columns.

On the other hand, comedian Johnny Vegas couldn't have been easier. "I decided to parody that old Levis advert in the launderette and get Johnny to take off most of his clothes. The BBC woman had said 'no way' but when Johnny came in I suggested it and he was fine. So I pictured him stripped down to his underpants."

Perhaps Muir's strangest job involved one of the biggest names in motorsport.

"I was commissioned to photograph Bernie Ecclestone's wife, Slavica, at their amazing Chelsea house. She is an ex-Armani model and hyper-sensitive about any physical imperfections. I thought she looked great and I used natural light through the window to photograph her. Later, I took a print around to the house and she got a bit tearful, all emotional.

"A couple of days later my mobile rang and someone said 'Is that Mr Muir?' - people often get my name mixed up. I said: 'Nearly right', then this voice said 'It's Bernie Ecclestone here'. Talk about snapping to attention...

"It turned out he had loved the picture of his wife and he wanted me to take his picture. He's only done two or three portrait sessions ever. I found him a very straight talking kind of guy. He's remarkably approachable."

Another A-list name to add to his collection. But there's just one place he'd rather be - back in Edinburgh.

"I don't get home as often as I would like to," he admits, as he prepares to pack an assignment to Switzerland. "Then again, travelling around Switzerland at someone else's expense, taking lots of photographs . . . it's not a bad life, is it?"

• Muir Vidler's images are on his website www.muirvidler.com.