Last Sunday I hopped on a plane and headed off to the hot, dry and dusty delights of El Paso, Texas to do the new publicity photos for Al Jourgensen and Ministry. Al's assistant Isa met me at the airport and generously carried all my luggage and lighting gear to the car.

An hour south of El Paso on a 2,000 acre Pecan Ranch sits the studios and rehearsal facility where the Ministry guys are holed up for a month prepping for the upcoming Ministry farewell tour. Was good to see my old mate Tony Campos from Static X who's standing in on bass... Talk to the guys in the band but no Al... Eric the tour manager tells me he's a little worse for wear from the night before and is "resting". It's 5:30pm and Al is still passed out on the sofa due to the imbibing of a serious amount of Absinthe and Red wine the night before. So I grab my camera and get a couple of shots of Uncle Al in slumber and then head off to grab some pics of the guys rehearsing.

A little later Al had roused himself, popped the cork on a new bottle of red and was ready to grab some shots with his coffin shaped Schecter guitar. Got a few shots of Tommy Victor and Sin Quirin with their guitars as well who were good sports and put up being blinded by ringflash.

Next day about midday everyone was up and ready except Tommy who was ironing his underpants or something... Finally we got started shooting outside...the bloody wind was going at it something rotten throwing dust all over the place and I was trying to direct and place six guys all with the attention span of a bluebottle! Herding kittens would have been easier but we had some good laughs at everyone's expense throughout the day in various locations. Got some great new photos will be coming soon. The band seems to love 'em. Here's a few snapshots in the meantime!

ASH