Another side of Amy Winehouse: intimate photographs by her friend Blake Wood

Photographer Blake Wood met the singer in 2008 at the height of her success. They became close friends, and his previously unseen portraits reveal a more carefree side to the troubled star

For Amy Winehouse, 2008 was a year of extreme highs and confounding lows – business as usual, in other words, but even more so. The zenith came in February, when the 24-year-old singer dominated the Grammys with five wins, a record for a British woman. She couldn’t be in the US, because of visa complications, but when Tony Bennett, one of her heroes, announced Rehab as record of the year – beating Beyoncé, the Foo Fighters, Rihanna and Jay-Z, and Justin Timberlake – she was shown, by satellite linkup to London, staring straight ahead, mouth agape, briefly speechless.

But there were many profoundly distressing episodes, too. Throughout the year, Winehouse battled her addictions to alcohol, crack and heroin, while a gleeful tabloid press documented every tumble from the wagon. Her live shows could descend into chaos and she was roundly booed at both V Festival and Bestival that summer.

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from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2yXcEdV