Assignment One

The purpose of this first assignment is to take a selection of images that I could potentially use as a starting point to my final body of work. In preparation for this assignment, I have looked back on my notes from, not only my initial phone call with my tutor, but also notes taken from a video chat with my previous module tutor, who offered advice to progress my work on to level 3.

Thinking about assignment one

My main passion is live music photography. I also like to practice landscape photography, so as a basis for my body of work, it is safe to say that the module will revolve primarily around those two genres but ideally, I would like to focus of the live photography genre. I have tried, throughout the modules in this degree pathway, to incorporate this genre into my work, where possible, and always seem to have gotten the better feedback from the work within live music photography, I’m guessing because my passion is more visible than in any other genre that I undertake.

My bullet points that I bring forward from my previous tutor are:

•        Work with a specific band/venue
•        Show work through photo galleries
•        Use Instagram to promote and showcase your work
•       Create something different

In regards to these points, my initial idea was to work with a specific venue. It is difficult to be able to spend a significant amount of time with one specific band due to my home commitments and not to mention, actually finding a band who would welcome me to spend that amount of time with. But then my project would not be contained within the live music genre as I could explore portraiture and more behind the scenes photographs as opposed to just the stage side, opening up the possibilities. But it’s not an option for this project.

My previous tutor was keen for me to use social media as an outlet for my work and this is something that I have progressed into since completing the previous module and something I hope will continue to develop throughout the remainder of this degree. The main point I need to focus on is to create something different.

My initial phone call with my new tutor explored this issue and we discussed what potential there is for me to create my own style within this project. The issue with gig photography is that it’s all very similar and predictable. Looking at gig reviews in print or on websites, the images are all subjective of the band performing, as that is the point of live music photography. But I need to produce something slightly different for this project. Obviously, I will continue to take these shots but I would like to have my own twist on them for the sake of this project, at least.

The ideas that I noted from my discussion with my tutor were;

•        Shoot at a specific venue?
•        Choose performers who are interesting
•        Look at audience
•        Fashion of audience
•        Audience responses?
•        Different angles to shoot i.e. Side of stage? Sound check?
•        See what other photographers are doing

I had a good think about what I could do in regards to the above points and how I could put my own spin on my images. I looked at photographers such as Ville Lenkkeri, Hiroshi Sugimoto and Weegee, as suggested by my tutor, to spark some inspiration for something different and I was very keen to attempt something along those lines in a live music setting.

Undertaking the assignment

The brief for this assignment says to go out and take some photos that I could move forward into a project but without thinking too much about what I was going to do. But If I was to photograph gigs, firstly I would need to sort out some kind of access to a specific venue to be able to have regular gigs to shoot.

My initial ideas were

•        Photograph bands on stage in style of Sugimoto.
•        Photograph audience while band on stage in style of Lenkkeri
•        Photograph audience and their response to music/band
•        Long exposure of some sort?

From my previous experience, I knew I would need a big enough venue with the ability to see the stage and/or the audience from a perspective where I could get a good view but also have to ability to use a tripod to be able to capture long exposures. As well as access to the pit to get the traditional live photography shots. My first job was to contact the Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff, the biggest venue we have locally and the best venue to offer space, lots of bands and an array of performances. After three weeks of emails to numerous email addresses and messages to all different social media sites, the only response I had was a message on Facebook to say that I could not approach the venue directly for access or photo passes. I would have to contact each promoter for each performance individually to request individual press passes. As the bands that play there are bigger bands, it’s highly unlikely for me to get a photo pass to such shows without shooting for a publication. And the problem with smaller venues is that there is no photo pit or much space at all to be able to shoot the style of images I wanted to attempt as I would not be allowed to use a tripod, or have space to.

After rethinking my ideas, I decided to set up my own photography website and specific Instagram and Twitter accounts as outlets for my work. I also signed up as photography contributor for a rock music website to be able to possibly gain access to bigger bands by shooting for them. Plus, I thought that with my own outlets, I could at least try to gain photo passes off my own back, using social media to promote the images.

I contacted another big venue, the O2 Academy in Bristol, as I know they have an in house photographer, to see if there was any way I could possibly shoot there but, again, I had no reply. So with no specific venue to shoot at, I contacted a smaller venue in Cardiff to ask the same question. The manager replied saying that they have a few photographers at the moment but if they need anyone, they will let me know. Still not ideal with such a project looming, but it’s possible I could get in that venue while undertaking this project.

My only focus now was to just go out and shoot what I could. 

Assignment submission.

With the brief of the assignment in mind, I have spent the last few weeks taking numerous photos within the genres of live music photography and landscape photography. These are the two genres I feel most comfortable shooting in and I can’t see me stepping outside these genres to produce this project.

I managed to get access, via the rock website I contribute to, to a larger venue rock show and took along my new Nikon D7100. Having shot at the venue once before I knew there was a photo pit and so I knew I would be close to the stage, so I used my Sigma 28-70mm F2.8-4 lens to try to keep as bright as possible for the shoot and with the ability to zoom should I need to.  I also took the same equipment to a local small venue to shoot another rock band but without a photo pit. As this is the brightest lens I have, and I didn’t know what the lighting would be like, having never been there before, I thought it best to use the sigma again, purposefully for the lighting situation. The venue wasn’t very busy as the band isn’t as big as the one in the larger venue so I managed to get to the front but was confined to one side of the stage, as there was no barrier and I was literally in the crowd under their noses.

Here are some of the shots as a basis for the live photography project:

All of the images above are standard gig photographs that you will find in any rock magazine or rock website covering a show. These images were taken at shows I was attending, albeit I had a photo pass for the one as well, but I didn’t think too much how these would turn out in regards to the project, only in regards to portraying the event.

In regards to the project, I questioned whether I could do something with anonymity. I like creating silhouettes within photography, although usually at sunset, but I haven’t done any for a while. After seeing some of the shots I produced while covering these shows, I thought maybe I could enter them here, making the band members almost anonymous while on stage as you can’t see their faces;

These are still under the live music photography genre but are less likely to be seen published. You may see the occasional one in a set but mainly for a creative element. I like the idea here. They clearly show bands on stage but it’s not immediately clear who they are. Even to someone who is familiar with the artists couldn’t tell without really looking at them. The idea that they are people that we pay to go and attend the concerts can then be viewed in this way where they are shown as performers/artists but without the celebrity of knowing exactly who they are. These images are not easy to capture though. They are more luck than anything as it is purely down to the movement of the lights during the performances. It is something I will try to continue with while shooting the upcoming gigs.

Continuing on with the music photography genre, I have been toying around with the movement of the artists while performing. A few of the bands I have photographed lately have been really energetic and hardly stop for the entire performance. I have an abundance of unusable shots due to movement blur and wondered whether to use them as a project of blurred shots, emphasising the way the artists move on stage. While processing a few in photoshop elements, I realised that, as I shot the last gig using continuous shooting, I had numerous consecutive shots showing one movement in more than one shot and had the idea to layer the images to combine them. Changing the opacity of the one or more layers, we can see the range of movement from the numerous shots in one frame, making a multiple exposure image. I have experimented with a few images, from colour to black and white and then even mixing one layer of colour and one layer of black and white and I am loving the process, and the results even more so.

 

The final image here is my favourite of the set and I still have a few images to process yet. I am eager to continue with this process as it can offer such dramatic and interesting results depending on the performance. I would imagine a show where there is only a singer would have such contrasting results to a metal band who moves around the stage a lot. And now that I have realised that I have a multiple exposure feature on my camera, I will be using that a lot more at shows as well as doing it manually. So I am interested in progressing this idea as a project and look forward to hearing my tutor’s feedback.

As a contrast to the live music photography, I have been out taking lots of landscape photos as well. I started when I bought my new camera and while I was waiting to hear from the venues that I contacted in case I needed a backup plan. I have been using my ND1024 filter on occasion too to attempt some long exposure photography around the water.

There is a prominent water theme through the majority of these images and I would be happy to keep photographing these landscapes for the foreseeable future as a backup plan, although I don’t think I will need one. The only issue would be how to progress this set of images forward in the project and how to develop my own style into them. Again, I eagerly await my tutor’s feedback on these ideas.

All images available via Dropbox at: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/j9zk5sqa26qma01/AADcxKtT8w8B6ta3upcWqUgla?dl=0