Okay, so I have touched on this topic long enough and not actually gone into it. However, I feel that it is really important to get into. That is inspiration, more specifically YOUR photography/photographer inspirations. When you are doing your research into your selected style of photography, who are you looking at for inspiration? And I really hope that you are looking towards other photographers, because if you are not then you will never learn/grow in your field.
First, if you have not done this yet, select a field within photography that you really want to focus on. Sure, you can work in several different fields, but really, why not try and focus and master as much as you can in one field? That is where you can build up your name and become the best at. You can be the jack of all trades within photography, and that might help you out at the beginning, especially when you are trying to figure out what works best with you, but that becomes very chaotic after a while and the amount of knowledge that you need to learn is enormous, and if you have the drive and ability to learn it all, go for it. But I know that it is not in everyone’s wheelhouse to do that.
So, back to inspirations. For this lecture, I am going to focus on my main area of focus, which is music photography. Now, just because I am not going to talk about something like wedding photography or food photography doesn’t mean that there aren’t people in these fields that you should look up. They are out there, but I just haven’t really researched them too much since that is not my main focus in photography. I will say this right now that I encourage you to research photographers in your field and see what you can come up with.
But as for Concert photographers/Live Music photographers, you can go through and look up people anyway you want to. One of the best ways that I have found photographers is by going through and doing a Google Search for “10 best music photographers”…yes it is as simple as that. Well, kind of.
For a search like this, it can be both helpful and daunting when hundreds if not thousands of lists pop up, and there are tons of photographers listed on each one that for one reason or another have been selected by the person writing the blog/list. Some of the photographers might be up-and-coming, have been able to do a few tours and their work is kinda cool, might have a lot of Instagram followers and likes on each image. I would be careful about how much you take these photographers to heart when looking for your influences. I will bet 9 times out of 10, they took a simple photograph and slapped a filter on the image and called it good. Personally, I can tell those photos from a mile away, and while they might look pretty at first, you can quickly pick out different flaws in them that a filter cannot fix. What I would do if I were you, is look at several lists and find the names that appear on most of them, if not all of them. I will give you a quick rundown of the most common names of photographers that you will find if you research concert photographers, as these are the people who’s work has stood the test of time and are seen as the classic, Live Music Hall Of Fame photographers (if there ever is going to be one, which I doubt, but you will find a lot of those HoF musicians thanking these photographers).
Mr. Marshall is basically the godfather of all live music photography. Yes there were a few people who came before him that could be listed, but no one in the photography world had a larger influence on future live music photographers than Marshall. The thing that really helped him out that in today’s world we don’t have, is unlimited access. Basically he was born and lived at the right moment in music history. He didn’t have to worry about being credentialed to go into a concert with his cameras, he didn’t have to worry about the “first three songs only with no flash” rules, and when he was coming around, the idea of a live music photographer was a very novel idea. Bands would see him out there photographing and be intrigued by what he was doing, they would start talking, he would befriend them, and get as much all access to the artist as humanly possible. There are also stories that Marshall was a no shit style of photographer as well, bringing knifes and guns with him to concerts for protection and doing as much drugs as some of the best of them. But it was par for the times, it is even said that Dennis Hopper’s character in the movie Apocalypse Now is based on Marshall.
Regardless of all of this, Marshall was able to take some of the most ICONIC images that we, as the general public, have seen of music photography and I strongly suggest that you check out his work.
With a name like that, how can you not be somehow associated with music…right? Rock came a bit after Marshall did, but like the above, was in the right places at the right times. Rock, in his documentary film that he did about himself, stated that he never thought he would be a photographer at first, that he really had no interest in it to begin with…however life ended up taking him that way and he became the photographer that we all admire and respect today. His work mostly covers the glam rock that came about in the 70s, but that does not discredit anything that he has ever done. I have seen a lot of people out there try and say that Rock was a one hit wonder when it came to photography because unlike Marshall, who photographed EVERYONE, Rock really stuck to photographing people like Iggy Pop, David Bowie, Lou Reed and the like, especially when they were first coming up in the music world, gained their trust, and became life long friends with them, capturing some of the most iconic images ever of these people.
During Rock’s time, he also worked with acts like Queen, Joan Jett, Blondie, The Rolling Stones, Pharrell Williams and others during his prolific career and every image is worth checking out. Also, about that documentary that I spoke of earlier…it is a little fun, a little out there, but I would suggest watching it. You can see the trailer for it here.
This is the part of the list where photographers will become a little less known than above, but never the less they are just as good. Diltz is one of those photographers, that really, is a unsung hero, and a personal favorite of mine. He is best known, I would say, for his “classic rock” era photos, including images form Jimi Hendrix, The Mommas and the Papas, Early Jackson 5, Frank Zappa and others, but most famous is his work with The Doors. Iconic work really, and work that every music photographer should check out.
If you ever wanted to see the best of the best in metal and hard rock photography, there is no reason to look any further. Ross is more or less a god when it comes to rock photography, having worked with Green Day, ZZ Top, Metallica, Guns n Roses, Jimmy Page, Ozzy, Iron Maiden, AC/DC, Lemmy from Motorhead, and the list goes on and on. He even helped start the amazing metal magazine Kerrang!. (He may not have STARTED started it, but he was the first photographer, and made a name for himself as well as his work made the photography what it is today). Halfin is really someone that any Rock-n-Roll/metal photographer should study like a a holy book. Dude is simply amazing.
While Leibovitz is known for her amazing images that gloss the covers of thousands of magazine covers over the past few decades, she got her start with early Rolling Stone Magazine, most famously snapping the shot of John Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono, you know the one, where John is naked, cuddled up in the fetal position along side Yoko. Yeah…that one. It is awesome. If you haven’t seen it, go look for it, you’ll know it once you see it.
Danny is a pretty interesting photographer. For his music portfolio that you can find on his website, he works a lot on the behind the scenes of the music scene, meaning that he takes a lot more of the band photos for publicity and magazines. This does not make his work any less impressive, but it does add a little extra flair to it. I would say that his work relates more back to Annie’s work in that sense, but he tends to be able to utilize more natural lighting (or it appears that way) than others. His work is very beautiful and if you haven’t seen it yet, I highly suggest that you do.
Let’s get back to live performances for a minute. Christie Goodwin is amazing. Her work in concert photography is really second to none While she might not be as “famous” as the other photographers listed above, she should be. Her understanding of lighting and how to properly shoot a concert is absolutely amazing. Yes, she has a few “filter” looks to her images, but really, they fit each image and they don’t seem or look like they are forced, or that the shots would have been bad if they didn’t have that specific filter on them, or post production treatment. Plus her access over the past 20 + years to the music scene has allowed her to document a wide range of acts. Fantastic work.
Bob is, at least in my mind, most famous for his work with John Lennon and his work at CBGB’s back in the day (likewise the bands that played there). However, his list of bands that he has worked with expands FAR beyond that, from the Rolling Stones to Ike and Tina Turner, Kiss to Led Zeppelin. While, like Jim, a lot of his work is in Black and White film, there is a lot in there in color film. There is a good reason why to put photographers like him in this list, not only because they are good photographers in their own rights, but also while they were working in the field, they were using film instead of digital (granted the fact that digital was not around at this time) so their number of shots that they were getting is a LOT less than what we are able to get today. I am talking that MAYBE Bob would have a roll of 24 exposure film, MAYBE a 36 exposure roll, per camera and like three to five cameras around their necks. That equates to like 124 shots per show unless they reloaded. That is an insanely small amount of images to make sure that you got the shot, especially when they didn’t have the ability to chimp their images like we do today, or even the ability to take 800-1000 photos per show on a digital memory card. Look at Bob’s work, trust me you won’t regret it.
Goldsmith is a good photographer, well we can say a great photographer. He work focuses more a round portraiture than life music shots, but if you want to see how beautiful a musician (or any celebrity for that matter) can look in a studio, check her work out. Trust me.
Okay, so the last person on this list. By all means it does not mean that this is all the photographers out there to look up, because there are a TON out there. But Pooneh is a LOT of fun. She is a “newer” photographer, meaning you, raw, fresh and has a long career a head of her. She works in several different mediums, from digital to film, to even Polaroid. Yes, I said Polaroid (and I am considering that different than just “film” because of the instant nature of it). She got her start like a lot of us in the modern world by posting her images online, namely the old photo site Flickr. She got noticed from there, and her career really started taking off. This goes to show that if your work is as good as hers or you can put together a stellar portfolio like hers, you will get noticed and you can do what you love to do. She has done single shows and been able to get on tours with bands and not only document what has happened ON the stage, but also back stage, giving the viewer of her work an experience that most music fans wouldn’t be able to normally have. And because she is working in all three photographic mediums here, she can give looks that are completely different from one shot to the next. Her work is truly unique and I hope is appreciated by all.
So that is the list, a list that I have put together of my top 10 music photographers, not only for the live show but also behind the scene. I would like to restate that this is by no means a complete list or the only list, as there are TONS of photographers out there. These are just some of my all-time favorites and ones that I look towards for my own inspiration when doing music photography.
I encourage you to explore the world of music photograph and add a name or two on to this list in the comments if you find any that you would like to bring to my attention. I have put on here the weblinks to their portfolios/websites, as well as a quick video that you can check out and see them for yourselves. This is part of how I do my research, look at their work from multiple ways and learn as much as I can and take it to the next level.
I hope that you enjoyed it and until next time, keep shooting.