Exhibition!

It’s finally coming around. Between January 2009 and September 2010, I have been consistently photographing live music at venues around Norwich and across the East. It’s been a quite indiscriminate little journey. From raucous local bands such as The Brownies and Violet Violet, to nationally renowned folk artists including Duke Special and Lau, to internationally known performers such as T-Model Ford and up-and-coming New York band the White Rabbits, I have intentionally photographed musicians with an array of different styles.

If one thing links the musicians to have made it into this exhibition, it is an outstanding ability to inject their music with raw emotion. In my live music photography, I have no interest to speak of in simply capturing well-known or attractive faces. Only the music matters. If a singer’s face is scrunched up, sweaty and exhausted, or a guitarist is making frantic movements at the climax of a song, it is a joy to watch. I can testify that it is also a joy to photograph.



Norwich can count itself fortunate indeed to have venues such as the Arts Centre, the Brickmakers and the Norfolk & Norwich Festival’s Spiegeltent, venues which offer expansive and varying programmes of music, actively seeking and inviting immensely talented performers from across the globe to showcase their abilities to responsive and gleefully open-minded East Anglian audiences. It is a testament to these venues that they should end up depicted in this exhibition, devoted as it is to the same love of well-crafted, fresh music that they share. Special mention, I think, should also be made of the Bassment in Chelmsford, which offers a great deal of support to Norwich-based bands on the road, and which consequently features prominently in the show. I’d like to thank them for all the sellotape…

The show opens on Wednesday 6th October at 8pm, at the Rumsey Wells pub in Norwich. With performing musicians, of course. A warm welcome is extended to all.

A little thought...

I believe I may have touched on this point once or twice before, in previous posts here and there. Earlier this week, as I served beer and chatted with an amateur photographer in the good old Alexandra Tavern, we touched upon the willingness of a great many photographers to fork out hundreds upon hundreds of pounds on bits and pieces of equipment for their kit.

Now. Let's say, before we start, that it is a fundamental necessity to shell out for the important things. I don't think anyone will reasonably dispute the necessity of the right camera bodies, lenses and lighting kits. Those things are pretty danged necessary. I wouldn't advise compromising when it comes to capturing and creating light. I have no wish to advise compromise anyway - only a little pragmatic thought.

Capturing and creating good light are the photographer's top priorities. Influencing light, though...?

Let's return to our friend in the pub. In the 1980s and 90s, he said, photography (in the main) began to move away from being the realm of people who thought with vigorous creativity, learning their craft the hard way. In came cameras designed to be used by absolutely anyone, and absolutely everyone bought cameras. What an impact this has had - many of today's amateur photographers boast of not having to learn what their cameras' settings do. Many cameras are even built without manual settings. Cameras are becoming smaller and smaller, and more fashionable. Image quality has taken its place on the back burner, in favour of image size and the colour of the camera's casing.

Nowadays, this is, of course, obvious for everyone to see. What had also become obvious in the 1980s and 90s, however, was the growth of the camera as a status symbol - particularly amongst men. Alongside your choice of shoes and car, your choice of camera began to define you. Never mind what you could do with a high-end camera, the fact that you owned the thing was enough to make other men in the street and the pub dribble and fawn.

The upshot of this has been that people who don't know very much about photography have been buying equipment they don't know very much about, for reasons they're not quite sure of. This has created a demand for simple things such as flashgun diffusers. Anyone with their own mind would play around with ways of diffusing light. Manufacturers know that many people don't think this way, however, and sell their own equipment at prices they think they can get away with. £45 for a piece of shaped vinyl. £26 for a carved up yoghurt pot (as a friend of mine recently discovered).

They're fine, for their different purposes. As I said - there is a demand, and they are fit for purpose. The creativity and, sometimes, the intricate control of light dissipates though. Why pay £45 for a diffuser that does the same job as, say, a piece of paper and a hairband?



Or a piece of polystyrene with some paper glued on it? (Photograph courtesy of Rod Penn)



Or a piece of bubble wrap?



Or, if you want to show a flash of brilliance in your thinking, why not go to a DIY shop and experiment with your control of light, like Andy Larkin's tremendous image of moving clouds in bright sunshine - using a welder's mask as a filter. Click here.

You don't need to spend vast amounts of money to set yourself apart in photography.