Archive for the ‘live’ Category
- Gossip, July 6
Fantastic live as always.
- 31Knots
From their show at Doug Fir in April.
I love negative space. And film.
- Akiko
I’m on a “back to basics” kick right now, which for me comes down to the connection with the people I photograph.
I’ve been thinking about why it’s so satisfying to me right now to use this little camera and I think a lot of it has to do with eliminating a barrier between me and the subject. The size of my 5D with a wide angle zoom lens on it + a flash is intimidating and I think people respond differently to a smaller camera. It’s like when you pull out a Polaroid camera. Most everyone is happy to have their a Polaroid picture taken when asked. Maybe because people feel part of the experience, since they can see the result immediately, as opposed to the photographer just taking something; there’s an exchange.
Also, because I only get maybe 2 or 3 shots of something, I’m not interrupting the flow of things as much, and I can actually be there in the moment instead of obsessively recording it. Letting go of the need to control everything has been amazing. There’s nothing to tweak on the Yashica, it’s 100% how you frame and anticipating the right moment to shoot (there’s a slight lag between the time you press the shutter and when the photo actually gets taken so you have to be a few fractions of a second ahead) and THAT’S IT.
I’m interested in shooting people so I can know more about them, I shoot what I want to see more of. You know how when you ‘re at a family gathering and things that you keep hidden resurface and inevitably part of the experience is going through tense and uncomfortable moments? And you realize later that no one took any photos of those moments? Maybe I notice more because I would normally be taking pictures of everything. I photograph what I want to remember, what I want to see more of.
My friend Sarah just had her thesis oral at PNCA on Friday and said some very interesting things about her desire to photograph to preserve memories, out of a need for comfort, for reassurance. Maybe if we try hard enough things will live forever.
I really like Hedi Slimane’s work. He captures the back of people’s necks more beautifully than I can ever hope to.
So, in taking these pictures of Akiko when she performed with her band PRE last week, I feel like I have been going in a specific direction, where I realized that I don’t want to shoot to please other people, a magazine, an editor, or to end up with that kind of generic concert shot look to it. It feels so liberating. I don’t know what this means as far as me taking live pictures but I want to concentrate on the more personal side of things. Maybe follow a band closely for a while or shadow them and do projects around that. (I’m very glad to reassure anyone who is still wondering that I don’t expect to ever get rich doing this).
I am interested in Akiko as a human being, an individual, in her facial expressions when she’s talking, and that extends to her as a performer, and she really is an intense performer, but the reason I take pictures is I’m longing to both make and record a connection. I sort of fall in love with my subjects every time. When I’m taking a picture of you, for a few seconds I want to delve deep into your eyes and take everything you will give me and give you everything I have in return .
Anyway, the full set is here. There’s a pretty striking difference in the mood of the color photos vs black and white ones. I feel like the black and white takes away a lot of the sexuality and makes her more of a sculptural shape. I thought it would be interesting to contrast the two.
If you read this and want to comment, I’d love to know what you think.
- Simian Mobile Disco, Dave P, Linger & Quiet, 4/25, Holocene
Simian Mobile Disco + Holocene + my Portland family = best night of the year… so far. Unfortunately one roll of film got lost in the shuffle.
I know I need a better scanner, but I’m excited about what I’m getting from the Yashica.
- MGMT
My friend Matt plays in MGMT and was in town playing at Doug Fir on Tuesday.
I have more pictures in the MGMT gallery.
- Justice
More in Justice gallery or on flickr.
You can find my review of the show here (if you read French…).
- Day 6: Yasmine performing, Bruno Wizard, a stripper pole
Yasmine (Kittles) improvised a performance with a few friends of hers at a small space called the Opera House:
- Day 5: Spank Rock, Zooey Deschanel’s eyes, a fight
Spank Rock and Amanda Blank (who is using this photo on her myspace, a photo credit would be nice)
- Crashing Playboy parties so you don’t have to.
After seeing an amazing Lou Reed tribute featuring Lou Reed in the early evening, Nilina and I headed to the Playboy party. Certainly the things to be enjoyed most about SXSW are not found in that kind of over-hyped, “exclusive” super corporate event, I mean, Playboy?! But seeing if I could make my way in was half the fun. We didn’t know where the party was exactly, but the hundreds of people waiting outside made it easy to figure it out.
Long story short, after trying everything in the book, I did make it into the giant warehouse, with a side room with a wall of port-a-potties instead of restrooms and cheesy corporate logos being projected on the wall. I missed all the bands (The Heavy and MGMT) and wasn’t officially in there so didn’t want to risk taking any pictures…
Nilina did get this hilarious polaroid (in case you’re wondering, it’s Miss May 2007 and Miss February 2008):
In not too long, as I was wondering if we should call it an evening or wait for Justice’s DJ set which seemed to be bound to happen very late, and intently staring at Lance Armstrong to see if he was wearing a yellow bracelet, my reverie was stopped by someone asking me a question.
“Do I know you?”
- Day 3 continued, a few legends on stage
Day 3 , Fader magazine/Levi’s concert:
I’m glad he was there.
Curtis Santiago
- Day 3: waking up late, catching Lightspeed Champion
More pictures of him playing are on my flickr. Beautiful set. I like how he moves his hands when he talks.Nilina told me that he’s the kind of musician who can find the chords of any song by ear in about 30 seconds.
Voir flickr pour plus de photos du concert. Première fois que je le voyais jouer. Nilina me dit qu’il peut deviner les accords de n’importe quelle chanson sans l’écouter en à peu près 30 secondes.
- Day 2 candids: The Kills, YACHT, picking up pennies
Click on images to see them bigger. Cliquez sur les photos pour les voir plus grandes.
Our “interesting” Texas bathroom. La salle de bain de l’appart’, dont la propreté approximative nous assura des douches éclair et donc des départs rapides le matin…
Our favorite 7-11. Le drugstore du coin, entre ça et Pizza Hut une alimentation équilibrée nous fut assurée toute la semaine.
The Kills
We ain’t born typical.
I like this one because you can see her bitten nails. See galleries and flickr for other shots.
J’aime bien ses ongles rongés, son vernis écaillé, ses pendentifs. J’aime bien tout chez cette fille d’ailleurs, son style, sa voix, sa force. Allez dans mes galeries et sur flickr pour voir le reste du concert.
- More SXSW day 2
We don’t have wristbands and it’s not a given that we’ll get into shows even when Nilina made it to the guest list and I get to tag along. Tonight we found ourselves outside with nowhere to go and made it back to the apartment early, then we had a fun 5 hours working on photos.
(See The Kills and YACHT galleries)
This was a last-minute trip and I can appreciate how much easier this could be with more planning. Story of my life!
Here are some more shots from today:
Lines, lines, lines
- SXSW day 2
Nilina had a photo shoot with These New Puritans, who are very pretty, got interviewed for MTV Canada and take professionally bored facial expressions to new heights:
- Panther
Charlie, sweat everywhere. It was a good show.
More in Panther Gallery.
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