Photographing Musicians

One thing that always struck me is how musicians are photographed. It was in photography school, where I came across Raeburn Flerlage's black and white pictures of Chicago blues musicians. I was immediately struck by the feeling of intimacy depicting late-night jam sessions in smoke-filled rooms, and realized that photographs of musicians can be artistic and entertaining. Most photography schools will tell you that this is part portraiture and part documentary.

Sometimes people want to see film or video of a musician performing, yet a photograph can be equally effective in capturing the intensity of a live performance. Yet sometimes these are obviously staged and don't look authentic. The band group photo can also depend on whether the members are relaxed or if they are posed in a way that doesn't seem authentic. In many group shots, the lead singer is the focal point, taking up the foreground of the image, with the other band members far off in the back. If you look at pictures of The Doors and The Rolling Stones, you'll notice that in the promotional band photos that (in most cases) lead singers Jim Morrison and Mick Jagger are always the main subject with the other musicians pushed to the side. In some cases the lead singer is oftentimes mistaken for the group leader (sometimes that is the case), yet you want to have a little variety.

I had friends in photography school who were in a band, and I wanted to take pictures of them for the heck of it. We tried a variety of scenarios, from a playground where they were all sitting one behind another on a slide, and another where they were sitting in a circle in a sandbox; the important thing was that I insisted on switching the rotation with each picture, so that the drummer was the focus, then the guitarist, etc.

Some of these worked, but it was a spontaneous visit to an auto junkyard where things really came together. I had the band pose around the skeletons of ruined cars and climb inside piles of stacked tires, with their heads sticking out of them. What worked was the spontaneity; it just happened and nobody had to be posed. Plus the images were funny and captured the bands sense of humor; in the end they used some of these as their official promotional photos and they wound up having a small following.

It's good to experiment and have fun in these situations. If you're spending all your time taking photos of the lead singer, the other band members will probably feel that they're not as important, and I often wonder how the other members of The Doors and the Rolling Stones often felt when photographers were drooling over Jim and Mick. Yet, having a charismatic front man is part of the equation and part of the lure, but I've always felt that you can't just focus on one person and that a rock group is a cohesive unit.

But it's not just the obligatory group photo that's important; you also want to take pictures of them performing or rehearsing. You'll find that this type of photography is more commonplace in photography schools. And even if you're just starting out in photography school, taking pictures of musicians is a good way to get practice and hone your skills.