Research into music photography

To have a better knowledge and understanding of the genre of music photography, I decided to look at some of the current work of leading photographers who work for Kerrang, Q, MOJO, NME and other major music magazines. Specifically I looked at the work of…

Music Photographers

Paul Harries

He is an international music photographer and has photographed some of the worlds most famous and celebrated musicians in the world of rock.

His portfolio includes many images of different rock bands such as Nirvana, Foo Fighters, Metallica, Green Day and many more. He currently does photography for Kerrang! music magazine and with these images below we can see what type of techniques and abilities he has commonly used for his rock photographs.

SLASH

This image has been taken of rock legend ‘Slash’. It has been taken in what looks like a hotel room, which really relates to him as he is spending the majority of time on tours. In terms of Mise-en-scene, the lighting of the room is quite bright because of the lamps which are on, also the image look very edited in Photoshop to make the room look quite light, however making ‘Slash’ looking dark. It looks like the levels have been changed to darken parts of the image. ‘Slash’ has been used as the star vehicle because he is a huge rock global star who is widely recognized by rock fans of the younger and middle generation. And this appeals to that target audience. Theorist Dick Hebdidge quotes “youth as fun, youth as trouble” as he is smoking a cigarette and is targeted towards a younger target audience. Also the colour scheme of this image really relates to Rock as the contrast between black and white really stands out and works with the genre of the image and music.

BIFFY-CLYROWS

This image was done by the same photographer as well and looks completely different because of the location. This photograph of this rock band ‘Biffy Clyrows’ appeals to the younger target audience because they are young band members. I really like the location of this image because setting a rock band on a beach is quite original. In terms of Mise-en-scene the image seems quite edited because like the previous image the levels of colour look like they have been changed and the colour has been changed to black and white. The majority of the images are mainly men, this could connote that the rock genre of the music images are aimed at rock bands who are the majority of the time male. Also they are all white men and as Pieterse (1992) once said is that “What we want is an unbalanced view. We don’t want a balanced view. The whole of society is unbalanced against us.” What this connotes is that not every image must represent different nationalities at the same time, by this we can see a different view is better and music magazines representing different genres need different celebrities of all different races and nationalities to appeal to all their target audiences. However they do not need to be represented in every image each time.

Photographer-Mick Hutson

Music photographer Mick Hutson has created some of the most memorable portraits of the last two decades, and he is the most respected photographers in his field. Working for Q magazine and Metal Hammer,  Mick has captured everyone from classic artists such as the Rolling Stones, U2 & Pink Floyd to contemporary artists such as Coldplay, Kanye West, & Muse. He does studio and location photographs which allow a range of images from different locations.

METALLICA

This is one of my favourite images done by Mick Hutson. I really love this photograph because in terms of Mise-en-scene, the lighting of the image is very good considering that it was taken outside on location. This is another reason why I like the image, not many images look professional and unique. This image does and it has a sort of charisma about the whole image and you do not get that often in a music photograph. This appeals to the target audience because the band are in a group which could appeal to the younger audience. Also the third band member is pointing at the camera or at the audience which again could appeal to the target audience because he is looking at the audience and the fans and this shows quite a youthful side to the members. However all of the band members are male and this might not appeal to a female audience as the images are dominated by the male figure. Apart from this, overall the image is a very appealing image.
Also I really love how the image has been edited, the levels have been changed and the contrast of the image give it that sharpness which gives the image that extra something. Theorist Medhurst (1998) can be applied here as the image represents all white middle class straight men. Medhurst stated that this was 'traditional' also 'they are awful because they are not like us' to connote that the this is the most dominant class in society and how stereotyping is used to determine this. Due to this, this image supports his theory because of what it includes and what it represents, according to Medhurst.

THE STROKES

This photograph was done by the same photographer and I really like this image too. What makes this image is that the band member have their reflection in the water below them and this give the image an amazing natural effect. This image would appeal to the target audience because the band members look quite young and this could appeal to youths and a younger audience. Dick Hebdidge quotes “youth as fun, youth as trouble” this can be applied to this image because they look as if they are up to no good. Again this image has mainly males in the photograph which might appeal to a male audience more than a female audience and this could be caused by the domination of male band members and the lack of female band members. However the whole image is very good and in terms of Mise-en-scene the lighting is very natural and makes the image look unedited. Although the contrast could have been increased, but overall the image looks very naturally lit and the same and that is what make the image so special. Another positive about the image is that the location is very unusual and this gives the picture the uniqueness  that it holds.

Photographer-Andy Willsher

Music photographer Andy Willsher is one of the NME’s most influential and relied upon photographers. He has covered every up and coming band over the last two decades from Oasis to the White Stripes and recently shooting the official press shots for the mighty US who were on tour.

Marina & The Diamonds

I quite like this image because it is an outdoor set which really gives it that edge. It is either something or nothing but the whole streetlamp makes the image. I really like how the image is quite plain but the outfit that she is wearing gives the image a burst of colour and this again makes the image look very professional and more unique because of the USA flag print she is wearing. In terms of Mise-en-scene the lighting is very natural and the image is well lit. Laura Mulvey (1973) can be applied to this image because she once said that women are "erotic objects of desire"  and this image supports her theory. What Mulvey is stating is that all men see women as objects and they can use women for visual pleasures. In the image the woman is wearing a short dress and this supports her theory because of this. The way she is dressed and presented in the image is why she is represented as an "erotic object of desire".

 The White Stripes






I chose this image because in terms of Mise-en-scene I really like the lighting in this. This image looks very edited because it does not look natural. The lighting looks distorted by using Photoshop. It looks as if the levels have been changed, however this is what makes this image look so unique and different from the rest of his portfolio. In addition the image is representing a male and female gender which will appeal to their target audience. In terms of theorists, Laura Mulvey (1973) could be applied here. The image supports her theory because the women is sat with her leg over the other which could be represented as the 'Male gaze'  and seen as an "object of desire". However this could also disrupts her theory because the pose of the male seems like more of a representation of an "object of desire" and due to this being the case, this could disrupt Mulveys theory of this just being targeted at women.
Another thing I noticed was that the camera angle was tilting up at the band which could be representing that they are of a higher social class than others which could support Medhurst's theory of  "they are awful because they are not like us". In addition the image could be showing that famous celebrities are looking down on the lower class because (as Medhurst believes) they are not like us.

Artic Monkeys

I really like this image because it has a certain charisma about it. The long shot of the male that is being represented looks quite positive and the audience looks it as well. In terms of Mise-en-scene the editing of the image is very well done and I really like how the image has either been converted into black and white or the whole image has been saturated, either way the image looks awesome. Dick Hebdidge (1988) quoted “youth as fun". The image supports his theory because the male in the image looks fairly young and he seems to be doing a live concert, which could be representing fun. Also Bill Osgerby (1998) can also be applied here as he quotes that "the portrayal of youth is not entirely pessimistic" and this connotes that youths are not all negative. The band member looks quite optimistic actually about the gig and this could also support Osgerby's theory.