I first met Tim, during the filming of a music video for The Charlatans around ten years ago, in Shoreditch. I was assisting during the shoot, and captured a number of BTS for the occasion. I’ve seen the band play a few times now, both in London and Norwich.
I always enjoy seeing out-of-town bands in the city, there’s always a buzz around the event (at least there should be), there has been a considerable issue with touring and promotion in Norwich since I’ve moved back to the area, but ignoring that, and venturing out for a good night above all.
I saw the line-up for Tim’s and The Anytime Minutes back in January, and pencilled in the date. Snapping portraits is more interesting to me than live photography, but I’ll always hold a space in my heart for music photog especially. This is the genre that got me into the medium in the first place, the excitement of capturing ‘the’ shot I need, still keeps me going.
The gig took place at the Open, venue in Norwich on 04.02.19. I managed to catch sound-check, and score some minutes of my own with Tim and some of the band, the resulting shots can be seen dotted around this post. One thing to mention, was that I had to take my kid along for the session, it’s a choice I often have to make, no childcare sucks, it just adds that extra bit of pressure on me, it’s not easy I must admit, just an extra barrier in getting a photo-story I can be happy with. I shot with a mixed medium kit, packed fairly lightweight, a few lenses, a panel light and both film and digital. I shot with the XT3 in colour… but saved myself for some medium format, black and white 120 square ratio film.
A note on music photography; I don’t care too much for pristine shots, when it comes to music. I much prefer a raw alternative, a format I can delve a little deeper into. Scrapbook aesthetics, and detail fill my mind when thinking about musicians, and promotional shots like this - purely down to the extra level of movement, and layers I can add. I’ll destroy or degrade the celluloid in order to get what I want. I’ll often imagine a kind of shot, or sequence, and I’ll aim for that, and distort the shots accordingly.
For Tim, I didn’t as much destroy, but kept the added presence of the film bars, the tape holding the neg in place, thinking about the images as more of a ‘souvenir’ of the day, as opposed to a finished, one-off piece. In keeping with the storytelling, some of my favourite finals are the grouped contacts, topped off with a CU shoe-level shot for good measure.
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