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SXSW panel: Through the Lens: Photographers On Musicians
In a digital era when anyone with a cellphone camera can be a “rock photographer,” the journeyman pro who makes his or her living shooting for magazines and newspapers or album covers or live events is “the last of the cowboys.” Thus spoke Tom Wright, who made his bones photographing the Who, the Eagles and Rod Stewart. Wright was one of the participants in the Thursday morning panel “Through the Lens: Photographers On Musicians” at the Austin Convention Center.
Besides Wright, the panel featured Autumn de Wilde, best known for her stylized portraits of Beck and Death Cab For Cutie, Paul Natkin, who began photographing for Creem magazine and went on to photograph Prince, Bruce Springsteen and the Jacksons, and Tom Weschler, who went from being Bob Seger’s road manager to shooting some of the biggest stars of the day.
The three (along with moderator Michael Azerrad) agreed that the advent of digital photography and the Internet utterly transformed — either by democratizing or debasing — their profession.
“Now anybody can create a blog and say they’re the chief photographer for that blog and have the same access as me,” Natkin said. “Anyone with a $300 point-and-shoot,” he said, can aspire to the same legitimacy as a professional with thousands of dollars of camera gear and a professional assignment. Natkin cited the lack of civility in the photo pit at last night’s R.E.M. show, which he likened to “a rugby match.”
The front row of the audience “doesn’t watch the show,” de Wilde said. “They watch it through their phone.”
Though they vary in technique and approach, the three photographers tacitly agreed that watching cultural history being made through a lens is an intoxicating way to go through life. Weschler, who began his career taking snapshots of the Beatles off a TV screen summed it up: “I wanted to document what was going on. … A little kid takes his camera out and tries to impress girls, and … bingo!”
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By Rob
March 13, 2008 9:01 PM | Link to this
Bruce Springsteen fans have submitted their memories and photos for inclusion in a new book, For You, by Lawrence Kirsch. The stories chronicle Springsteen’s career from its conception, and incorporate images from all eras ‹including shots of Springsteen with the E Street Band, Bono, Neil Young and more).