ON THE SUBJECT OF FIRSTS

Welcome!

Hopefully you had an interesting time scrolling through the pages and managed to wind up here. I guess it’s appropriate to start with introducing myself… Don’t worry, I am not much of a writer, so I’ll try to keep things brief.

Through the years I’ve been involved with music a lot. From having a lot of musician friends, to playing in bands myself. Obviously that meant going to shows, studios, recording sessions, rehearsals and eventually touring a bit. So as we are on the subject of firsts, I decided it’ll be fun to share some of the first concert images I’ve taken and explain how they fuelled my interest in this particular type of photography.

The year is 2013 and most of the people around me already knew that I was doing freelance video work and had growing interest in photography. One night a promoter called and asked if I could take some pictures of a hardcore show he’d arranged. At that point I had gone to many shows, but I can’t remember ever taking photos of one.

At first I was afraid that someone could punch the camera out of my hands, but at the same time thinking that this is more interesting than I initially thought. I liked the anticipation. The waiting game between the lights and the person on stage. The shadows. The brights.

I associate all of that with the fact that I wasn’t using flash. Waiting for the right ingredients for an image is risky while being paid to document a gig. You could eventually end up not getting the shows’ vibe, but I was not getting paid at the time, so I didn’t care and it was a lot of fun.

Not long after that I shot a second show. It was a rap / hip-hop one. The act itself was separated in two parts - slow, almost ballad like and a fast and aggressive one. To this day these are some of my favourite images I’ve ever taken.

I believe that the first show was just a glimpse of a different side of photography, one that I hadn’t seen until that day and the second is the one that actually got me interested in exploring this genre. I loved and still love chasing shadows and lights. I loved and still love chasing compositions and capturing that raw emotion.

Hope I didn’t get you guys and gals bored.

Stay safe and until next time.