Monday, July 19, 2010

Naoto Kawate and The Balky Mule Tour






















Peter Delaney


I can never take many photographs of Peter Delaney's gigs; the shutter makes too much noise. Maybe someday I'll be able to afford a Leica.

The Balky Mule

 






Before/In Between/After










I'm beginning to enjoy take photos at gigs, it's a difficult scenario in terms of doing something different so I suppose I like to concentrate on the things happening around the music as much as the music itself. I've never liked gig photography as a genre, either from the point of view of doing it or looking at it. There's something very shooting-fish-in-a-barrel about it sometimes, especially when the performer is really putting a lot of effort into the visuals. It's like taking photographs of statues; the thing is there to be looked at and just presents the photo-op too easily. So its enjoyable to take photographs of moments in and around the gig. I think maybe I like trying to demystify the process - it's an impossible task because if the music is good enough it'll transcend any other notions easily anyways. But it's fun to try. I suppose the images sum up how I experience live music, which I think is pretty different from this time last year now I've played a few gigs myself. I really do need a quieter camera though if I'm gonna be photographing quieter gigs. This was a really really great night, everybody was on top form and Naoto Kawate was such a joy to listen to; instead of saving the money for a taxi home I bought his cd and walked.