Portrait Project: Research 1

 Before starting the project, first I have to do some researches. Since my topic would be about musicians, I am searching for music photographers. 

The first music photographer that I will do research on is Ross Halfin (1957-present). He is a British photographer and according to his own biography, he studied in Wimbledon School of Art in the 1970s. He has been shooting photographs for different rock bands and stars, such as Metallica, a famous American heavy metal band. 

Below is a photograph of Metallica on the stage taken by Haflin in Belgium, 1993. We can see that the photograph was shot through eye level, which possibly horizontal to the stage as it seems that Haflin and the guitarist were on the same height. As Haflin took the photograph up high from the ground, it created a connection between the guitarist and the passionate audience who all raised their hands, that the members of the band has a higher admiration by the people and were untouchable from the perspective of ordinary audience, even the people tried to reach them. Also we can see that the popularity of the band has attracted endless audience, since we could not see the end from the other side. One of the differences from other metal bands that mostly preferring the night, as we can see, the sky was still brightened up, showing that Metallica chose to start their performance before sunrise or sunset. Haflin used symmetry in this photograph, balancing the sky and the ground (including the stage and the audience) which shared the two part of the frame equally. We could also see the light came behind Haflin, not only providing the source for the performers on stage but also got enough lighting for him to capture a photograph in a relatively dark environment, even though he has used a black and white film for the photograph.


METALLICA LIVE WERCHTER, BELGIUM 1993


Reference

Greensmith, R. (2022), Top 10 famous music event and concert photographers of all time, Splento, Available at: https://www.splento.com/blog/photography/top-10-famous-music-event-and-concert-photographers-of-all-time/#:~:text=Ross%20Halfin.

Halfin, R. (2014), Ross Halfin Photography, Ross Halfin Photography, Available at: https://www.rosshalfin.com/biography.

Lizzy (2017), 10 All Time Greatest & Famous Music Photographers, Available at: https://lizzydavis.com/inspiration/10-famous-music-photographers/.


Photo Credit

Halfin, R (2019), Diary 16 June 2019, Available at https://www.rosshalfin.com/diary-main/2019/6/17/june-16-2019

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