For Maia Von Lekow’s shoot at Bar Oussou I really wanted to create a strong sense of narrative, but one that doesn’t exist purely in the realm of ‘the performance’. Therefore I decided to create a narrative that starts at the beginning of the bands performance, but rather than finish shooting when the band ceased to play, I kept shooting until the band had packed up and left the bar.

I’m attracted to this narrative because most gig photography focusses purely on ‘the performance’ and the most visually obscure, interesting or energetic moments that occur within a performance. For me, this feels quite selfish, shallow and one-sided. It’s easy to focus on what WE get from musicians and the grandiose things that performers do to entertain an audience, but is it really tapping into the art of musicianship and the connection that artists create with their crowd?

With my narrative I wanted to draw attention to the way in which the musician serves the audience. The way that musicians, through music, connect with an audience, how they bring energy and light to a room, how they create something of beauty and rhythmic harmony, how they inspire people to laugh, clap and dance, but most importantly how they leave this sphere and return to their ‘everyday’ life in a somewhat thankless way.

At the start of my PB3 I wrote:

The lights, they guide me, to look at you

All alone, but in a room full of people

I wonder who you are? And why you do what you do?

I think of me, and wonder, what do i mean to you?

All alone, but in a room full of people.

Who are you to me? And what do i mean to you?

With this small poem I really wanted to draw attention to the fact that being a musician is, in a way, quite a lonely and thankless task. Musicians are just regular people that essentially live somewhat generic modes of existence, but for that small moment of time, each week, where they perform, they become something else. They give themselves over to the room, and they give themselves up for the sake of the performance. They take on characteristics and modes of being and moving that please the audience, that amp up the energy in the room. They loosen their bodies, they go with the rhythm and they move unselfconsciously all in the name of art, all in the name of connection and all in the name of entertainment. Then, once the performance is over they exist the stage and in a mundane why they go about coiling cables and unscrewing drums, whilst the audience stands around talking and drinking, then they drive on home. That’s what I really wanted to capture in my narrative and thats what I really wanted to focus on throughout my shoot.

Personally, I thought the shoot went really well. I generally always love shooting because there are so many gems that appear before your eyes, so many great moments that unfurl themselves, that if your lucky you can capture. Throughout this shoot I captured a many number of these moments and hopefully have managed to construct the narrative that I set out to create.

Until next time,

Louise Alice Wilson