artist statement.
For me, there is one instrument that has always seemed most evocative of human emotion and, as others have elsewhere observed, most emotionally involving for the dedicated musician. That instrument is the cello. Yet one has to wonder when watching the rock guitarist (as opposed to the classical or even jazz guitarist), why the playing of that instrument should call up such varied facial expressions as no other instrument inspires? Is it a matter of histrionics? Involuntary muscle reactions brought on by severe concentration? Is it just a matter of tradition that goes back to such neurologically eccentric characters as Hendrix and even the non-guitar playing but equally animated Jerry Lee Lewis?
To be sure, the phenomenon is generally made manifest during the solo when musicians must call upon all their mental (and emotional) faculties in improvising or re-creating what might be called the nerve net of the entire song. Over the course of anywhere between four bars and several minutes (longer for prodigies, pioneers and dilettantes), the guitarist is thrust deep into the spotlight while the song's melody and lyrics are held in suspension. The solo articulates that which cannot be fully expressed by other means within the song's arrangement and performance. This is deeply pre-verbal territory so it should be no surprise that pre-verbal body language is so often employed.
Still, drummers are on occasion given improvisatory solos. Jazz pianists also regularly improvise their solos. (We'll leave out a discussion of wind instrumentalists whose facial expressions are limited by the demands of blowing.) So, why do we find rock and blues guitarists alone exhibiting the symptoms of frenzied ecstasy, insufferable pain and expectant fear while their counterparts on other instruments manage their affairs with comportment and the occasional absent-minded grimace?
Ultimately, in taking on this series, it has not been my intention to make a freak show out of a random group of players. Nor has it been my aim to solely concentrate on the most eccentric of guitarists. I have set out to do portraits of the artists at work in a live setting where so much is on the line. Significantly, I see this as a fan's study as I'm not too interested in standing around at shows and waiting for the right moment if I don't feel a connection to the music. There are occasions when circumstance puts me at the foot of a stage I could take or leave but by and large, the photos on this series parallel my tastes within the rock paradigm. I do have a short list of players I'd like to capture and those for whom death was to take a crack at it before me. So, keep clicking. The shoot goes on.
I hope you enjoy.
Tools: mostly I shoot with a 35mm Canon EOS Elan2 and a 70-300mm lens, using a flash at no less than 10 feet in distance or I diffuse the flash with a bar napkin. Film speeds vary. A few of the shots on this site are video stills and digital images taken with my Sony PD150. But I try and avoid that.