In March of 1993, I was asked by a client to do a photo shoot with the band Pantara. I arrived at the venue during soundcheck and was told by the road manager to set up my gear in the dressing room and that the band would be in as soon as they were done with their soundcheck. While I was setting up, another photographer (a friend of mine) came in and started setting up on the other side of the room. When the band walked in the road manager walked them over to me to shoot first. I told them where to stand, and asked them to give me something slightly different every time the flash went off. As I started shooting, the band remained completely motionless. I could have been shooting a picture of a poster- nobody even blinked. My usual tactic in that situation is to ask the band if there is anything they would like to do. They just shook their heads no. So I used my last resort comment: “OK guys, this isn’t working- let’s call it a day, I am going home.” Usually when I say that someone in the band says, “Oh tell us what to do.” These guys just walked away. So I packed up my stuff and prepared to leave. As I was getting ready to walk out, I saw the other photographer talking to the band and pointing to me. As I walked toward the door, “Dimebag Darrell” the guitar player walked up to me and said, “Dude, why didn’t you tell us that you were the guy who took the picture of Ozzy and Randy?” (A well known picture of Ozzy Osbourne and Randy Rhoads that I had taken in the early 1980’s that every metal guitar player since then, it seems, has told me that they had hanging in their room at some time in their life.). He concluded the statement by saying this- “If we would have known this, we would have cooperated with you!”

About a year later, I was hired to shoot an ad for Dimebag’s guitar company. Before the shoot, I told him the story, and he apologized and explained that because I was the same age as his parents, the band figured that I couldn’t possibly be relevant to what they were doing! We became fast friends and remained so until his death.

So…… I guess growing old negates you from the equation and makes a person irrelevant. Kind of a shame!

In April of 1981, I received a call from a record company publicist asking me if I wanted to photograph a new band that was coming to Chicago the following week. She told me they were really great, and that it would be worth my while to photograph them. So I trooped off to the Park West Theater to see this new band called U2. They were pretty good!!

I shot a good number of photos (all photographers had access to the whole show) and met up with the publicist after the show. She brought me backstage to meet the guys, who were very shy and quiet, especially the singer with one name. YIKES!! How that has changed. Soon they were getting a lot of press and I was getting many requests for photos. Every time the band came back to town, I would shoot more. I was there at their breakthrough concert (The US Festival, in California in 1983). That is where the worlds press first saw them on a large stage (and sometimes in the audience). The bigger they got, the tougher the access was, until I finally just gave up. Recently I reconnected with Bono, spending 10 days in 2003 riding around the Midwest in a tour bus photographing him on a speaking tour promoting his initiatives in Africa. Last month the band started their North American Tour in Chicago, but I stayed home and watched football that weekend, as three songs from somewhere in a football stadium was not very appealing.

On a similar note, in December of 1987, a Los Angeles record company publicist called me and asked me if I would like to do a photo shoot with her new band. She promised me that they would soon be world famous. They were opening for Alice Cooper, who I was scheduled to do a photo shoot with after his set. Her band, a bunch of total unknowns called Guns and Roses were supposed to leave after their set, but I persuaded her to make the band stick around  until after Alice’s set, as I didn’t want to set up all my equipment twice. They wandered in after the show and I did a quick shoot with them, including individuals with all the band members, never thinking that the photos would ever be worth anything. Guess I was wrong

In a small bit of irony, G&R’s publicist is now U2’s publicist, and I can’t get access to either band anymore! Guess that is how the world turns.

One final thought- do publicists even call photographers anymore and offer access to their bands, big or small??

Last weekend was the big extravaganza for the 25^th Anniversary of the Rock and Roll hall. A friend of mine and I were talking and both of us agreed that is wasn’t even worth the phone call to try to get photo access. Sure enough, they gave a photo agency exclusive rights to the concert, and unless you were the New York Times- forget about it!

This reminded me of a few stories:

A few months before the hall opened, a photo researcher started calling around to all of the well known music photographers working at that time. They were putting together an interactive touch screen exhibit and wanted  many photos from us. Of course, because this was such a great honor for us, we would not get paid for the photos, but would get access to the concert on opening day and would be able to go in a side door a few hours before the museum opened for the first time. Of course, many of us agreed to this. So, I found my way to Cleveland the day before, got myself a room and woke up to a beautiful  day on opening day. Walked over to the museum with another photographer and went around to the side door. Standing there were two gentlemen trying to get in. (their names weren’t on the list). No one in the museum knew who they were and they were about to be turned away, so my friend and I let them use our second tickets. (Their names were Iggy Pop and Lou Reed). After we viewed the museum, we got our equipment and proceeded to the stadium next door, where we were told that we would have to shoot from the sound board- at the 50 yard line! I got one usable photo from that event, and that took a lot of cropping and Photoshop work. The photo is more usable for the subject matter than the actual quality

http://natkin.net/category/genres/special-events/page/7

Flash forward to 2005. My friend Buddy Guy was being inducted, and I asked if I could shoot the ceremony. Many of my friends in New York told me that I was crazy to try, but I figured it was worth a shot. Called the rock hall and I was given credentials as one of the 16 photographers lucky enough to shoot the event. The day of the show we were told to arrive around 5PM and bring a long lens. When we were all gathered together we were escorted to our seats in the balcony at the back of the ballroom and given our instructions:

We couldn’t leave our seats with our cameras

If we wanted to use the facilities, we had to leave our equipment at our seats and be escorted to the bathrooms

I asked if we could ask the waiters for a glass of water once in a while (we were seated between tables of audience members). I was told ABSOLUTELY NOT!! If we wanted water, a press person would get bottles of water from the press room for us. At that point I suggested that she bring up a bunch of bottles for us so that she wouldn’t have to be running back and forth. She thought that was a great idea and left to get the water. That was the last time we saw her that evening. Half way through the evening, I started begging for water from the O’Jay’s who were sitting next to us. They were drinking champagne and weren’t drinking their water.

By the way, when the show started, I found that I was placed behind the camera boom, so I only got one fairly good shot from that whole evening! Seems to be a theme here.

http://natkin.net/category/genres/special-events/page/6

Oh well, guess the Rock and Roll Hall is scratched off my list .

Last month, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed an anti-paparazzi bill making it easier to sue media outlets that use photos that invade celebrities’ privacy. This bill discourages paparazzi misconduct by allowing tabloid or other publishers to be sued for using images or sound recordings that they knew were obtained violently or illegally. The measure, Assembly Bill 524, will supplement existing prohibitions against trespassing, assault and invasions of privacy by swarms of paparazzi that stake out, chase or antagonize Hollywood stars.The amendment takes effect in January.

Ironically, in the late 1990’s the governors car was ambushed by two “photographers” causing their arrest. It surprises me that it took so long to pass that law!

Aaron McLear, a Schwarzenegger spokesman was quoted as saying that the law was valuable privacy protection for all Californians and suggested its signing was not due to the 1997 altercation in Santa Monica, Calif.
“He makes his decisions based on what’s best for all California,” McLear said.

During the summer of 2007, Angelina Jolie was in Chicago working on a film. I was on the road during that period, but as I was traveling up the coast of California, my cell phone rang with a great “Opportunity”. It was an editor from the Chicago Sun Times, asking me if I, for very little money, would like the opportunity to follow Ms. Jolie and try to get pictures of her and her kids. I told her that I would rather shoot myself in the head! Surprisingly, she hung up on me. When I got back home a few weeks later, and was catching up on the newspapers that I had missed, I read about photographers driving 70 miles per hour through alleys trying to get ahead of Ms. Jolie’s car to be ready when she and her kids got to their destination (A toy store that had to be closed for the afternoon, with paper put over the windows so that she and her family could shop in peace.)

I am sure that when people decide to become actors or professional athletes, it didn’t (until recently) cross their minds that they would lose the ability to have any privacy in their personal life. It seems to me that anyone should have the right to go to dinner with a friend in public without being harassed.

Paparazzi will argue freedom of the press and freedom of speech. Here is what the new bill states: “the right of a free press to report details of an individual’s private life must be weighed against the rights of the individual to enjoy liberty and privacy. There is no right, under the United States Constitution or the California Constitution, to persistently follow or chase another in a manner that creates a reasonable fear of bodily injury.”

An article in the paper this week linked a  number of Hollywood Paparazzi with a series of burglaries of high profile paparazzi subjects houses! It seems that some high profile “photographers” might have shared details of their subject’s security systems and layouts in return for a cut of the profits!

This brings me to today’s subject. A photographer used to be a part of the image making machinery of the music business. On October 21st on  the NPR Blog  Picture Show http://www.npr.org/blogs/pictureshow/, the headline read: How Photographers Created Rock And Roll., by Claire O’Neill.

The article was about a book and photo exhibit called Who Shot Rock & Roll: A Photographic History 1955-Present by written by photographic historian Gail Buckland.

This quote by Ian Tilton is included in the article:

When I was taking live pictures at big gigs in the ’80s and early ’90s, we were able to photograph the whole set. Then in the mid-90s, someone said, “You can do the first 3 songs only.” … Now the first 3 songs are useless — the band hasn’t gotten into their stride; they aren’t even sweating! And that’s what great live rock ‘n’ roll photography is all about: atmosphere and sweat and the band getting “lost in music.” That’s never gonna be at the beginning of a set. It’s always near the end! Do you think I would have gotten those classic photos of Kurt Cobain smashing his guitar in the first 3 numbers?

So, how did this happen? I say that al lot of the problems started with the elevation of the paparazzi as a legitimate photographer. It used to be that the word photographer was a positive word. It meant a person who legitimately was given access to a celebrity or event to document it for the press and for history. That was before people started jumping out of bushes and swearing at Sean Penn, causing him to get mad and attacked them, allowing the pack of “Photographers” to get great pictures. Last year, BBC America ran a series called “Paparazzi” which documented a photo agency in London. One of the star “photographers” of the agency was a taxi driver, who was hired because he knew all the back streets of London and could drive like a maniac and get in front of celebrities driving through town to get the photo. The fact that he didn’t know how to use a camera never entered the conversation- he could be taught that part of it easily!

Because of these people, the word photographer quickly became a dirty word in the entertainment business. Are the guys that stop Britney Spears car at a stop light and shoot pictures of her with a flash cowering behind the steering wheel really photographers?

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger recently signed in to law tougher restrictions on paparazzis. More about that next week.

Several years ago, a friend of mine asked me if I could get tickets for her daughter and a friend to see the hot new singer Avril Lavigne. Of course, I offered to take them to the concert with me. I called the publicist to ask for a photo pass and arranged with the promoter to buy a couple of tickets. Figured I would get the girls to their seats, shoot some of the show and then head back to meet them when I was done. They were 14 and perfectly capable of sitting by themselves for a while! A couple of days later, I received the photo contract for Avril by email. What a shock! It was one of the most restrictive contracts I have ever seen- all for a young girl with one album out. (Three songs, could only sell photos to one magazine, photo approval necessary). Of course, I declined to shoot, and spent the show in the lobby of the theater, talking to all the other parents and friends who had brought kids to the event. I wonder if Avril’s career would have proceeded differently if her handlers had not spent so much time “protecting” her from the media. Maybe she would still be able to sell out large venues today. I also wonder if she even knew that this was going on in her behalf!

In the 1980’s, one of my biggest clients was Playboy magazine. They had a section in the back of the magazine called Grapevine. This included a few pictures of starlets that “accidentally” exposed themselves in public, or posed nude on purpose to gain publicity. Interspersed among these pictures were some photos of up and coming musicians and actors, fully clothed but doing something interesting. Whenever a publicist would call the music editor of Playboy to ask how they could get their artist in the magazine, they editor would refer them to me and suggest that they let me photograph the artist. She would then consider the photo for a later issue of the magazine. So… One day I received a call from a publicist from a major label asking me if I wanted to photograph a new artist they had by the name of Tori Amos, who was playing at a small club near my house the next week. I said sure, but we should try to do a photo shoot at soundcheck as she played piano, the club was kind of small, and it would be hard to get a good photo during the performance. We set up a shoot for 5PM the day of the show, and she asked me if I could bring a makeup artist (at my expense). Figuring that Tori would become famous soon, and the pictures would be better with proper makeup, I agreed. I hired a makeup artist ($200.00, the amount I was getting paid for the photo by Playboy, but a good investment for the future). At 4PM, I went home to pick up my equipment and meet the makeup artist to head to the show. I checked the blinking light on my answering machine, and listened to a message from the publicist canceling the shoot, no explanation. I paid the makeup artist and sent her home, The next day I called Playboy and the music editor told me that the publicist had called her and apologized for the situation, telling her that she didn’t realize that the magazine that Tori would be in would have pictures of naked women in it, and since Tori was a feminist, she would be angry!

Last week at Farm Aid, I was talking to a freelance photographer in the photo pit about photo restrictions. During the conversation, he mentioned his problem with what he called “Rights grabs.” I asked him what he did about those kinds of contracts. He told me that what he does is that he signs a fake name and magazine to the contract. This is the same thing that I hear from many photographers around the country. This is good and bad at the same time. The good side: Photographers are “getting away” with not signing the contract. The bad side: Eventually, managers will read these and figure them out, and will come up with bigger problems and more restrictive contracts.

The other problem is that this is not addressing the problem- it is hiding from it! The real way to solve this is to not sign the contract and refuse to shoot. This will eventually open a dialog and maybe (or maybe not) help to eliminate the problem.

When I got back home from Farm Aid, I had an email in my inbox from a singer songwriter asking me if she should sign a contract for a song contest that included the clause that stated that the song she supplied for the contest would become the property of the sponsor. (A musical rights grab). I told her in my reply that in my opinion, any time someone gives up their intellectual property, they were being foolish and that she shouldn’t sign. She called the contest officials and they allowed her to cross out the clause and they would initial it, rendering it null and void. Problem solved. Maybe some publicists and/or managers would agree to the same thing!

One can only hope.

In 1985, I drove down to Champaign, Illinois for Farm Aid, a concert put on to help the small, family farmers of  America survive. Yesterday, 24 years later, I photographed Farm Aid 2009, which for 24 years has helped teach America how to eat properly. The dedication of the staff and board of Farm Aid is amazing, helping farmers nationwide work more efficiently and in some cases, transition to growing organic food.The concert every year is a smorgasbord of musical styles, finished off as they do every year by Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp and Dave Matthews.

This year, they were joined by Wilco, Jamey Johnson  and Gretchen Wilson among others. The weather was perfect, the show was great and a good time was had by all.

I now realize how old and tired I have become, with 13 hours of solid shooting with no time for lunch or dinner!

Wilco was a highlight for me. It is great to see a Chicago band rocking out like I have never seen them rock out! Jamey Johnson could be the new Merle Haggard and Neil Young kicked the crowds butt with his usual mix of great songs and biting commentary and Willie Nelson as usual was the most valuable player of the show!

Willie and Neil                                                   Jeff Tweedy of Wilco

Jamey, Willie and Dave                                                                            Neil Young

I read a report in the paper this week about a guy who is suing a security company in Chicago. He was going to see the Chicago Bears play in Soldier Field (owned by the Chicago Park District- meaning the City of Chicago). He was a photo hobbyist and decided to bring his camera to the game. When he got to the gate and went through a search procedure, he was told that he couldn’t bring one of his lenses in because it was more than three inches long, which makes it a professional lens. The security agent then proceeded to drop the lens, ruining it (that is what he is suing for).

This brings up a point- it is now getting impossible to go to a sporting event and take pictures! Many times I hear from security guys that a camera with a detachable lens is considered a professional camera and cannot be allowed in to a concert. Meanwhile, anyone with $500.00 can go into any big box store, department store or camera store and buy a “Professional” camera. So where does it stop? If someone brings a camera out to the beach to take pictures of a vollyball game, will they be stopped? I see two problems here:

1. What is considered professional and what is considered a hobby? I know hobbyists with twice the equipment that I own, that are very proud of their photography. Guess they had better not bring a camera to the Bears game on Sundays- even if they are paying $200.00 for a ticket!

2. If an event is held on public property, can the artist restrict access to photographers? If admission is charged (like a sporting event) maybe so. But what about the 90 days of free musical events taking place in public parks each summer in Chicago? Does Stevie Wonder have the right to restrict photographers to one minute of shooting and then ask for their copyrights when he is playing for free on public property? Just curious.

On another note, music photographers out there might take note of what is happening in the sports world. A few years ago, Chicago was awarded a WNBA franchise. Someone I know who works for the Chicago Bulls suggested that I become their photographer, given my sports background. I started a conversation with the new teams publicist, and she was thrilled to have me aboard. AS the season drew closer, she called me about shooting the official team portraits at “Photo Day.” We set up a time and a place, and I was ready to work! Two days before photo day, she called to tell me that I would have to speak to an attorney for NBA Properties. She also said, sadly, that this would probably be the last time that we talked! I called the attorney, who said he was expecting my call, and was very excited to be talking to me, having looked over my website. He then said that he would explain the “rules” so that I could turn him down and he could find a photographer that would accept the terms (He knew I wouldn’t).

Here were the terms:

1. I would shoot every home game for $200.00 per game. The NBA would own all of my photographs, copyright included. I would have no rights to the photos whatsoever. (including the fact that I couldn’t even use them on my website)

2. After every game, I would go to an office in the arena and up load a minimum of 10 images to the Getty website, images that Getty could sell as many times as they wanted, with me receiving nothing in return.

At that time, I was represented by a business rival of Getty, so if I would have agreed to their terms, I would be giving photos (for free) to a competitor) thus voiding my agreement with my agency.

I couldn’t help but start laughing. I asked him how he gets anyone to shoot for the NBA. He laughed too and said that, in anticipation of me turning him down, he had already pulled up a list on his computer of the 10 people that had already accepted his terms, knowing that I was going to turn him down

So maybe we music photographers don’t have it so bad!

This week my friend Rob Miller (Co-owner of Bloodshot Records, one of the greatest indie record label on the planet) posted one of his patented rants on: www.knowthemusicbiz.com/

As usual, he hits it out of the park!

At one point he asks the question:

Will Lollapalooza 2019 be celebrating the cultural impact of the Arctic Monkeys?

This brings up a question I have been asking people for years-

First the setup:

If you go back to the 1960’s and 1970’s you can probably come with any number of bands that started in that era, that are still in some form or another still making music and touring today. (The Rolling Stones, the surviving Beatles, Led Zeppelin (or it’s parts) Pink Floyd (or it’s parts), The Grateful Dead, Bruce Springsteen, Prince and many more too numerous to mention)

If you go back to the 1980’s, the same thing applies (check out U2, REM, Depeche Mode, The Pixies, The Black Crowes and many more)

So the question:

Of all the bands that have started in the 1990’s and the 2000’s, are there any that will survive for the next 20 or 30 years?

When I ask that question, only a few names crop up: Sheryl Crow, Dave Matthews and P.J. Harvey are the three names that come up regularly! To this I might add Kings of Leon and My Morning Jacket. The common denominator with all of these bands is that they love to play live, do it very well and do it very often! Bands that tour regularly build up a fan base that will last for years! And, lest we forget, that is their job description!

In this weeks edition of Rolling Stone Magazine, there is an interview with Steven VanZandt, guitar player in Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band. One of his comments: “It is not a big deal for us to play. It’s normal for us to play. Everything else in life is weird. I wish the rest of my life was as easy, orderly, satisfying and successful as when we play. That’s our sanctuary.”

Contrast that to this story:

In 1994, I was traveling with the Rolling Stones on the Voodoo Lounge Tour. One afternoon at the Meadowlands in New Jersey, I was playing Snookers backstage with two members of the Counting Crows (the opening act). At one point they asked me what I thought was the greatest fact I could tell them about the Stones. Discounting the great songs and the great shows, the greatest fact I came up with was the fact that in 35 years of touring, the Stones had only had to cancel one show, in 1990, which they made up a month later. The Counting Crows guys looked shocked, and mentioned to me that they had been a band for less than 5 years and had already canceled many shows (whenever they got tired)! What ever happened to “The show must go on?”