Music Portraiture - Photographer Research

NICK PICKLES

Nick Pickles is a london-based freelance photographer travelling across the country to cover gigs, festivals and events for a wide range of clients. His previous roles have included being the house photographer at the 02 Academy Leeds for two years, as well as working with the BBC to cover various festivals for the past four years. He has contributed to several major agencies including Getty Images, WireImage, Retna and WENN. Pickles’ work has been used in a host of national and international publications, by bands for artwork and marketing materials and for private exhibitions. He specialises in live music photography, but has also done a range of corporate work, portraiture, reportage and commercial photography for numerous clients. In his music photography he captures real moments at live festivals and his photos convey the energy and vibe of the concert/performance. In pieces of his work such as the following examples, he catches moments that connect the viewer with the emotion of the music even though they can’t hear it and this is extremely effective in a live music portrait.

Nick Pickles image of Cee Lo Green at the 2011 Glastonbury Festival. This photo captures the power and intensity of the performer and the angle of the shot supports this. The framing is stylistic as it gives the artist looking room in the frame, giving the impression that he is looking out at a vast space, in this case the large crowd. We can now establish the scale of the performance from just this clever framing instead of just looking at the portrait of the artist. Pickles has also captured the theme of Cee Lo’s performance, by not including any other musical elements in the picture (e.g. the band) and choosing a moment where the “other worldly” lighting mixes with the on stage smoke. This again connects the viewer with the live performance and conveys the energy that was at the festival in just one still photograph.

Paloma Faith at 2011 Latitude Festival. Again the energy and vibe of her performance is captured here and very effectively as the close up portrait has caught a true moment of happiness on t he artists face that is supported by the strong, positive colours in the photo.