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If you read Bill Bentley's introduction in the book, he talks about people like Jerry Garcia being in on the secret of the universe. You catch that with these people sometimes. That's where the title of the book comes from. They're the ones traveling on this high frequency. Look at the people in this book, look at the music and art that they've made, and it's changed people's lives around the world. It's because THEY travel on this high frequency. -Jay Blakesberg |
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Photo of Tom Waits
This dynamic – Blakesberg's ability to see the bounteous power of music and musicians AND the true humanity within both – is reflected poignantly in his portraits.
 Snoop Dogg |
"Early on in my career I was doing a portrait of somebody for Rolling Stone and I remember the Photo Editor Jodi Peckman telling me you can't always come up with a great shot. At that time they were still doing a lot of concept photography, Annie Lebowitz style stuff with big scenes, big sets, big environments. That wasn't necessarily my thing, and I remember Jodi telling me, 'If you're not in a great location, if you're in a crappy location backstage or something, then go in and check out their face. Go in tight on their face because a lot of these people just have great facial expressions.' I've taken that to heart. I've always found the face to be so fascinating," says Blakesberg. "The eyes are important, too. There's a lot of photographers who don't want people looking at the camera, but I can go either way. Sometimes I want that intense eye contact because I think there's something about that contact that's revealing about who they are and what they're thinking."
"I brought this print of Dave Matthews to someone who works at Another Planet recently. It's a shot of Dave standing next to the drum kit, looking out at the audience, and he was looking right down my camera and smiling at me, and there's just this intensity of him at that moment with 9,000 people behind him," continues Blakesberg. "If you read Bill Bentley's introduction in the book, he talks about people like Jerry Garcia being in on the secret of the universe. You catch that with these people sometimes. That's where the title of the book comes from. They're the ones traveling on this high frequency. Look at the people in this book, look at the music and art that they've made, and it's changed people's lives around the world. It's because THEY travel on this high frequency. Now, because of them, I've gotten to travel on that frequency here and there. I get to jump onboard and be part of their bandwagon and creative process with my own creative process, and together we create something."
 Phish |
One of the bands Blakesberg captured terrifically summarizing images of is Phish. Blakesberg snares their playful trickster energies into still images that aren't actually all that still. His shots of Trey, Gordon, Fishman and Page are a visual handshake and as fine an introduction to Phish as almost any song. To say so much about another artist without the stone tool of language to help one along is a great achievement, and one Blakesberg accomplishes so often in his work that it's easy to understand why Trey, Claypool, Tom Waits and many others regard him as their go-to guy.
"I did a lot of work for Phish, and out of all the bands I worked with Phish got it the best. They understood that it was okay to be documenting backstage, onstage, offstage, whatever. They're a HUGE part of pop music culture. Even if whole segments of people discount them and what they do, they're huge and we know that," says Blakesberg. "They always encouraged me to shoot from onstage because that's an angle you don't always get. Jason Colton was always going, 'Get out there! Go, go, go!' I found this spot between the drum kit and Page's keyboard. Right there was an amp, Trey's amp, and he had it facing backwards. The sound you heard right in that spot – I wasn't hearing a lot of Mike – but I was hearing Fishman, Page and a LOT of Trey coming right at me from half a foot away. I can't explain how incredibly intense that energy was right there, and I got to experience that a bunch of times. It was indescribable how amazing and how magical it was to be in that space."
Blakesberg's facility at developing special intimacy with musicians has meant the collaborative part of his work has grown over the years, increasing the depth available on both sides of the lens. It offers fans a shifting series of time elapsed moments that's akin to the rows of self-portraits in the Van Gogh Museum, an artist transforming before our eyes, the years collapsed into artfully constructed chapters through Blakesberg's instincts and a technical acumen that thoroughly comprehends the bells & whistles of lenses, lights and other crucial factors in obtaining just the right image. There's a great sense of unforced but still quite present composition in his portraits.
 Radiohead |
"Look at my photos of Les Claypool. Les is not a bystander; Les is a participant. The more I get people to participate – and sometimes they're participating in a very subtle way – the more they get that we are creating art and they are part of that art. I succeed when the shots I take represent who they are and what they are, when it reveals something about their life or their music," says Blakesberg. "With Les, his public life is different from his private life. Les is like Peter Gabriel was when he was onstage with Genesis and wore costumes and makeup. It's that same kind of vibe. Some people think 'Ewww, KISS,' when you say costumes and makeup but it's theatre and performance, and I love that about Les!"
"I try to come into a session with creative ideas, which can come in a variety of ways – a location, a background, a style of lighting, a style of film, a different camera, a lens. Those are the types of things I can bring to the table," says Blakesberg. "So, if I have five minutes or five hours with an artist I still have to have a plan. But everybody's different. I try to make people feel comfortable. I just shot Little Feat's new record here in the Bay Area. I put on some music I thought they'd like, an old Stax CD, and could relate to that. Right there, with the right music, you're setting the scene. Then, I told them about shooting Lowell George two nights before he died. I was in high school when that happened. And Fred Tackett, who's in Little Feat now, was in Lowell's band that night. Fred remembered it was a strip club that used to do live music a few nights a week. I saw Todd Rundgren and Johnny Winter at this same club. I was 16-years-old and it was about an hour and a half drive from my house in South Jersey. I had a fake ID and that's how I got in. And I brought my camera. So, this kind of things starts a dialog with the band. Before you know it, a band is comfortable with you."
A real smile is hard to capture. To slip past artifice, to bypass the cartoon grin or bemused sneer many offer the camera, is a tough trick. Getting someone to peel away their outer armor, to let the lens in – even if only a millimeter or two – is a real skill but one Jay Blakesberg possesses in spades. Perhaps it is his own genuineness, his own abundant passion for the task at hand and the music floating behind it, that warms his subjects and lets him work his magic.
"Hopefully I'm disarming these guys," says Blakesberg. "There's those portraits of Trey where he's got his fingers out. Those were taken in Boston before the 20th anniversary show just before it all ended for a while there. And Trey had this solo thing coming out and Jason Colton flew me into Boston to get a great portrait of Trey for this new record. We were gonna hire an assistant and get some lighting and do it at the hotel. But, it never happened at the hotel because there was so much energy swirling around those shows. Backstage Trey kept feeling bad that he didn't have time to do it earlier. So, he grabbed me and said, 'Jay, Jay let's just do some quick shots!' and started doing all this funny stuff with his fingers. It was very spontaneous and very quick and very fun. He knew I needed to get something done, it was expected, but at the same time he was being super playful. Hopefully, there's a level of comfort that artists have with me. They see me around a lot, they've worked with me and they've never seen photos of them picking their nose end up in the tabloids [laughs]. There is a trust factor. There is magic involved, and hopefully none of these people ever feel like they're being manipulated. I'm always just trying to get an interesting, creative photograph. People like Jerry Garcia, Carlos Santana and Neil Young have been photographed for 45 years non-stop. When I get asked to shoot them I want it to be a brilliant, brilliant portrait. My job is to get an engaging, interesting photograph of them. That's it."
Jay Blakesberg will be hosting release parties where he will be signing books. The first party is Tuesday, November 11 at The Independent in San Francisco at 6:30 p.m. There will be an East Coast party in New York on Monday, November 17 at the Time Warner Center in New York from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
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