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So she was shooting music and musicians throughout those years that you worked for her?
Phish by Danny Clinch |
Yeah, we shot Springsteen, INXS, Ella Fitzgerald.
Another photographer that was included in the issue and one that has become a big hero to me is Jim Marshall. His work is recognizable to everyone, even if they don't know the name, they would know the work. I just read an article about him in Mojo, a British rock magazine, and he was quoted as saying, "When I take a photograph of my subjects-whether they know it or not-to me that is a covenant. There's a trust given and a trust received, and I will not allow that trust to be violated, or the pictures to be used in an improper manner." Does that covenant ring true with your work and your clients?
Yeah, I know Jim real well, and I know what kind of person he is and he definitely has rules that he lives by. And I think that we started to talk earlier about how different it is these days then it was back when he was shooting and the access that he had, people just don't get that kind of access any more. But I manage to, and I think its all because of the relationship that I have with people and the trust. They trust that if I am in the inner sanctum, I'm not going to go out and put the images in the press or to the media without their consent. All the books that I have done in the past, I've gotten everyone's consent, I don't necessarily have to but I feel if I want to keep my relationships going then I should do that. And there have been occasions where for whatever reason someone didn't want me to use that picture in a book and I didn't.
Yeah, I think that covenant rings true through your website as well. Everything on the site is well designed, the images are handled properly and especially on photographers websites where the design is usually a secondary thought. Yours has a nice aesthetic to it which really rounds out the treatment of your work.
Danny Clinch at Bonnaroo
By J. Holdren |
Obviously the photo of yours that was included in the Rolling Stone issue was the Tupac shot of him with no shirt and "Thuglife" tattooed on his stomach. The story accompanying the shot talks about how his persona was tough and gangsta, and you were quoted saying that you remember it differently. What was that photo session like?
What I remember from the shoot was that unlike every other hip-hop artist that I photographed at the time there were two or three differences. One was that he showed up on time. He wasn't two to three hours late which happened all the time. Number two, he came with one other guy, he didn't come with a whole group of people. And number three, he was very professional, he was ready to work, ready to do it, he was ready to participate in the shoot and subsequently I got a lot of good opportunities with him... that's what I remember.
Great. Well the shot came out nicely as well.
Yeah, actually I remember when I shot it; the other thing I remember was that it was one of my first assignments for Rolling Stone. And I was like WOW! This is cool. Imagine if this record printed number one and they decided to use it on the cover instead of the inside. So I shot it like a cover shot. So I was shooting for the cover of the Rolling Stone, that's how I shot it. And what ended up happening was they only ran it a quarter page initially, but when he died they ran it on the cover.
I'd like to take a minute to talk about your recent work with moving images. I own Pleasure and Pain, the Ben Harper video that you put together, and I was not a big Ben Harper fan but since it was your first film I bought it. Was that your first attempt into video or had you been experimenting with things in the past?
Ben Harper Pleasure and Pain by Danny Clinch |
That was my first attempt. I basically went out on my own for a couple of weeks, month, with my Super 8 camera and digital camera and just learned as I went along. And then I slowly brought on my still photography assistant, Gary Ashley, a good friend of mine that's been working with me for years. And basically it was him and I going out shooting shit up. And once the story started to formulate we started to do some editing and started to do a bit more shooting. Also, Sam Lee, my editor and co-director, was very instrumental in pulling the story together in an interesting way.
Did you find it difficult to go over to video?
Yeah, it was difficult, the framing wasn't. I know I have a good eye, but it was the idea of holding the shot, because as a still photographer you feel like oh I got that shot, let me do a different shot, let me get a different angle, whereas in cinematography you have to commit to what you think is a good spot to be in and the angle and basically stay there. If your going to do documentary style shooting, you can't be moving all over the place, you get dizzy as the viewer. I had a lot of that problem with Pleasure and Pain and we just cut around it when we edited it. The more I shoot the more I learn to be patient and just hold the frame and move slowly. You got to eyes behind your head, you know, your looking around while you're on one thing you're looking for where you're going to go next. As a documentary film maker you got to put it in your head that I want to make these moves, and I want to be able to not edit this film, I don't want to cut, I want to go from here, to there, to there and tell the story without bumping into something, without having to put a cut away in somewhere, you want to tell the story, one take.
David Byrne by Danny Clinch |
In looking at your work, I wanted to believe that it was the artist that was so comfortable, like David Byrne in the trash can from your book Discovery Inn, or Ben Harper with his mom, but then I looked at your work again and there is a consistency in the comfort level, so I felt that you definitely had something do to with it.
Yeah, you know I spent two days with Moby. He's a great guy and he's one of the guys that really participates in the photo shoots. Last time we took a two day trip into the desert and we brought a stylist out and we did all the stuff. And this year, for this record he was just like come up to my house upstate and we'll just hang out and we'll go down to the Lower East Side and shoot pictures. It was really just like hanging out with a friend, just wandering around shooting pictures, it was really cool. When I have moments like that I really am grateful for what I get to do. Funny enough, we were walking around by his house, he lives up on this mountain or whatever, and we started to walk through the woods and he turned around and looked at me and said, "Well this is pretty cool, this is what we do for a living, go take a walk and take some pictures." [Laughing] I was like, "Hell Yeah!"
That's great, and that's when you get the best shots too... In closing, could you leave a little bit of inspiration for the thousands of people that are going to read this [laughter from Clinch]? Especially for the many photographers that are down in the pits shooting photographs next to 20-25 other people all trying to get the same shot, all shooting digital, something that could help them stay motivated and inspired to continue doing what they are doing so that one day they might be able to get a piece of the artistic pie?
Eddie Vedder by Danny Clinch |
There's the cliché that's always said because it makes sense; that you have to shoot for yourself and don't think about shooting what you think whoever it is you want to sell your photo to wants, shot what you think is interesting, look for a moment, shoot for a moment and try to discover your unique point of view, your perspective, what makes you different from other people. When I get bored with something and its not happening and the bands not interesting or even if they are, you have to take chances. Blow the shutter speed out, pan along with them; pull the camera out, shoot from under their feet. Give yourself the opportunity for something exciting to happen. Some of the times when you're down in the pits, it's discouraging, you have three songs, and you don't have a lot of time but if you're standing where everyone else is standing try going where nobody else is standing. Everybody else is standing in the good spot because it's the good spot, the sweat spot.
There are definitely a lot of people in that spot.
But if you go down the line and you choose to shoot all the way stage right or stage left and shoot down the line, you have less chance of getting a mic in someone's face. Just try to do something that everyone else is not doing. Experiment. My feeling is that everybody is trying to search for their style and I feel like everyone should just let their style happen. I love old cars, old motorcycles, shit like that. I came across this guy and this book that he made, I can't remember his name. But it was a book that this guy made and he basically went out to the Salt Flats where they race these really cool hot rods. He went out to the Flats and befriended these sort of greaser motor-heads, and he just spent his time photographing it and to me, that told me a lot about the photographer. You know, and he didn't do it because he thought you would like it, he didn't do it because he thought I would like it, he didn't do it because he thought some art director was going to like it, he did it because he loved it! And when you see those pictures you can tell that guy has a love of that stuff. And that's why I did music, because I love music, and I love musicians. I'm grateful that there are people out there making music because it means so much to me on several levels, it means a lot of things to me at different times, like I'm sure it does to everybody else, so I went after that cause I love it. If your passionate about something and you go after it full force, hopefully your going to find like minded people who love music or love hotrods and they are going to hire you to shoot stuff that you love to shoot instead of you going out and saying "Well alright I'm going to shoot this boring shot of this egg, because I know someone who might hire me to shoot an egg." Then you end up getting hired to shoot that, and you don't even like shooting that. Let people follow you into your passion, and then your rockin'. Then you're walking in the woods at Moby's house.
Jeremy Jones
JamBase | Atlanta
Go See Live Music!
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