Music and Visual Arts/LF

I've noticed in my work that sometimes the music I'm listening to can

influence the way I conceptualize things abstractly and spacially. I

think that stimulating the brain with music can be very helpful to the

large format photographer. It can also keep you awake and relaxed in

the dark room.

 

What are some peoples favorite shooting and printing tunes?

 

I'm partial to either Rush or Led Zeppelin, but sometimes Coltraine or

Mozart.

Spike Jones works for me.

But enough jest. What always worked best for me was the musical sound and mental images of the fee money falling into my coffer.

Mozart...the Requiem KV626 and Philip Glass-Solo Piano

better yet...

 

try this...Philip Glass-The Photographer... :)

<a name="1">Perhaps Beethoven</a>, but not anything slow or quiet - I'd probably get sleepy. The famous part of his 5th symphony if I were to find dust specks on the test prints.

My darkroom is a late night thing because theres just too many places for the darkness to leak out during daylight. AM radio crackling in over the airwaves from a different time zone is the right stuff for printing speed graphic shots. The 'dorff material gets either "chant"(if I'm enlarging with the Elwood) or anything by The Four Tops if contact printing. Anything shot with the Gowland is accompanied by tunes exotic dancers like to strip to. Cheers!

Music means a lot to me. Almost as much as photography. And I'd add another vote for Led Zeppelin. In the darkroom I listen more relaxing music, like Pink Floyd, The Can, some blues, while in studio I like some dinamics, like Metallica, Dream Theater, Deep Purple,...

 

Regards,

www.janez-pelko.com<div></div>

I am eclectic in my selection of tunes. For sheet film developing, smooth jazz (keeps the rhythm for shufflin' those sheets), but for making those platinum prints, it definitely is the "oldies." Rock from the mid- 60's to mid 70's. Since I am almost never in the dark room when doing the platinum prints, the music is usually loud and on the big stereo. Oh yeah, and Stevie Ray Vaughn for printing digital negatives. That thin film base needs some sonic energy to punch up the highlights. Classical (Bach, Albinoni, Vivaldi) is for matting and mounting. BTW, the el-cheapo stereo system for the darkroom is a walkman plugged into some powered computer speakers.

I can't listen to music in the darkroom--too distracting.

Thurston, I agree. I have always had a radio in my darkrooms. It started when I worked for a group of photographers as a student in the early 1950's. They shot weddings with large and medium format, and I printed their 8X10's every Saturday. Very boring, but I needed the money. It seems that Texaco broadcasted the Metropolitan Opera on Sat. afternoon, and I would listen, even though I had no interest in operas at the time. It made the time pass quickly and helped to reduce the boredom. To this day, I still enjoy listening to opera music while printing in the darkroom.

I have always had either turned on music either shooting or in the dark room. There is a great correlation between how you define your shooting subject and music you listen at that time. With subdued sounds like concertos, sonatinas, and arias I tend to produce images that a moody and tranquil while if I am listening to piecs that Bethoven composed (and the like i.e Franz List, Rachmaninov etc) in his later years, the images tend to be a bit in the darker side (at least emotinally, strong blacks & whites, lack of details but interesting in terms of contrast). In the darkroom I tend to listen more of Joseph Haydin, Alexander Scrabin, Federic Handel, a score of Russian Cello concertos, and Franz Schubert. In most cases I have very specific pieces that I prefer among them Mozart's Clarinet Concertos. Occassionally when I am cleaning at the end of my darkroom work - Salsa rule!

A recording of John Cage's "4 minutes and 33 seconds" is an immense aid to concentration.

Janez, you Rock!

 

Peace, out

 

-Thursty

Seems most of the time I print to the sounds of Tool, Pearl Jam, Unified Theory, Radiohead, or Zeppelin. I doesn't seem to me that most would necessarily think of Tool as good printing music, but it works for me. When I go to the darkroom to print, chances are I'll be there for at least 4-5 hours, so music is an absolute must so I can keep relaxed and in a creative mood, even if printing isn't going quite so well.

For a few years i have listened to "unplugged" of 10.000 maniacs

over and over and over.......

Now ,only crappy talk shows.

I love music as much as photography, so much that it's difficult to do both at the same time. Too distracting. Always trying to work out the bass parts in my head.

 

Did you hear what Kenny G said when he stepped on to the elevator?

 

"Man, this place rocks!"

Steve Reich's Music For 18 Musicians always worked well for me. Otherwise, it is a little old AM country station here in Richmond, Virginia. WXGI: If it dosn't fuzz out under bridges, it ain't real country.

I tape Fiona Ritchie's "The Thistle & Shamrock", a Celtic music hour on NPR and listen to those most often. I also like to listen to old hymns. Both music genre's are "me only" ie. the rest of the family wouldn't enjoy listening to, so the darkroom is the perfect place for those, and it is part of what makes my dark room time "special time." I find I can print badly no matter what I'm listening to, but rarely find I'm not listening to something.

Jim, Your lucky to get The Thistle & Shamrock. I love that show. My NPR station doesn't carry it. =( I agree with Celtic music for both shooting and printing, works great. I'd prefer Eileen Ivers' Wild

blue or anything from Solas.