LF Photographers that are Musicians

I am curious whether any of you are musicians as it seems many

photographers are or were also musicians such as St. Ansel, who in

fact was a musician first just as I was/am. I play electric bass semi

professionally, see www.rareblend.net . What do you play , did it

come first, do you see any connection, etc? Want to jam?

There was a time in my life when I seriously considered becoming a professional trombone player. I still try to stay in practice and occasionally perform and do the odd recording project here and there. My wife is a pianist and a music therapist, and that helps to keep me doing music.

yes jeffrey - ive been playing guitar and piano for over 30 years, and my wife is a professional flutist. my favorite things in life are vintage albumen photos and expensive microphones. for the past several years, ive owned a recording studio here in salem, oregon, and have produced two commercial CDs for my wife's flute and harp duo, RoseWynde. please go give them a listen at www.mp3.com/rosewynde (you might like "Caoineadh Cu Chulainne" from Riverdance).

 

it is also worth noting that not only do many artists have musical talents, many famous scientists, such as einstein, were avid and quite skilled musicians.<div></div>

Back in the early 80's I was an engineer in a small recording studio where we recorded to a half track Ampex ATR-102 and various AG-440 recorders running Dolby A. We had a very nice selection of Neumann, AKG, Shoeps and other various vintage RCA and Altec microphones, both tube and solid state. Mostly we recorded small classical and jazz ensembles, on occasion we would record the Columbus Symphony Orchestra. We also recorded various programs for NPR like "All Things Considered" and music programs such as "Adventures in Good Music" with Carl Haas. It is nice to know that we can be creative in various endeavors artistically.

I think Paul Caponigro trained as a classical musician.

Ansel Adams, Paul Caponigro, Wynn Bullock was an opera singer before turning to photography, Don Kirby was a trumpet player I think, Eugene Smith wasn't a musician but was such a lover of music that wherever he went he carried a few hundred albums with him I seem to remember reading somewhere - not easy given the places he went and the size of albums back then. One of the photography magazines, View Camera or Photo Techniques I think, ran an article a few years ago about famous photographers with a serious musical background. Contrary to what we would probably expect, there seem to be more well known photographers with a serious music background than with a serious painting background.

Hi Jeffrey

 

My first dream profession as a child was a photographer, got a box camera with 9 years, but all persons around me, told me, you don`t get a living out of it. So I learnt first carpenter and I played also trumpet since I`m 10 years old with 16 I changed to trombone and I started studying classic music from 20-23 till I got in to troubles with my lips. After thad I was going back and started photographing stronger then ever and here I am now!

Greetings- My current career is that of a "Registered Piano Technician" tuning and repairing pianos. I studied piano for many years and had wanted to play professionally at one time. I have also sung in a symphony chorus for many years and sang in the chorus of a small opera company for several years. I believe K.B. Canham apprenticed to a piano technician at one time and Ron Wisner was a college trained musicologist as well. Interesting question. By the way, I shoot color and B&W 4x5 and 8x10 Large Format.

Photography got to me earlier than music. I was 8 or 9 when I was given my first camera but 13-14 when I took up the violin and later added choral singing. Engineering brings in the money but music and photography are for me two of the creative pleasures of life. The violin now has to stay in its case due to arthritis but the singing and photography are going strong.

I come from a musical family. My mom was a pro, and so am I.My dad was a photographer.I started playing in NYC at age 14 but was interested in cameras before that. On and off the road, teaching too, grade school to college. Got tired of the biz at 30 or so and got into photo heavier and also a metaphysical business. Now I play meditational music with Tibetan singing bowls and Tablas. Still doing concerts/gigs and workshops when I have the time. My 2nd CD is to be in released this month. As to photography, the 12x20 format has gripped my soul completely. As to music....nothing I think can compare to the beauty of music expressed in a truthful way to oneself and others.

I started out as a music major, changing to science a year later. Music has always been a central part of my life.

 

I see a lot of parallels between music and photography.

Jeffrey, I used to play the alto sax but the department of fish & game asked me to quit. I live under the Pacific flyway and my practice was interfering with the navigational instincts of southbound Canadian Honkers. They'd turn towards the West and end up in the Phillipines instead of Argentina.

Nice post, Jeffrey. LF photography and music are linked in that they are two different types of artistic expression. I have been playing piano for 30 years, given concerts, composed music etc.. I have dabbled in photography for about the same time. During my first ten years in 35mm as editor and photographer for a local newspaper. In my recent ten years mostly medium and large format. About ten years ago, I bought a used Linhof, and now it's the perfection of 4x5 prints that makes me continue. In my 20ies, music was more important. Right now, it is photography. I still listen a lot to classical music though.

 

I guess in all cases it is some sort of expression. When I started photography, I was very interested in people. Now I am more interested in structures and nature. With music it's about sounds. Experiencing the multitude of sounds. It's a sensual exploration of our world.

 

Among the many who succeeded in both were Godowsky and Mannes, the inventors of the Kodachrome film. O.k, they worked in 35mm, but it's on a similar level. Besides being photographers and musicians, they were chemists. Leopold Godowsky was an accomplished professional violinist who played with many orchestras. Leopold Mannes was a professional pianist. It is well known that they timed the photochemical reactions by playing movements of Beethoven sonatas that matched the developing times. Godowsky's father, by the way, was an accomplished pianist as well. His studies on Chopin's Etudes have reached a notorious reputation for technical difficulty and artistic refinement. A recent highly-acclaimed CD issue (Marc-Andre Hamlin as a pianist) has brought them to life once more.

I�ve been playing guitar and photographing for 20+ years. Don�t know how I�d live without either one. They occasionally exchange roles as to which one is more important, but I never drop either one.

 

I don�t feel comfortable at parties unless I have a camera or bass!

Kevin,

 

I too occasionally vaccilate between music and photography favoring one over the other. In my case though it probably stems from the fact that I do photography for a living running a custom b&w photo lab, so on weekends sometimes I'd rather do something other than photography. Last weekend I layed some bass tracks for a friend's CD that he is working on. I have a Rick Turner Rennaisance RB5-FL fretless and two custom Zon 5/1 basses, the fretless has a Splalted Maple top and the fretted has a Burl California Walnut top, both are passive with only a volume control and both sport Hipshot Ultralite tuners and A style bridges. I run then through a Walter Woods Super-Hi-Power amplifier or an Ampeg Portabass 250 head through a 1-10 or 2-10 Electrovoice cabinet or a 1968 Sunn 2-15 cabinet.

 

As to cameras I have an Ebony 45SU with lenses ranging from a 58XL SA through a 305 G-Claron; I do mostly landscape photography but on occasion do architecture.

I play guitar. After having several different ones, I settled on a Les Paul Custom (not a copy, a real one).

I was, for about ten years, a professional guitar player (jazz/blues/rock/pop/c&w/anything that paid). Gave it up to become a lawyer. Now looking for a way to give that up and become a professional large format photographer.

 

It looks like I won't be quitting my day job any time soon. ;)

 

There is a connection - imho, once you've tapped into whatever it takes to express yourself artistically, it is easier to find that spot where creation is possible again.

 

Also, being able to learn large amounts of arcane (and otherwise useless) information applies in both.

 

But other than that, I don't see a whole lot of similarities. One is visual, the other aural. One takes an abnormal amount of coordination, rote practice and performing pieces much the same way each time. The other requires a strong back and the creative application of a skill set to translate whatever appears before you into a unique and remarkable (hopefully) image.<div></div>

Well damn. My back's not that strong, does that mean I should give up LF?

My ex-wife was a musician, but a lousy photographer (among other things...)

 

:-)

Greetings,

 

I've been doing large-format for about two years now and just finished a piano performance degree here in Rochester, New York. Paul Miller (www.theoryofpaul.net), who encouraged me to make the leap to 4x5, is completing his PhD in music theory.

 

I guess any number of comparisons could be made of large-format photography to music. All art forms involve the manipulation of the same essential things: narrative, form, symbolism, ordered chaos, composition, structure...or a concious lack of all of these things. And plenty of people have made comparisions between tonal subtleties in black and white prints and subtleties of musical color via instrumentation, timbre, etc. This is all true. But for me, what is essential to both processes (music and exclusively large format exclusively) is a desire for total control. Whether you perform or compose, you are controlling and organizing a period in time, capturing space, imposing your world. And nothing is automated. It's all pen to paper. Same with LF photography. Making choices on what to include, what to exclude, what to hide from people, what to share with people. Ansel's metaphors of the negative as score and the print as performance have been very useful for me. In discussions of pop music, where the is often times no score at all but rather, recorded performances, the metaphors open up terrific possiblities. Having said all of this, I must admit to being attracted to LF photography for anotehr very important reason: the gadgets. I love them. And I wouldn't trade the peace of being in the darkroom for anything in the world. In a way, it's so primitive and raw. The practice room is more torturous, somehow. I'll leave these thoughts to dangle here.

 

Regards,

Robert Wood

www.robertjwood.net

I began everything in my early teens (12-14): Photography, music (trumpet), astronomy, nature study, writing poetry, pencil sketching.

 

Playing trumpet is the only thing that I did not continue after high school; that was 45 years ago.

 

Bill Dembowski

I am not an actively playing now, but I played violin for 8 years. I quit after high school but I still listen to music (classical, jazz, folk, some pop music) every day.

 

Another well known musician-photographer is Don Worth, see http://www.photographywest.com/pages/current_exhibition2_bio.html

Interesting. I just received my the latest issue of Photovision in the mail and there are two articles that interrelate music and photography, one by Bruce barnbaum and the other by Charles Cramer!