Who would you like to photograph?

<p>In a live concert with full access.</p>

<p>The Dead, back when they were mostly still alive.<br />Current bands-- the Stones would top the list.</p>

 

My surviving friends who served in the Viet Nam war with a fond wish to have photographed those we left behind.

<p>Django Reinhardt. Failing him, Willie Nelson or Zubin Metha.</p>

<p>The Clash, when they were all still alive.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Gotta be Gaga.</p>

<p>Usually I'd rather photograph local musicians. Fewer headaches and egos, better photos, and they can actually use the photos.</p>

<p>Any notions I might once have had about rock star journalism being glamorous ended in the 1980s after a few unpleasant incidents at a Dallas club's shows for The Pretenders, Peter Tosh and a couple others. I've recounted those incidents before on photo.net and won't bother repeating 'em. The last time I had a pleasant experience photographing any big name act was Stevie Wonder at the Cottonbowl in the early 1980s. Ed "Too Tall" Jones himself cleared a spot for me to get close enough for a few good shots.</p>

<p>I'd like to tag along with Cat Power on this current tour. Chan Marshall seems like a hoot and a fun gal to hang around with, pretty much like some gals in my family, and very photogenic. Ditto Maria McKee. Maybe Arcade Fire - their theatricality would be a blast to photograph.</p>

<p>Either Anna Netrebko or Kiri te Kanawa, with the backdrop of La Scala.</p>

<p>Kent in SD</p>

<p>Ray Wylie Hubbard - as long as we could go drinking too. :)</p>

<p>Jimi Hendrix</p>

<p>Lex brings up some good points that I would take even further. People think they want to photograph acts whose music they like, but that isn't what makes photographing musical performance interesting. Django is a good example. You could have gone to one of his shows and snapped off 2000 photos and had maybe two that looked different. On the other hand, GaGa is the opposite. Her music may be pretty uninteresting, but her show is spectacular. Some of my best concert photos are of bands I didn't care for.</p>

<p>One night brought home how uninteresting music I like could be. I went to see Portishead. I couldn't get a photo pass, I go to about one show a year without a pass. I was glad they didn't give me a pass. Beth stands facing the ground and doesn't move. Great singer, nothing to shoot.</p>

<p>This was the opener for a band I shot for a magazine last weekend. I did like the music, but more importantly, the guy put on an incredible show.</p>

<center><p><img src="http://spirer.com/sornenovember2013/content/images/large/_P9A0934.jpg" alt="" /></p></center>

<p>Seasick Steve!</p>

<p>Lemmy has quite an interesting face, or Kylie.<br>

Hmm,</p>

<p>Kylie</p>

 

<p>Without a doubt, Michael Jackson. </p>

<p>Oh, cool, they can be dead!</p>

<p>Franz Lizst, evidently a real showman, and with big hands.</p>

<p>And since this is pretty much a fantasy, he would be as accessible and it would be as glamorous as I can imagine. :-)</p>

<p>Clancy Brothers; Crosby, Stills & Nash; The Association; Simon & Garfunkel; Herbie Mann; Dave Brubeck Quartet.<br>

The bands of Tommy Dorsey, Glen Miller, Benny Goodman and Louis Armstrong.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>There are many performers with great expression but many of them are so identifiable that just a couple of pictures will pretty much encapsulate an entire concert - Buddy Rich and Dizzy Gillespie come to mind.</p>

<p>I picked Michael Jackson because he, among a few other entertainers, put on some of the greatest shows in the business as opposed to simply holding a concert. </p>

<p>Frank Sinatra, Muddy Waters, Rolling Stones, Queen (w/ Freddie).</p>

<p>Late 19th, 20th, and 21st Century celebs have been photographed to death! I'll buy into Fred's fantasy: Give me Beethoven composing in private, banging away at the piano with his head pressed to the case! Or Mozart at work!</p>

<p>But mostly I enjoy photographing common people -- probably more than I'd ever enjoy taking yet another shot of a celeb. And if I could have any fantasy opportunity, I'd rather use it to photograph people and events from my past that I didn't have the wisdom to photograph.</p>

<p>Out of Jeff's story, I'd like to see Portishead, and I'll promise I won't bring a camera. I wouldn't concentrate on photos anyway. Or, along Fred and Sarah's line: Otto Klemperer practising with the orchestra. For real spectacular show, Rammstein.<br>

Won't be picky, though, I'd love to be able to do this kind of work once, but alas, local shows are scarse and not that organised at all, or in a theatre....</p>

<p>Audrey Hepburn.</p>

<p>She made such a profound and intense impression on me, in fact my first extreme attraction to a female I can recall, back in the mid '60's when I was watching her (didn't know who she was at the time) in a movie while I was going in and out of sleep on my grandmother's aqua colored art deco couch as a toddler. At that time I didn't know what the movie was called, but later after almost a lifetime of searching because that moment was so intense to have stayed with me this long, I found it to be <em>Green Mansions. </em><br /> <br /> Back then I saw it as a rerun on my grandmother's B&W tv. Seeing it finally in color recently on TCM didn't seem to have the same impact, but at least I finally put a name to the mysterious woman that made such an impression on me as a toddler. She looked so different in <em>Green Mansions</em> I never made the connection.</p>

<p>http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l5ye9hh2l91qz9qooo1_500.jpg</p>

<p>Norma Jean Dougherty.</p>

<p>You all have me running to Youtube to see who some of the people are.</p>

<p>Audrey Hepburn did live concerts? She didn't even do her own singing in movies, Marni Nixon did it for her.</p>

<p>Not a live concert, but <a href="

Hepburn singing a well-known ditty</a>.</p>

<p><em>“Moon River was written for her. No one else has ever understood it so completely. There have been more than a thousand versions of "Moon River", but hers is unquestionably the greatest.”</em> --Henry Mancini</p>

<p>There are also filmed versions of her singing Wouldn't It Be Loverly from <em>My Fair Lady</em>, before it was dubbed.</p>

<p>If Tim wants to photograph Audrey Hepburn, more power to him. I'll give him an inch or two on the "precision" of his answer. Go Tim!</p>