Music and Photography

[william_kornrich]

Does the type of music you listen to at any given time influence your

photography? When I listen to a lot of classical music, I seem to favor black

and white images...listening to jazz--I'm photographing a lot of riotous color

sunsets....what are your thoughts?

[Ed_Ingold]

I see classical music in color, jazz in black and white. Sometimes it's the other way around.

[jennifer_durand]

I only listen to music while I'm working on my computer. In the field I listen to the sounds of

nature.

[susanm]

I think maybe my taste in music reflects my taste in photography---all kinds of random stuff.

[inoneeye]

as do (to a lesser degree) light quality, location (environment - if i am scared or comfortable,

industrial or nature), aromas (mildly), my state of mind (hyper, sad, divorced, love,

contentment......)<br>

but music as a tool for me is very tangible and and easy way to influence my way of

seeing.<br><br>

it is also fun and instructive learning tool. Try to make jazz, try to make opera, reggae, blues.

When practicing your photography scales, music is wonderful.

[shpat]

not always. I like all sorts of music, but hard rock is one of my favorite genres (even though I listen to classical and jazz all the time). still, I don't neccessarily prefer dark and "darkly" dressed people, in contrary. I guess it has to do with how you percieve the music you listen to.

 

I'm planning (sometime during the next month) to devote one whole day to shooting while listening to different kinds of music, and taking notes, just to see what the result will be. Even though I've never tried something like this, I'm sure that (street) photos taken while listening to classical music will be much different than those taken while listening to heavy metal.

[DickArnold]

I grew up with a strong interest in classical music. I am not an aficianado but it does provoke my emotions and can soften my insides. When I do a good picture(to my standards only) it gives rise to the same kind of feelings. I have been in professions where I developed a fairly hard exterior and most people never see another side. I try for art in my pictures and really love to do portraits that capture the emotions of others and I think music gives me the same kind of gratification that I get when I get the inside of someone I photograph shines out a little in one of my photos. Doing portraits also softens my insides and my demeanor.

[gale]

My music tastes are as messed up and diverse as my photography. I might play Mozart or even slow down to Bach one day and listen to Mettalica the next day. I like old southern rock, modern hard rock, 80's rock, old country (pre Garth Brooks) and classical at times and some blues.

 

The Blues to me always mean B&W to me...smooth B&W no faster than 400 ASA.

 

Old southern rock or Classical Rock is high speed and high grain slide film or 400-800 speed color print. Old shots of Hendrix remind me of 400 Ectachrome or 200 Kodachrome...kind of far out.

 

Modern rock (Alter Bridge, Korn, etc) is either Provia 400's or 100's. Sometimes maybe desaturated digital or slide conversions. It can be nutzo high grain 3200 Tmax too.

 

Bach and Mozart is B&W with enough grain to be noticable. It also might mean smooth highly contrasty "light box" shots with the finest slide film.

 

Country is dead in my book, but I like old George Jones, Hank Williams Sr. and Patsy Cline. This reminds me of Kodak Print film.

 

 

I shoot about every film listed above depending on my mood and the phase of the moon and fuel prices. My music tastes are just as diverse and changable. My wife says she can't keep up with my tastes and whims.

 

Dave

[jennifer_durand]

Any one heard of Karlheinz Stockhausen, Blue Man Group, Hildegarde von Bingen, Neon Zoo?

[nickperzik]

the first stuff i ever shot seriously was the underground music scene in los angeles in the 90's, so definitely it's influenced my photography. but the first time i ever really thought about it in a nonmusic setting - i was sitting in traffic in downtown l.a., listening to thelonious monk and i remember watching people as i was sitting there and i realized that it was like watching a video. monk's music - and jazz in general - perfectly described the rhythm of the street.

[jtk]

Nicholas, Monk brings me back to important things. The recordings I have suggest he never stepped away from his creative responsibility. Your traffic recollection sounds truly Monk.

 

Milt Jackson and Modern Jazz Quartet, same. When I had art directors in studio, MJQ was the music ...it could vanish into the background. Or it could transport, but I rarely wanted to be transported with art directors :-)

 

My own guitar (gypsy jazz) is too compelling... I can't do photography or anything else when I hear others playing it (eg Django Reinhardt, Stochelo Rosenberg). Grabs me.

[Spearhead]

I shoot a lot of musicians, so of course it affects my photography. It used to affect my hearing, but now that I have tinitus, I wear earplugs. I shoot mostly death metal, neo-punk, rock operas, so that's what I hear. There is a lot of music I listen to that doesn't impact anything, and some that impacts what I do, like Diamanda Galas and 灰野 敬二. How they influence me is seeping into my system and being converted from sound to sight. The same thing is true with reading...<p><i>Any one heard of Karlheinz Stockhausen, Blue Man Group, Hildegarde von Bingen, Neon Zoo?</i><p>Yes, why do you ask? Stockhausen is far more interesting for students like Holger Czukay and people he influenced like John Cale than for his own music. I saw Blue Man Group in the first couple months they started (mid-80s?) but they are a Vegas act now, all the edge is gone and they just recycle a lot of stuff. Von Bingen, the nun that wrote medieval music? She's interesting, but I can't find any distinction between her and other medieval composers. Neon Zoo is interesting but pretty derivative. We hear a lot of stuff like that on "modern rock" stations. What about them makes them more interesting than the others?

[spanky]

Any type of art form be it music, sculpture, painting, poetry ect can have an effect on ones photography or whatever their creative outlet may be. This effect will of course vary among people but it will be there although buried in the unconcious mind. Thus most people will not be aware of how it is working.

 

Personally, I myself have no idea when I'm actually shooting but when I'm in the darkroom I tend to favor acapella choral music especially Monteverdi. Many of the Bach choral works are great to print by as well.

[sobeystudio]

All types of music for me. Soft, loud, fast and slow. Experimental and popular. My art, not my

commercial work, is partly about music and sound. For me, the science of sound waves, is

very important and ifluential because of its similarties to light, which exist in waves and

particles. Yes, very abstract, but you must see my work www.FOABSTRACTOS.blogspot.com

Can't you see sound sometimes? I like to think my work looks like music. Good music.

Radiohead, John Coltrane, Van Halen, Bach.

[colin carron]

The type of music I listen to is most heavily influenced by which of my children are with me at the time. Their choice of music is pretty much defined by their age and I regard it as keeping up with the latest sounds. If none of them are with me then my own choice of classical music (either listening or performing in choral groups) gets a chance but none of these musical experiences has much influence on my photography that I have noticed.

[dickhilker]

Music has been described as "organized sound." Would it be a reasonable analogy to call photography "organized light"?

 

If so, perhaps the structure of the music we hear while working does have an influence on the way we structure our pictures. Conversely, perhaps the attitude we have toward our art influences our choice of music.

 

Or, maybe there's simply no correlation?

[carbonix]

To me music comes as an input and photography as an output. So it really depends on how receptive and sensitive you are. The question remains : Do you want to be influenced??!

[sobeystudio]

"Do you want to be influenced??!" Of course I do. Influence is all around us, if we like it or

not. It is just what you do with that information that is important. I am influenced by the

non-objective painters of mid-century, by classical compositions of centuries ago and by

graffiti art. I am influenced by science and poetry. I am influenced by my subway rides

throughout the city (NY). I am influenced by my family and their individual perceptions of life.

I take these "influences" and absorb them, contemplate the nuances and the broad strokes of

genius and detritous and make them part of my work, my ideas, my experience. My

individuality comes through.

[guk]

Not just music but musicians and their attitude to their work

 

These people definately influence me in the way I approach ant photographic work

 

The Beatles

Steely Dan

http://fashionfotonotes.blogspot.com/2006/03/kiss-frog.html

Miles

Jaco Pastorious

http://fashionfotonotes.blogspot.com/2006/01/dont-copy-walk-changes.html

Django

Albert King

Syevie Wonder (video clip The Making of I wish)

 

The reasons are sometimes complicated sometimes simple;

eg when I listen to Django playing Swing 42, knowing hes possibly using just 2 fingers on the fretboard, helps me to get the best out whatevers available to me and not to keep thinking about better equipment all the time. Or Albert King who played great blues on an upside down guitar Tuned to C minor.

 

 

Heres a quote from Anthony Jackson Bassist on some Steely Dan dates

"Was working with Walter Becker and Donald Fagen of Steely Dan, reportedly among the most demanding of artists, comparable to working with Chaka Khan"?

 

AJ Becker and Fagen-and also Paul Simon-approach their goals a bit differently than Chaka, but all parties, at the end of the day, want all asses to have been thoroughly kicked. Fagen, in particular, is a stickler for detail, but no more so than I am, so the only important issue is whether my detailing as interpreter coincides with his as composer. Once a stylistic approach to a song has been decided-such approach, of course, having been determined almost entirely by Fagen-the actual recording of the performance begins, and this is where the legend of cruelty to musicians originates. It's true that Becker, Fagen, and Simon split more hairs than most and never hype players: no high-fives, no reverential cursing. You've played well? Good; next song. Or more likely: Not good; do it again. Still not good; again. Still not good; go home. Many did. This kind of ferocious performance-disciplining, far from intimidating me, sends adrenaline pouring into my bloodstream. Split hairs, will you? Split this!

Becker and Fagen made neurosis and obsession rewarding and uplifting. Endless hours were spent analyzing and refining the smallest performance details without noticeably improving the music. But I must say that the two tracks I did for Steely Dan's Gaucho [MCA]-"Glamour Profession" and "My Rival"-and the two on The Nightfly [Donald Fagen's solo album on Warner Bros.]-"I.G.Y." and "Ruby Baby"-did improve my ability to constructively analyze a performance. Becker and Fagen's constant prodding, combined with their willingness to let me prod myself-even allowing me to destroy a performance they loved because I insisted on redoing the entire part-helped put titanium in my spine.

 

These are the kinds of musical connections that have some influence

 

g

[Norma Desmond]

Ella singing Porter.

[jtk]

Alina: "To me music comes as an input and photography as an output. "

 

You addressed a big topic.

 

I usually find music mere noise, actually unpleasant, unless I connect. If I connect it's physical...people see me responding, perhaps tapping my foot, sometimes even weeping. I do however like some "right type of music" in the background when my sweetheart and I are dining. Maybe it enhances some biology.

 

Some music calls for work, "output." Bob Dylan's "Mississippi" on "Love and Theft" is, like the rest of the CD, barely listenable...but I've carefully listened 5 times in 2 days, trying to grasp it all. One of his best. Active listening paid off...now I'm getting more from the rest of the recording. The only other time he grabbed me like that was with "Desolation Row", 1966. Both could inspire a photographic project or a film. http://www.bobdylan.com/songs/mississippi.html

 

On my second lesson a gypsy guitar teacher said "You must quit immediately unless you learn to tap your foot." I learned. Now I know I'm not really hearing the music unless I'm physically responding...for me good music is not "input."

 

Similarly, photography more crucially requires considering (seeing more or less fully) my potential subject than acting on it... more "input" than "output."

 

However, "thinking about" my subject seems output.

[carbonix]

I think we chose the music depending on our mood, or maybe our needs. For example if I get to sensitive I will listen even to Rap, it makes me slow down on emotions. Some songs also recall memories so they will set me back to the past .You are right some people find music disturbing if it?s not the one they like.

[carbonix]

We can experiment and post one song for all and ask them what vision they have about it,or better to do a photo theme arount what song.I am sure the photos will be very diffrent-;)

[jtk]

Alina, interesting idea.

 

Maybe you can point to something on your P.N. portfolio...

 

See one of mine http://www.photo.net/photo/6362901

 

I don't find music outside my preferences disturbing...for me ALL music is "disturbing," one way or another...either as corrosive background noise or as something that affects my being more positively.

[jtk]

Here's a song I love. Maybe it connects to my photo. I hear it every week on KUNM, probably on "Singing Wire" Very popular. A "49" is a Pow Wow. The singer is Keith Secola.

 

 

These two lip synchers aren't American Indians but they're somebody else's and they obviously do get it, probably as much as the woman in my photo.