Rock and roll photo shoots are always fun. Creative people of all persuasions tend to make great photographic subject and I’m a bit of a music geek so love that kind of thing. Anyway, I was fortunate enough to photograph a Bristol music legend last week.
Rita Lynch came to prominence in the early 90s, often mentioned in the same breath as contemporary PJ Harvey and was the subject of a Channel 4 documentary.
She continues to record and perform, and has recently been putting out some of her best work, and she’s one of the best live acts on the Bristol music scene. With a new album due for release this year, we put together an informal photo shoot to create images that could be used as CD artwork and in press packs.
The location we found for the shoot was Chris’ practice space – and then some – in Speedwell, Bristol. Chris used to operate Area 81, a rock club that sadly closed at the end of 2009 and his new studio is his latest venture. One large room is kitted out with a full stage area, just like a small music venue and therefore perfect to create a ‘venue’ style location.
Although I was lacking an assistant on the evening we did the shoot I think I will put together some good stuff. managed to get some good stuff in the can. Like all the most captivating
performers, Rita really goes away to another place when playing a gig, coming over like this amazing rock’n'roll siren, and I’ve taken a fair few good live shots over the last year or so. So to capture that in a more formal environment isn’t straightforward but I think we did well.
The basic kit was a couple of trusty Bowens Gemini Studio heads, which are great for use on location. Shots were taken with a Canon DLSR and I also committed a few shots to Provia 100 slide film on my old Hasselblad, just to give a different feel to the rather pristine look modern digital cameras can give.
I won’t be releasing the images to the world wide web until they’re sorted and approved but watch this space…
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