A History of Concert Photography
Our Last Night photographed by Matthew Alexander for Soundlink Magazine
Though they’re often thought of as two separate, distinct art forms, live music and photography come together again and again in one marriage of creative and technical abilities: namely, concert photography. Since its birth in the 1960s, concert photography has undergone major waves of change, including the one it faces today as artistic industries are being transformed by the digital age and all professions are facing the dawn of automation.
In this article, we’ll do a deep dive into the history of music photography, shout out some influential and famous music photographers, and chart the changes the industry has seen in the last 60 years.
The 1960s
A huge decade for the music industry, the 1960s saw the birth of more than just Woodstock and the American folk revival, it also brought about something that many of us take for granted today: concert photography. There were several contributing factors. As rock n’ roll rose to massive popularity, coming to dominate the music scene, and bands like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones developed enormous followings, music fans began to crave more and more memorabilia.
Further, music journalism saw tremendous growth. Publications like NME, Rolling Stone, Record Mirror, Rave, and Melody Maker were leading the cultural conversation about music, spurring increased interest in musicians’ lives and activities.
But despite the demand for music photography and the abundance of places publishing it, there weren’t too many concert photographers in the game, creating an opportunity for a few key people to make a name for themselves and influence the art form as a whole.
Gered Mankowitz
Known primarily for his work as The Rolling Stones’ official tour photographer, Mankowitz also photographed such legendary artists as Jimi Hendrix, Duran Duran, Elton John, and Kate Bush. While he is most known for non-concert photographs such as the cover of the Stones’ album Between the Buttons, Mankowitz has also made an indelible mark on concert photography and is thought of to this day as one of the greatest the art form has seen.
Jim Marshall
The only free-to-use image I found of Jim Marshall, legendary concert photographer.
One of the best-known concert photographers of all time, Jim Marshall’s success can perhaps best be summed up by the fact that he was given the honor of being named chief photographer at Woodstock. His photos of artists such as Jimmy Hendrix and Johnny Cash (yep, that picture) in their most iconic moments, setting guitars on fire at the Monterey Pop Festival and performing at San Quentin prison, Marshall is remembered today for both his iconic images and for helping define rock n’ roll photography as we know it.
The 1970s
While new bands and genres came onto the scene, concert photography in the 1970s looked very similar to how it had in the 1960s - just bigger and more established, with more photographers and publications vying for access and recognition. A few stood out, seeing particular success and relevance.
Mick Rock
With a very similar story to Gered Mankowitz, Mick Rock’s most well-known work happened in the 1970s, when he served as David Bowie’s official photographer. Following his work with icons like Queen, Iggy Pop and The Stooges, The Sex Pistols, The Ramones, Joan Jett, Talking Heads, and Mötley Crüe, Rock earned himself the nickname “The Man Who Shot the Seventies.” He’s still working today, though it’s debatable if he will ever top what is perhaps his most iconic photograph, the cover of Queen’s album Queen II.
Source: https://uk.phaidon.com/agenda/photography/articles/2018/october/08/how-annie-leibovitz-drew-star-power-from-the-rolling-stones/
Annie Liebovitz
Famous Concert Photographer, Annie Leibovitz. Source: Robert Scoble from Half Moon Bay, USA
Though concert photography, like many creative industries, has been historically dominated by white men, Annie Leibovitz is one of the few women who has managed to break through and gain mainstream success in the field. I got to watch her Masterclass recently, and it was incredible. Walking through her journey as a photographer was incredibly inspiring. Though she’s mostly known today for her work in fashion magazines, Liebovitz got her start as a staff photographer for Rolling Stone in the 70s and early 80s and served as the tour photographer for the Rolling Stones' Tour of the Americas in 1975.
Jenny Lens
Another notable female concert photographer working in the 1970s is Jenny Lens, who was one of the first to turn a camera on the growing punk rock scene of the late 70s. Having shot The Ramones, The Clash, and The Runaways, Lens is a true punk pioneer. Bringing attention to the work and experience of women in a male-dominated field, Lens has been serving as an inspiration to concert photographers for decades.
The 1980s
One of the most notable changes in the concert photography world came in the 1980s when the three-song rule was established. At this point, music photography was officially a Big Thing, and photography pits got overcrowded to the point of being a nuisance. Musicians got annoyed with constant flashbulbs and battling photographers.
Bruce Springsteen took the initiative to say enough is enough after a particularly irritating show at Madison Square Garden. As photographer Paul Natkin recalls it, “The [Three Song] Rule started in the 80s with bands in New York, especially Springsteen. When a band played in New York, especially places like the Garden, they gave out tons of photo passes… Bruce would go up on stage, and there would be 50 photographers, all shooting flashes in his face. I don't blame him, he walked off stage one night and said, we have to do something about this. Somebody said, why not just let them shoot the first fifteen minutes? Somebody figured out at a normal rock show, a song is about five minutes. Somebody said, let's just let them shoot the first three songs.”
The impact of this relatively random rule was significant. While artists got to look their best, being photographed only during the beginning of a show before the sweat really started to pour, concert photographers had to learn to adapt to a significantly minimized window of shooting time. This rule is still in popular use today, though each artist has their own variation of it, with some being more generous than others.
The 1990s and 2000s
Another revolutionary change to the concert photography industry came in the 1990s and early 2000s with the popularization of digital photography. While concert photography used to be shot on film, with all of the aesthetic advantages and inconveniences that came with it, digital has nearly completely taken over the industry - as it has with most other forms of photography.
Today, most concert photographers shoot on DSLR cameras, as they offer the undeniable conveniences of the ability to take a nearly unlimited number of photos, immediately check how the photos look, and so on.
One of the consequences of the switch to digital is that concert photography is much more accessible today. While a high-quality DSLR camera and good lenses aren’t the cheapest things to buy, the cost is not prohibitive for the thousands of amateur photographers who want to enter the field.
Danny Clinch
The music industry saw some major shifts in the 90s, with the rise of grunge, hip hop, pop punk, and MTV all coming in as one wave to change the face of rock n’ roll. Danny Clinch, who began his career as an intern for Annie Liebovitz, was there to capture it all. Photographing bands like The Smashing Pumpkins, Blind Melon, Dave Matthews Band, Phish, and artists like Tupac Shakur and Björk, Clinch’s images came to define the look of a new decade in music.
The Legendary Concert Photographers of Today
As it stands today, concert photography is in a completely different place than it was in the 1960s and 70s. First, the impact of the smartphone revolution begs mentioning. While digital cameras may have made concert photography more accessible to aspiring photographers, the age of smartphones has taken it one step further, putting a reasonably high-quality camera into the hands of nearly every concertgoer, something that would have been impossible to fathom in the 60s.
Today, the line between concert attendee and photographer is blurred. While the business of concert photography chugs on, any old Joe can take photos at concerts - and they do, leading to frequent complaints about the masses of phone screens obstructing the view of the stage. Regardless, the art form is officially democratized, for better or worse.
Social media has also inspired a lot of amateur photographers, which not so long ago, included myself. Between this and the lowered cost of entry photography gear has lead to waves of new photographers joining the competition for the attention of publications and bands.
Furthermore, social media has created perhaps even huger waves in the landscape of concert photography, giving everybody the ability to publish, share, and go viral with music photos. Now, marketing of all types - including music marketing - involves and even privileges social media.
Again, opinions on this shift vary. On the one hand, social media creates opportunities for concert photographers. You no longer have to have connections and an “in” in the industry to potentially get your work seen. In theory, great photography will speak for itself. On the other hand, it’s easy for your photos - no matter how great they may be - to get lost in the fray, among the 5.3 million other ones in the #concertphotography hashtag.
Now, an up-and-coming concert photographer has to also be a savvy social media strategist to get noticed, engineering clicks and likes and shares and engagement - which is probably not the part of the business they were attracted to initially. It is nearly impossible to be a good and successful photographer on skill alone.
There are some really notable current concert photographers who I think every photographer should follow.
Ellie Pritts
One undeniably positive impact of the democratization of an art form is that it makes it easier for women and minorities to find success in a traditionally not-so-diverse industry. That is what Instagram allowed to happen for Ellie Pritts, named by TIME Magazine in 2016 as one of the top photographers to follow on Instagram in the U.S. A founder of the world’s first collaborative photography app on iOS, consultant with Apple on Instagram, and expert speaker on social media marketing, Pritts has embraced smartphone photography and social media to an enormous extent.
The result has been massive success as it is defined in 2020: over 22 thousand followers on Instagram and spots photographing concerts of artists such as Childish Gambino, Lorde, FKA Twigs, and Solange Knowles. Perhaps Pritts’ career is a blueprint for what concert photography success can and must look like in our age.
Adam Elmakias
Adam has been in the concert photography industry for years. He’s worked with incredibly talented brands, and has become the go-to for what I’d call “neoclassical concert photography” - fine art photography inside the concert photography space. I think he’s also really mastered documentary photography, as he’s had a number of foreign adventures with big and small artists alike.
Adam also runs a series of online courses, groups, chat discussions, and is always trying to inspire the next generation of creators.
Kay Dargen
Kay Dargen is not only very technically skilled, with well balanced compositions and razor-sharp focus, but also has an incredible mastery of alternate color palettes. I think Kay’s color schemes have inspired a lot of millennial concert photographer’s styles, and made a considerable change to the aesthetic of concert photography.
Matty Vogel
Matty has been the photographer behind the instagram styles of artists including All Time Low, PVRIS, Thirty Seconds to Mars, and Billie Eilish. If you follow any of those artists, chances are you’ve seen his work.
I think Matty’s presets, with their boosted shadows, sharp contrast, and bold teal/purple tones, have reshaped the concert photography aesthetic for years. If you look at his work, you can clearly see how he’s influenced the generation of photographers in the 2010s.
Ashley Osborn
I think Ashley Osborn was the first concert photographer I ever followed. She’s been working for over 10 years, starting from a really young age and putting her nose to the grindstone and getting it done. She’s mastered the re-imagining of the tones of film and analog beauty of yesteryear and brought it together with the mastery of lighting and digital tools that photographers have today. You can see it in her work, she captures this really haunting essence of a person. Her work is impeccable, and beside just her concert work, she does an amazing job with creative direction and style.
What Will Concert Photography Look Like in the Future?
When I first started writing this article, the Coronavirus pandemic of 2020 hadn’t even begun. I’ve been writing it for that long.
When I began writing it, I didn’t anticipate that concert photographers would all have to take a year-long hiatus. And for those in the business that do this full-time, that means - you had to pivot. I shifted my work towards wedding photography and nature/adventure photography. Others shifted to portrait and studio work. Some shifted to documentary work. But what matters is that when we all come back, vaccinated and safe, they’ll be tons of new perspectives, new software, new lenses, and new people joining the concert photography game.
Of course, the concert photography industry isn’t done changing - and it never will be. But there are some key questions on the horizon that have potentially far-reaching, even groundbreaking, implications. While it may seem off, the AI reckoning is much closer than we can imagine. In every industry, workers are beginning to question whether they will still have a job in 20 years or if a robot will be able to do it instead.
While these questions generally revolve around industries like customer service and transportation, even artists aren’t safe. Experiments seem to indicate that AI can be just as creative as humans can and some may argue that creativity isn’t even a relevant concern.
Famous concert photographer Ethan Russell said, “It became clear to me without any doubt that that job is gonna be taken over by a robot before too long. Because there’s absolutely no reason to put a human being in there because a machine could do it better.”
But will robots ever be able to recreate the vision and feeling of a human being? Do we need to watch Terminator again? With a rise in analog film and a craving for “the real” again, talented artists are popping up all over the world.
At any rate, predicting the future is a losing game. But the three-song rule, digital photography, social media, and artificial intelligence can’t change one well-known entertainment industry fact: the show must go on. And somebody must be there to document it with a camera.