Last year, I was invited to the Ieperfest Hardcore Festival (Ieper, Belgium) by Bruno Vandevyvere, the music program manager. He wanted me to experience the festival from a photographer's perspective. I’d only been into concert photography for a week (yes, that’s right: ONE week) and did not really know what to expect. I was, however, eager to explore this brand new discipline more deeply and was thrilled I was offered this opportunity so quickly. Dranouter Folk Festival 2015 was the kick-off festival concerning concert photography for me and this more by accident than planned. I found out that my press badge gave access to the front stage area, so why not give it a try? It was a steep learning curve, as concert conditions proved to be challenging. Light was scarce and conditions changed all the time, forcing you to push ISO and go wide open in aperture while keeping sufficient speed as musicians tend to move over the stage all the time (surprisingly, no? ). I ended up with 1/160, f/2.8, floating ISO with 6400ASA, as an acceptable maximum for noise levels, and around -0. 7/-1.0 EC. These still are my default settings for most concerts, giving good results most of the time. Technically, the main challenge remains good (auto) focus and avoiding motion blur. If the light conditions allow for it, I push speed. But most of the time this is not an option. I'm really looking forward to the moment I can lay my hands on a FF camera which can be pushed to 12.800 ASA or more, without exceeding the noise levels today at 6400ASA.
This is the technical context of concert photography. More important is, of course, to come up with pictures that have something to tell. Pictures you keep looking at, over and over again. Either for their interesting or beautiful composition or colours, or even better, because you froze a moment in time on which the performer or musician expressed his or her emotions, reaching a climax. On that moment everything seems to fall together and you were there, shooting it from the right perspective, from the right distance and at the right moment.
Long ago, I played (in all its meanings) in a cover band for a short time. It was there and then that I met my current wife who was a (jazz) singer. We became partners in crime. She joined or set up a band, trio or whatever and I took care of the sound engineering, FOH for her and gigs for friends/musicians. I stopped doing this a few years ago but the knowledge and experience I built up over the years are still very useful to me today. I developed a huge and profound respect for musicians who try to master their instrument, make songs and/or write lyrics in a sincere way, regardless the genre. One should not underestimate the effort they have to put in finding and developing their own style and sound. It takes them years and a lot of uncertainties to come that far. This is the background from which I look at them during a performance. I do not really listen to the music (sorry for that... this happens to be the main purpose, I know). I try to enter their world and passion that comes with performing. The better I succeed in doing so, the better my pictures become.
Back to the Ieperfest. I have listened to many different genres of music and I liked Punk and Hard Rock many years ago but I did not know what to expect from the Hardcore music scene. The first impression was not that positive or promising. It all looks so dark and black is definitely the omnipresent colour. "Is my expensive equipment safe?", was one of my first thoughts. I cannot stress enough how surprised I was to find out that looks and impressions can be very misleading. OK, there are moshpits and stagediving... But hey, where is the frontstage area? Where are the security fences? Where is the security personnel that must safeguard the band members? None of these are to be seen and they appear not to be necessary either, as there is mutual respect between the fans and the bands. They go for proximity and contact so nothing that could potentially harm this delicate balance is present.
For a photographer, the conditions to go for expressive pictures are far better than you will ever find in larger venues and more mainstream genres. This was a big eye-opener for me, so I had no mixed feelings about coming back this year. Although I wasn’t able to come on Saturday for Biafra and UK Subs, I did have a lot of fun photographing Negative Approach, Black Dahlia Murder, Tribulation, etc...
So, what's the moral of this story? Get out of your comfort zone and be in for surprises. You might actually like it and have better (concert) photos than you could ever imagine...
Adam Zaars, Tribulation@Ieperfest 2016