This one even took me by surprise! Looking through my archive, I came across the imagery from both the Jlo tour and the Beyonce tour that I had shot. How the hell did that happen?? I have only been to three concerts in my life. I totally hate large crowds and I have this huge phobia of being at a concert and watching the performer. Feeling bad that they are feeling judged by the crown the whole time they are performing. I could never stand that kind of pressure! So how do I have these intimate images of two of the most powerful and admired performers of my time?
A total fluke and right timing, right place, right time story!
I was shooting Jennifer in Philadelphia for a Kohls campaign. She designed a very successful line of clothing for Kohl’s and I had been shooting the lines for the brand. So it was another day in the life of JLo and I. At this point, it must have been my 50th or 60th plus time shooting with her. We had it down to a creative science. So much so, that we got the shoot done hours early!
By her manager’s suggestion, I was asked to come shoot her concert in montreal… have fun with it, get behind the scenes… document it. This was totally spur of the moment… last minute idea. But it sounded like an adventure… so off we went… my little team of soldiers to have a lark… see what we could pull together. It was a HUGE adventure!
Beyonce’s concert was the same type of story! She asked me to come to some northern place where it is freezing… somewhere near Alaska… to shoot her in her soon to be concert wear that was meticulously designed by Thierry Muglar. She wanted to have more than just concert images of the designs as she was so excited to be wearing these garments. So she had me come to where she was at the time to shoot the pieces. We arrived at the location… my assistant and I got dropped off in an empty parking lot in a huge building. It was snowing like crazy so I really had no idea where I was. We were told… this is where you are going to shoot… so set up. Right in the parking garage! I have no problem with that cause I love me some Gray on gray stone studio space!!
We got done shooting each individual piece on beyonce in portrait mode… then she said… have fun shooting the rest… go anywhere you want you have all access passes. The rest of what I thought to myself?!? Well shit… she was doing a full fledged practice run of a concert for thousands of people. They put an apple crate at the front of the stage, and I got to document what I felt was a Beyonce concert just for me!! LOL. It was a magical experience!
It goes to show… you just dont know whats on the other side of the door until it is open… you just cant be afraid to walk through it.
