Bathroom Self-Portrait. Barcelona, 2014
Upon perusing some unique music videos recently, an interesting parallel jumped out at me. The musicians in the videos used a very wide array of instruments to bring their varying melodious visions to life, just as us photographers use a variety of Canon/Nikon/Sony/Fuji/Olympus/Brownie machines to bring our differing artistic visions to print.
Furthermore, a goodly number of those instruments used by these musicians were obviously not from the snooty 5th Avenue Stradivarius store–there were some pretty beat up old guitars and horns in the bunch, and some of the rhythm instruments you could probably have found in your kitchen.
Once again, the moral of the story: the vision (and the skill of the artist) is always more important than the tools.
The problem in photography is that the tools are so…well, cool…that we often get distracted by the technical aspects of our art and forget that it is the turn inward that will eventually lead to the most interesting outward results.
As to the music videos, if you haven’t checked out the Tiny Desk Concerts from NPR’s “All Songs Considered”, I highly recommend it. You’ll find an incredibly varied selection of musical genres–everything from classical, to blues and country, to punk-mariachi (yep!), to New Orleans street jazz, to Nigerian combos, to off-beat solo singers with odd and haunting voices.
In the videos, you’ll find a few of the very famous as well as a large number who fall in the as-yet-to-be-discovered category. All perform in the cramped and disheveled office space of the show’s offices. The result is a very, very, intimate view of some incredibly talented artists.
You’ll feel like they are performing informally, for you, in your very own living room.
Check it out for yourself. Just Google “Tiny Desk Concerts” on YouTube and have fun!
As an appetizer, I’ll pass on two such videos that really caught my ear.
The first, is a woman with an incredibly unique voice. Some might even think she sings badly. But, perhaps like some blurry photographs, there is art and heart there–or at least, I think so:
This second example is–allegedly–a mariachi band. I’d call it five parts Bronx punk and one part urban mariachi. A photo montage equivalent? Whatever…it is a very strange combination:
No, wait…I need to add a third. Dang. There are so many intriguing musicians on this Tiny Desk list it’s very hard to stop at three–or even twenty. Anyway, have a listen to Pokey and his gang, then head off yourself to the various videos:
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