The Detroit Cobras by Matt Booy

When i was starting out taking concert photos i’d look all over the place to find inspiration. One of the places that seemed to have consistently top-notch concert photos was the triple j website, with credit usually going to Matt Booy.

He’s fantastic at capturing the atmosphere of a gig, not just the singer at the mic, but the lighting, the pedals, the quiet looks of people. His work is also remarkably sharp. It’s tough getting a sharp shot in such low lighting, but Matt seems to have got it down pat.

Apart from his skills in photography Matt was invaluable in the organisation of 3 Songs. No Flash – he suggested the title, he designed the website and flyer. I couldn’t have done it without him.

Here’s Matt’s interview with The Brag editor Kirsty Brown:

BRAG: Tell us a little about yourself. Who do you work for, what is your style of photography, do you have a day job, how did you get into the photography business?

MATT: My day job is working on the triple j website.  After working there for a while and seeing heaps of concerts – I thought it would be cool to see if I could get some images for triple j.  Luckily for me – the promoters actually let me up the front and so began my quest to get as many guitar pedal shots as possible.

Memorable moments.

The Mars Volta at the 2004 Big Day Out.  Cedric was throwing his mic stand and pouring water into the photographer’s pit and generally misbehaving. Great fun trying to dodge his antics and get a pic. The fact that they only play 3 songs in a festival set meant we got heaps of time to shoot them as well!

Also Wayne Coyne hitting me directly with a handful of confetti during the Flaming Lips set at the same BDO was pretty fun.

Not so memorable moments.

The Mars Volta at this year’s Big Day Out. Their management must have cottoned on to the 3 songs loophole so we had a 10 minute limit in the pit.  In reality this turned into 3 minutes  – 2 ½ minutes of that was the intro music when none of them were on stage. Oh and it was pitch black! Fun times… Their Sydney sideshow was even worse. We were given just a few minutes to shoot them from behind the punters at the back bar of the Enmore. Not owning a telephoto lens I was screwed!

It’s even more frustrating thinking about the shots you could have got as they are a killer live band.

If you could photograph anyone, living or dead, who would it be?

Bandwise:

Led Zep at their peak. Purely for selfish reasons – just to be up the front for 3 songs.  I’d also take heaps of photos of John Paul Jones – because no one bothered shooting him in the seventies – they just concentrated on Page, Plant and Bonzo!

Can’t wait to shoot Tool next year (err that’s if they are coming out – haha).

Non-bandwise and dead:

Stanley Kubrick – so I can nerd out with him about camera equipment.

Who has been the most exciting person to shoot and who has been the most difficult?

Dillinger Escape Plan was pretty fun – shot them at both the Annandale and Gaelic club shows – and as neither of the venues have a photo pit – it was an intense experience.  The band spent about 90% of the time in the audience!

Stalking Adrian Belew (of King Crimson) earlier this year was a bit of a blast as well. Went to all three Sydney shows and had a brief chat with him after the Basement gig – he’s  a top bloke!

Aside from Mars Volta – Missy Elliot was pretty disappointing only getting one song (although to be fair (?) her set only had a total of 5 songs!).

Is there a memorable image that you have taken that has become your favourite?

My best images are of my favourite bands.  It was a real dream come true to shoot Radiohead. For three songs you get the best seat in the house!

What is 3 Songs, No Flash about? How did it come around and what do you hope it achieves?

Since most of my stuff is on the web – it is good to print some images out and let people see them larger than at 400*267 pixels on a crappy computer monitor.

Will be nice to share them with people and nervously wait for their reaction.

What advice would you give to budding photographers out there?

Piss the flash off.  You’re unlikely to get good shots using the onboard flash on your camera (well the backs of people’s heads will turn out well!). Plus it’s pretty annoying for everyone having  flashes going off during a show.

And although it’s hard, it’s good to sometimes put the camera down and actually enjoy the concert. (I should talk…)

 

You can see more of Matt’s work in the triple j galleries, plus his new blog. Go and leave fawning comments.

See Also:

• Interview with Nic Bezzina
• Interview with Daniel Boud