Top Young Aussie Music Photographers

I was reading A Photo Editor this week and in a post about finding new photographers she states in the comments, "Blogging about your photography and others that you admire is very helpful to photo editors and art buyers. A photographer recommending a peer is very valuable to me in forming my opinion."

In that spirit, i recommend to you the following photographers. To narrow the field i’ve chosen photographers who are all Australian, are young (under 30) and who specialise in music photography. Not live music photography but portraits of bands and artists. I’ll save the live music shooters for another post.

Angelo Kehagias

Mercy ArmsBridezilla

I met Angelo a couple of years back shooting a gig and we bump into each other occasionally at shows. But it’s not his live stuff that grabs me – it’s the portraits. He shoots almost exclusively film and primarily it’s square or panoramic black and white. His shots have a lovely classic and nostalgic vibe. He’s been shooting Mercy Arms since they first appeared and has got a great catalogue of shots of them.

Cybele Malinowski

Midnight Juggernauts

I’m hopelessly biased when it comes to Cybele as she’s my girlfriend, but i don’t include her here out of any obligation. She’s always been a great photographer but in the last year or so she’s really hit her stride with music portraits. She’s shot promo shots for all the hottest local acts: Damn Arms, Catcall, Midnight Juggernauts, Young and Restless, The Cops, Josh Pyke, Pnau and loads more.

She’s very inventive and excels at both elaborate studio set ups or a simply lit portrait. She’s has a knack for bringing even the most reserved characters out of their shells.

Warwick Baker

My DiscoTemper Trap

Melbourne based photographer Warwick Baker first got my attention when i saw his shots of My Disco. They’re a very heavy math rock act, yet he atypically photographed them in colour coordinated clothes amongst pot plants. Odd. He’s shot similarly excellent portraits of acts like Children Collide, Sarah Blasko and Temper Trap.

Like Angelo, Warwick is a film junkie. When i met him earlier this year he was raving about this ancient large format camera he’d been using lately and told me he didn’t own a digital camera. He’s a quiet and humble guy and his stillness and contemplative nature often comes through in his photos.

Nabil Elderkin

Kanye West
Silverchair

Nabil is the wild card here who most people wouldn’t know as a young Aussie music snapper, but he’s the granddaddy of them all. This Central Coast bred lad now lives in LA and has done portraits for the likes of Kanye West, Snoop Dogg, The Killers and Black Eyed Peas. He still keeps his hand in with Australian acts though, doing photos for Expatriate, Silverchair and Decoder Ring.

Nabil got my attention when i noticed his photo credit on a Silverchair photo and googled him. It wasn’t until i chatted with Ben King from Expatriate that i found out that Nabil was an Aussie expat, now working in LA.

He’s incredibly versatile and appears as at ease shooting gritty portraits of rock bands as he is the high gloss hip hop artists. One of the best in the business who’s risen well above his humble Australian origins.

10 Comments

  1. Thanks for the links and info, I’ll be looking all those photographers up soon and checking out their photos.

  2. I don’t often get the chance to check out other people’s work as I am so busy doing my own thing, I will have a look. Still tired from the Queenscliff Music Festival on the weekend after dealing with a camera that was playing up all weekend and still managing to see 35 bands in three days and take nearly 4000 photos.

  3. Always loved Nabil’s work.
    I agree with your statements about Cybele’s recent music shoots. They have been excellent.

  4. These guys are all very damn good. Probably would like to add Dane Beasly and Tali Conway to the list as well…..but yeh, Kane is an awesome photographer as is your better half, Cybele always produces great shots with a distinctive ‘Cybele’ styling..

  5. The sounds of silence…Music photographers are the only one’s who deal with the silent worlds of musicians hoping to capture this in an instant and reflect that back to the viewer in the hope they may at once recognise that person, feeling or mood as expressed through their music and performance.
    Thanks for keeping my informed of my fellow contemporaries,
    Ferne

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