The night of October 11 was memorable for me for a number of reasons, one of them being that I got the chance to see one of my favorite bands, The Naked and Famous, live. The venue was Terminal 5, the time was somewhere around 10pm, the band was playing the title track off their new album In Rolling Waves, and I just knew it was the right moment to take a photo. There was a vitality and an energy pulsing through the room that was so tangible. The frontwoman, Alisa Xayalith, had asked the audience to sing the chorus along with her, the simple three words “in rolling waves”, and it added a level of community and interaction between the band and the audience that broke down any walls of separation. The audience members, myself included, were singing at the top of their lungs, hands in the air in a common expression of the intensity of the moment and the unity we all shared–strangers connected by a love for this band.
What I really love about this photo–and the concert as a whole–is the lighting. As the photographer, I didn’t have to worry about staging the lighting correctly to take a good picture; the lighting crew at Terminal 5 had gratefully done that for me. The lighting at this show was absolutely phenomenal, changing with the moods of the songs, and even with the individual rhythms and beats of each measure. The individual spotlights present in the photo I took were even positioned in an almost rule of thirds manner, with none being directly in the center of the stage, but rather off-center and positioned to point outwardly in different directions. I liked the gray, cloudy haziness of the stage below that allowed the lights to pierce through clearly and sharply, creating a direct and powerful contrast. I was particularly pleased with the rainbow-like effect the reflection of the lights created on the gray background below, adding an almost magical dimension of color.
I really wanted to capture the intensity of this single moment, which is why I chose to frame the photo by including the audience’s hands and heads at the bottom. I wanted the viewer to feel as if he/she were in the audience at the moment the photo was taken, as I was. It provides a sense of immediacy that gives more raw emotion to the photo. It was important to me in taking this photograph that there be dramatic contrast and imagery, but also a certain degree of accessibility. As someone who adores the inexplicable feeling of being at a concert, I wanted to be able to share the experience through this photograph. There is something uniquely New York City about the concert scene and there seemed nothing more fitting to take a picture of for Snapshot Day.
