HAMMERDOWN FESTIVAL 2022
Find out more about Hammerdown here
People of the south coast rock and metal scene will likely know this guy,
followers of my photography may recognise him, too (from a previous
post)... Harry White, the person behind Hammerdown Festival. This
photograph is one of my favourites from those I made at the event. I think
it's a good representation of the vibe of the whole Hammerdown weekend,
and shows the level of appreciation from the crowd for his efforts in
organising it... these things simply don't happen if the audience aren't
having a good time!
The photo is part of a collection of favourite images I made at Hammerdown.
From before the doors opened on the Saturday to the final band on Sunday
I approached my time at Hammerdown with the mindset that if I saw something
that felt artful to me I would photograph it, in whatever way felt right
to best convey the moment. For those that ask for some insight into my
approach and process then hopefully the following words will provide some
indication of that, but mostly I hope they'll encourage people to spend
a little more time with the images and the photoset as a whole.
I tried to think about each image artistically, avoiding the natural tendency
to overshoot when faced with fast action, and allowed myself the time
to find a rhythm, compose accordingly and be patient. I tried to introduce
a more documentorial tilt to the on-stage artist portraiture by consciously
making the stage environment more of a feature of the images and I tried
to convey some of the emotion and feel with each image. Sometimes this
meant I saw the abstract, too, and for those I made time to 'create' the
image how my mind's eye envisioned it. The freedom I had to just enjoy
the event in this way with my camera was a privilege I'm very thankful
for.
Without that kind of freedom it is unlikely I would have created the image
above... titled After the Wall of Death. It was made during The Five Hundred's
show and consists of action from 15 photos taken over a 35 second period
of time, overlaid onto a base image which I then tonally balanced using
dodging and burning techniques.
From the abstract to the documentorial I was happy just going where my
mind took me... I loved the light in the next image presented here, the
sweet-seller sitting at his table during a moment of quiet before the
main doors opened for the event. It's one of a few images I made "before
doors" where I took the opportunity to document some things that
caught my eye while the venue was empty of an audience.
The photoset starts with more images from this time before the crowds
arrived, and also some I made a little later between band sets. I felt
they acted well as a way to help set the overall scene and add another
dimension to the photoset as a whole. Included are small details that
interested me, people carrying out last minute preparations or generally
hanging around while waiting for a band to start, the kind of things that
one might overlook when one's mind is focused more towards photographing
the band performances.
I didn't feel there was enough of these off-stage images to make a photoset
of their own, but I did think there was a place for them as part of the
wider set, and anyway I wanted to show a little something of that side
of things, too. I think their effect is subtle, which I like. I think
they create a gentle contrast to the more dynamic nature of many of the
performance photographs. As the photoset progresses the emphasis changes
much more towards the action on stage.
Of course, one of my favourite things is to photograph artists performing.
Photography of the performance can often be far more instinctive, especially
when lighting changes quickly and musicians are in constant movement.
There is simply less time to think, but even so, I was mindful of details
and artful composition in line with my general ideas about how photography
should be. As mentioned, I tried hard to include a sense of the performance
space, and the artist's place within it.
Working independently, I didn't feel obligated to try to photograph every
performer. Of the artists I did photograph, I wasn't even concerned about
whether the images rendered them recognisable! My only interest was that
I wanted each photograph to feel artistic to me. Without that mindset,
I wouldn't have made an image such as the one above featuring the legs
of the frontman from the band Caine.
And this highlights a fundamental change in my post-Covid-19 mindset.
Who owns the legs is largely irrelevant I think, unless they happened
to belong to someone famous. Even so, I find the most famous of people
still remain unknown by large swathes of the population, and fame can
be such a short-lived situation, too. I have come to believe that most
people have very little real interest in portraits of strangers, and this
applies in many ways to live performance images too. The challenge is
to make images that people can connect with on a level that is irrespective
of the person portrayed. Once a connection has been made further interest
in those depicted grows from that.
I think the strongest connections are made when an image elicits an emotional
response of some kind, perhaps one that mirrors something captured within
the viewed image. Photographing humanity and all its intangible apsects
is a continuing fascination for me, and I love music for its ability to
bring such elements out of people. I hope that whoever sees the Hammerdown
photoset will feel a sense of those emotions, in some of the photographs
particularly, and across the wider set more generally.
The venue created a fantastic backdrop for the on-stage action, an architecturally
beautiful space that I wanted to include as much as I could. Venues aren't
usually so attractive so darkness is normally preferable but here I was
happy that large windows flooded the room with light for much of the day.
It helped define the space and I think also added another layer of interest
to the images.
I appreciate the time taken to read this introduction, and for those spending
time to properly look at my images (despite the low resolution I present
them at online) I thank you greatly. I do hope they are worthy of more
than just a passing glance.
Thank you to Harry and the Hammerdown team for a great festival, and for
allowing me the freedom to add my own photographic stamp to this event.
View
the Hammerdown 2022 Photoset.
(Published 23/10/2022)
© GREIG CLIFFORD.
ALL IMAGES ARE SUBJECT TO COPYRIGHT LAWS.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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