Through the Lens: Photographers on Musicians
Austin Convention Center, Thursday, March 13Photographers and their photographs are kind of like your friends and their kids. The offspring are cool, but to hear parents talk about them is pretty goddamn boring. Don’t get me wrong, artwork is important stuff, and a great picture says as much or more than any song (exhibit A: Paul Natkin’s pic of Count Basie). Yet war stories behind the images just aren’t that interesting, especially when the majority of the panel was taken up by how each panelist got into the biz (almost uniformly by accident, happenstance, or lack of design). The best tidbit of the day came from Tom Wright, who laid claim to having gotten Pete Townshend stoned for the first time and then introducing him to American blues. Wright also toured with the Faces for almost six years and while his photo of Rod Stewart from that time was spectacular, let’s hear some rock & roll tell all. This isn’t to bag on the photogs; some of their work is really amazing. Just be glad they chose the vocation they did instead of, say, Toastmasters.
This article appears in March 14 • 2008.