Visualized spotlights visual artists in the music world.
Photographers and videographers—the unsung heroes of the consumable music industry. They have the ability to capture everything from the grand intensity to the subtle quirks of a live concert experience and filter it down to timeless fragments of tangible memory. Brian Hamelman is one such hero with a gift for blending raw emotion with post-show whimsy, while maintaining a sense of unique personality with his art-form. Brian was kind enough to share some words on his methods, as well as plenty of eye-candy from his recent trek with glam pop-rockers Mirror Kisses and dark disco-conjurors Outlands.
When I take photographs at live shows, I like to put myself in the position of the audience as much as possible. I try to take photos that people can look at and feel like they were apart of the crowd, documenting the comradery and inebriation of the night. Shots may have been taken mid-air, while dancing, or violently thrashing amongst all the party-people. Currently, I’ve been working with Mirror Kisses, Outlands, and other friends. It’s great hanging with friends on photo shoots while blasting Prefab Sprout and high-fiving. The tour videos were the epitome of hang time. The videos were shot by everyone around, not just one person, which led to a more organic representation of our experience on the road. For this we used my classic Sony HandyCam Hi-8 video camera that I used in high school to film skateboarding videos. When I am not shooting live shows, I use a Mamiya RB 67 and alternate between 120mm and Polaroid backs.
Outlands:
Mirror Kisses:
Dreams West:
Other works:
Mirror Kisses — Bad Dreams cover art:
Mirror Kisses:
Eternal Summers:
Mirror Kisses:
You can follow Brian and all of his wonderful visuals at brianhamelman.tumblr.com.
