Part of my ever-evolving mission here on the blog is to explore the many unorthodox paths people take on the road to becoming “photographers”. I’ve just use quotes for photographers, but I don’t necessary mean it in a condescending way just yet. The term Photographer is growing more ambiguous each day, and that is a conversation for another day, but for the purposes of this article, we’ll just accept the definition as “Person who takes pictures”.
People who take pictures come from all vocations, cultures and walks of life. Some had intended to do so very early on, making photography their ultimate goal and life’s work, while others stumbled upon photography later in life as a hobby to supplement their careers as doctors, lawyers, farmers, janitors, police officers, and the hundreds of other positions that are completely unrelated to capturing images.
Moby (a.k.a. Richard Melville Hall), best known for his widely successful 1999 album Play, has been making music since the tender age of 9. After being trained in classical guitar and percussion as a child, we went on to play in a number of punk-rock bands in his teens and early twenties. In the 90’s he collaborated in one form or another with such famous artists as Michael Jackson, The Prodigy, Britney Spears, Metallica, etc. Since then, he has produced a number of studio albums, as well as original music for films and video games. Moby is what we call a beast in the music industry. If you make music, any kind of music, you know who this man is and you’d love to be able to work with him. You’d love to have even one track on your next mediocre album or film say “produced by Moby”.
His latest album Destroyed has been in production since early 2010. At the time, Moby mentioned that it will be a bit of a departure from his usual electronic tendencies, in favor of a more acoustic feel. It was later reported that with the album release, there will also be an accompanied photo book by the same name. Is that so? As you may have expected, this announcement tickled my curiosity, and then the question begged to be asked: What kind of pictures does Moby take?
Pretty good ones. I had the chance to visit yesterday’s opening reception at the Clic Bookstore and Gallery downtown, where a couple dozen of Moby’s 16X20 prints were on display. The collection of shots attempts to tell a story of the nomadic and isolated musician. The touring life is filled with manic highs and lows. One minute you’re a god on a heart-pounding stage filled with pyrotechnics and 50,000 screaming fans. And a couple hours later, you’re lying in an unfamiliar bed, in a strange hotel room with a questionable view of the foreign terrain you’re briefly visiting. The next day, you do it all over again a couple thousand miles away. The photos were bookmarking Moby’s moods during the tour.
Apparently, Moby has been carrying a camera around for as long he’s been making music, but we all know which hobby he took more seriously. And it is for this reason that I cannot recommend the purchase of his photo book to anyone but die hard Moby fans. I understand that for every successful entertainer, there will always be an instant market for “what if I tried doing ________.” Fill in the blank with whatever seemingly unrelated side project you can think of. Sometimes it works. Some musicians have become very successful, even Oscar-worthy actors. But the thing is, these guys weren’t very good at making music to begin with, so the transition may have exposed their true calling. (cough cough Marky Mark, Will Smith, cough cough)
Like I said, Moby’s photos are pretty good, but there’s nothing cutting edge about any one in particular, except for maybe the album cover shot taken in La Guardia Airport, which has a bit of an ominous 2001 Kubrick feel. In fact, had I not known the story behind them, or the person who made them, they’d be very easily dismissed on Flickr without a second glance. There’s no particular wow factor and they certainly don’t speak a thousand words. Perhaps eight hundred, which is incidentally the number of dollars you’ll need to shell out in order to own an original framed Moby photograph.
But don’t take this snobby photographer’s word for it. Head over to the gallery and decide for yourself. The show will be on display until June 26th at the Clic Bookstore and Gallery, 255 Centre Street, New York City.
As you say, nothing jaw-droppingly good apart from that cover photo (if squinting at the pictures on the wall in your photos is anything to go by). It also helps if you’re in environments where someone else has done the stage and set design for you. And crowd shots are difficult to get wrong. Now, putting on a long lens and going into the crowd is a different matter….
Great points!