Glen E. Friedman’s First Lesson For Music Photographers

Glen E. Friedman has been keeping it real for quite a while now. His photography, often focused on skateboarding, punk and hip hop, puts his musical subjects in the subcultural contexts of which he is himself a part. 20 years after "Fuck You Heroes," one of the great art publishing houses, Rizzoli, has released "My Rules," described by Dan Buyanovsky in Fader as a "stunning, 324-page time capsule of counterculture's most revealing moments." And he's got a key photo tip for budding music photographers.

Glen E. Friedman is somebody who matters. I almost feel like going Lefsetz on you and wandering through the various points in space and time Friedman connects for me.

Instead, let me point you to an awesome interview with Friedman by Dan Buyanovsky which includes this great tip for music photographers:

DB – "What's your approach to getting artists to a comfortable place where their personality and character can shine through in a photograph?"

GEF – "That's very, very easy, and that may be one of my simple first lessons if I was to teach a photography class: I went to where people were comfortable."

"I went to their neighborhood. I went and hung out with them, and asked them where they would like to hang out…So I speak to the artist, 'Where do you feel comfortable? Where would you like to do this?' Then I say, 'This is where I would like to do it. This is what I think. Let's walk around, let's hang out.'"

"It really disturbed me, when I started to shoot hip-hop, that so many people took rap artists to the studio. To me, it's all about the person and their environment…I don't know if it was because [other photographers] were afraid to go to the hood or that just wasn't the way they photographed, but as far as I was concerned, taking rap artists and putting them in a photographic studio is just wack…"

"What the fuck are you doing? The culture is so rich and so much of it comes from the street and from the hood. Why the fuck would you want to take someone out of the hood to take their picture?"

Why indeed?

Amazon – My Rules

[Thumbnail image: Cover of My Rules.]

Hypebot Senior Contributor Clyde Smith (@fluxresearch) recently launched DanceLand. Send news about music tech startups and services, DIY music biz and music marketing to: clyde(at)fluxresearch(dot)com.