"If people sometimes tell me they can almost hear the music by looking at the photos, it’s the nicest of compliments."

Michel Verlinden: Emotions & Music Captured in the lens

Michael Verlinden is a Belgian photographer where his  lens has captured  the best feeling of the music. It is an example that the image is so strong and can transmit even the static of the vitality and emotion you feel while listening to music. Looking into various screens, I fell on some photos of Michael and impressed. The next step was to find him and talk.

"Born on februari 21 1954, I have led  an uneventful youth, went through primary and secondary  school without any problems. My first encounter with the blues was at age 12 and I listened to nothing else until I was twenty, no pop music for me, not even today. When I discovered Miles Davis's Bitches brew at the age of 20, I added Jazz and fusion to my interests and later a lot of different musical styles, but still no pop music. During my short stay (2 years) at university, I went to a lot of concerts, but could not buy expensive photo gear as a student. Later when I started to work,a few manual labour jobs before I got into air traffic control, a job I have been doing the rest of my working years until my retirement in 2009, I took up photography as a hobby. I was 22 and wasn't interested in a particular subject, but I always wanted to do the concerts I attended, but my then equipment wasn't good enough to make useful pictures from my seat in the audience, especially since at most concerts the audience was seated and It was not appreciated if you walked around during a concert. The shots I had from that period are, save but a few,  all lost. When my children were young all this was pushed a bit to the background, until digital photography started to make a useful appearance around the turn of the century and my interest was renewed. From then on I went again to more concerts and made some pictures were I was allowed. At present I attend between 100 and 120 gigs per year , if I bring my camera , the result can be seen on my pbase spot , with Vidar Busk as the latest addition."

Interview by Michael Limnios

Michel, when was your first desire to become involved in the photography? What does “photo” offered you?
When I was  about 15 years old, a local bluesclub owner and former neighbor of mine had a friend called George Adins, a reporter photographer, well known at the time for his photographs of (among others) Lightnin’ Hopkins. Since I was a great fan of Lightnin’, I asked Mr. Adins for a picture of lightning ‘. He rather rudely refused , so I decided that, one day, I would make good pictures myself .

What do you learn about yourself from the photography?  What characterize your work & progress?
That I’m a rather emotional person, the music I like and love can easily bring tears to my eyes and I try to bring emotion, that must certainly be felt by the musicians, into my photographs. Progress is mostly achieved by looking my own work over, looking for mistakes or why the pictures don’t convey the emotion I thought was there.

What are some of the most memorable shoots you've had?
I felt the most excitement when I was asked for the first time to cover a local three day bluesfestival, before that I only covered gigs at club concerts.

From whom have you have learned the most secrets about the image?
I learned the craft mostly by myself, that is the technical side of things, of course, I had the work of other photographers in mind, people whose work I admire, like Jos Knaepen, a Belgian jazz photographer. His black & white pictures display the atmosphere of a concert very well.

Which was the best moment of your career and which was the worst?
I hope the best is yet to come, the good moments go together with good music, sometimes musicians ask me after the concert if I made  any good pictures. My reply is “ if the music’s good, the pictures are good” as for bad moments, I recall once at a Jazz concert, I was asked to stop making pictures already after a few shots, because my camera was too noisy and people (1 person) complained about it to the management of the theater.

How does the music come out of your lens?
As mentioned above, it’s my love for the music that I like to bring into my work. I will never make pictures of a music style I do not like, as long as I get the occasional compliment from people that they can almost imagine what the music sounds like by looking at my photographs, I will go on.

Are there any memories of all GREAT MUSICIANS you meet which you’d like to share with us?
At festivals it is fairly difficult to really get in touch with the musicians and they are always surrounded by lots of people, therefore I do not pose with an artist for a picture as so many other photographers do. So I never had a conversation with any of the bigger names in the business.

Who from THE MUSICIANS you have shoot, had the most passion for the image & camera lens?
Some musicians seem to be hiding behind the microphone stands and make it hard to shoot good pictures, then there are artists like Ana Popovic who like to pose for photographers and only stay behind the micro when needed for the song. The ones that don’t care about cameras but play there music with passion, it’s them I like the most. Like Bryan Lee, Magic Slim, Imelda May, Jerry Ricks, Jason Ricci, Nick Moss or Dweezil Zappa to name just a few.

Would you mind telling me your most vivid memory from your shootings in gigs and festivals?
It must be the first time I was asked to cover the Peer blues festival here in Belgium, before that, I never took pictures at a festival and certainly not at request and for the festival management.

Which is your favorite photo? In which photo can someone see the best of your work?
I took my camera to more than 1200 gigs in the last 10 years , I saw concerts of Bo Diddley, David Honeyboy Edwards, Bill Perry, Luther Allison, B B king, so it’s difficult to select just one, but I can select a top ten, and those are mostly black & white . Many of them local (Belgian) or almost unknown musicians.  

 

How would you describe your contact to people, when you are “on the project”?
For me it is a rather lonely business, even when I’m frontstage with a lot of other photographers, I try to stay concentrated on what happens on stage so I will not miss that ultimate moment. Of course, between gigs at festivals there is time for a chat with other photographers. The subject is mostly our gear or problems with lighting on stage or how the stage is set up. At club concerts there is more contact with other people, both fans and musicians, certainly at my favorite bluesclub, the crossroads café in my hometown Antwerp where I hardly missed one or two concerts in ten years.

Which is the most interesting period in your life and why?
I hope it is still to come, but ever since I changed from analog to digital (about 10 years ago), it became possible to visit a lot more concerts then before and to experiment more without increasing costs. I’m not a professional so I cannot write off my equipment , never earned any money with a “photography assignment” or sold any pictures.

What advice would you give to aspiring photographers thinking of pursuing a career in the craft?
If you mean by career, to earn a living with it, I don’t believe it’s possible with concert photography only. It remains a passion, and then I would advise to start in a club where you have the time to experiment and learn from your mistakes, because the light will always be the same and you have time to learn about  aperture and shutterspeed iso settings, matrix or spot metering and all those settings that can make a big difference in the outcome. At festivals where the light is constantly changing you don’t have much time to worry about those settings .

What do you feel is the key to your success as a photographer?
What I described above, my love for the blues and some other kinds of music that combined with the wish to put some good pictures of musicians on my walls at home. The encouragement of other people about the emotion that my pictures contain.

BW or Colors, Digital or Film and why?
I f it was only up to me, it would be BW digital, because I feel that concert photography goes so well together with B&W and analog photography is now on it’s way out, I don’t dwell in the past. I may cling to the past where post processing is concerned; I will not apply any photoshop tricks that were not possible in the darkroom.

"A picture is worth a thousand words" it is certain…can music has image and the image to have notes?
If you have feeling for the music, I believe you can put music in your pictures, for instance, when I photograph a gig I try to catch the mood of the musicians at different moments during the gig and do this for all the members of the band. Drummers are sometimes difficult, because they tend to hide behind their gear and are located in the background. If people sometimes tell me they can almost hear the music by looking at the Photos, it’s the nicest of compliments.

How important is image to artists? To which person do you want to send one from your photos?
A difficult one, they often ask where they can see my work , and I’ll always give them the address of my spot on the web , only a few ever make use of any picture of mine , there are little more than 10 cd’s out there with some of my work on the cover. Some use it on their sites, but it’s mostly other people that handle a musician’s website and cards with site info, given at concerts, tend to get lost. I’ll mail original files to anyone who asks, so far I’ve send some to Bryan Lee, Annie Raines, Ryan Shaw and several local bands, also to magazines like Rootstime, back to the roots , or to Bruce Iglauer from Alligator records.

What is the strangest desire that someone have request in the shooting?
No strange requests so far, I get asked to go to a concert and deliver a series of pictures, without conditions, other than color or B&W or more landscape oriented pictures than portrait oriented

Which of the musicians were the most difficult and which was the most gifted on pickup lens?
Musicians that move a lot on stage are very difficult to catch, but give good results when caught , easiest are the ones who are fairly immobile and whose emotions or passion are constantly on their face and as said before, Miss Popovic likes to pose for the photographers, she’s an easy target.

What is your “secret” PHOTO DREAM?
I’d like to visit those regions in the USA where the blues is still alive, or at the big festivals over there. And at the local clubs.

Difficult question but, which artists have you worked with & which do you consider the best friend?
It often takes me time to become friends with anyone, so that would be musicians I see regularly, and that does not happen very often, if it does, it will be a local musician, like Howlin’ Bill, Big Dave and  Elmore D.There are several international musicians I know well enough to have a chat with when I meet them on some festival or at a club, but I can hardly consider them friends.

Of the entire musician you’ve meeting with, who do you admire the most?
That’s an easy one, Al Di Meola is my favorite artist, I know it’s not a blues or jazz musician and if I stick to that subject Muddy Waters and Big Joe Williams come to mind and if I stick to the still living, the Cash Box Kings for their wonderful 50’s sounding Chicago blues style , but also Steve Freund.

Who are your favorite blues & jazz artists, both old and new, would you like to meet and shoots?
The Allman brothers, Buddy Guy, Chris Beard, Larry McCray, Luther Johnson, Paul Geremia, Ronnie Earl, Tab Benoit to name just a few blues artists, as for jazz, Chick Corea, Return to forever,  Diana Krall,  John Abercrombie and Keith Jarrett. There are more, but most of the musicians I like the most are no longer with us, I’m glad I attended concerts by some of the greats like Muddy Waters,  Big Joe Williams, Eddie Taylor and Freddie King.

Some music styles can be fads but the blues is always with us.  Why do think that is?
Because a lot of other music styles owe a lot to the blues, like rock music and older pop music and it pleases me that a lot of young people discover these roots of more modern music and start to discover blues and jazz.As long as present day bands play old songs and one can direct young people to the origin of the song, they may discover the blues for themselves. Bands like the rolling stones that are still fairly popular never hid that their music was rooted in the blues.

What do you learn about yourself from the blues, what does the blues mean to you? Give one wish for the BLUES
I started to listen to the blues when I was twelve, a neighbor of mine, who was a musician, a blues guitar player named Willie Doni, introduced me to it. He used to accompany all the great blues artists in the sixties when they came to Europe for the American folk blues festivals. Some of these musicians stayed at his home for the duration and so one day he stood at my parent’s doorstep with Eddie Boyd, who played five long years on our piano and that was all it took for me. From then on it was a big part of my life, contrary to other kids who listened to the Beatles and pop, for me it was strictly blues, and I stayed oblivious to other kinds of music till I was in my twenties. So I can only wish that the blues may never die.

Which memory during of your shooting makes you smile?
I’m sure I smile a lot during concerts because as said before I like to choose the concerts I go to and those are always of musicians I like. Even they can disappoint sometimes but all the other times I have reason to smile, for being there close to the stage enjoying the music and saving the atmosphere with my camera.    

Is there any shooting made by mistake, but know you’re proud of?
None that I can call to mind, the opposite happened more often, pictures, that I thought when viewed on my camera, looked very good, good framing, lighting ok and the musician displaying the pose and emotion I was looking for. Then when looking on the pc at full size, the picture is not sharp for any number of reasons. That is very disappointing.

Michel Verlinden - Profile & Galleries

                                                                  Photo Credits: Michel Verlinden