Portraits of Ben Bridwell, lead singer of the American rock band Band of Horses at the inaugural Global Citizen Festival organised by Hugh Evans, an annual music festival to raise awareness and take action on global issues like poverty, inequality, and climate change. I believe it was the first music event given permission to be held on the Great Lawn in Central Park, NYC.
At the time I was working for a title which was a sponsor to the festival so was given reasonable access for the entirety of the festival. For the soundcheck, which was a relatively casual affair, I was photographing onstage with the band while I ended up in the pit for the actual concert with time restricted to the three song rule. The rule is you’re allowed up front for the first three songs of the set and then cameras down/ leave the pit/ sent away. It supposedly originates from the 80s when Bruce Springsteen walked off stage at Madison Garden after being blinded by flashbulbs from an over-stuffed pit.
In today’s culture with camera phones aplenty in the crowd and most (if not all) photographers not using flash, I find it is an odd rule to uphold, even if I also believe that if you can’t get a reasonable photo in the first three songs, you shouldn’t be there. My sticking point is potentially missing ‘that’ shot which may happen later in the set.
Either way, it was great both to capture the smaller moments, up close and personal, of Ben Bridwell during the soundcheck and also the more expressive gestures towards to crowd during the performance. I’m pretty sure I have a playlist of songs from the festival somewhere around here…
