Portraits of Alicia Keys, American singer and songwriter, at the Global Citizen Festival, an annual music festival to raise awareness and take action on global issues like poverty, inequality, and climate change.
For these images of Alicia Keys I was fortunate enough to have both front of house and also backstage access; nb a performance is directed outwards to the crowd, which means while backstage is a privileged position, the chance of a meaningful image is lower than the front of house position because most of the engagement by the performer is aimed in the opposite direction.
While the above image is not a photograph of Alicia performing, I still love this as an example of music photography. While she is not dominant in the frame, this image in an image is all about her. It is possible to discern from the context, including elements such as scaffolding on camera left and the tape with writing on the screen, that the image has been taken backstage and this monitor is showing a feed of the performance (mere feet away) with the piano and her band in the background. The image does not always have to be about what is in front of you.
This image, of the crowd reacting to Alicia Keys, was memorable; having been at the front of house for three songs, I was walking away from the performance when the reflection of the Global Citizen logo, reflected in the sunglasses of this fan, caught my eye. I remember stopping and having a quick conversation, giving him direction to ensure that he was looking in the right direction at the right angle before taking this frame. It is also worth mentioning the change in light during Alicia’s time on stage. When she first strode onto the stage, it was daylight; by the time she finished, it was dusk, thus the key lighting source for this image is from the onstage (red) lights.
