If photos were music…

[matthew]

If your photos were music, what song, performer, group, or even genre would they be?

Is there a particular song that a favourite photograph evokes for you, or vice-versa?

When you listen to music, or any great sound, do you want to capture it in a photograph (or series)? What sound, and what sort of photograph?


(I do realize that we have a very literal bunch here, but let's see if we can take a little break from the technical side and play a little.)

[Pavel]

Smetana

(or perhaps the sound of silence?)

[Zig]

There's a sublime piece of music called Vide Cor Meum, which is Latin for "see my heart" and is by Patrick Cassidy.
Despite it being used primarily for the opera scene in Ridley Scott's Hannibal, it is a beautifullly-textured piece which incorporates one of Dante's sonnets to Beatrice, a yearning and unrequited love if ever there were one. It's here if you fancy a listen
Listening to this really seems to distil for the me the essence of the best of my Florence and Tuscany photos; I imagined this soundtrack as a backdrop when I went back to Florence(particularly San Miniato and Fiesole) and was really reaching for the picture-behind-the-shot.
This music will always be that which I tried to convey in those shots, particularly this one:

[nia]

Two names for me, Astor Piazzolla and Preisner Zbigniew...

[matthew]

You'd think I'd already know the answer to questions like this before I post them, but….

The melancholy and longing of Lou Reed's song "Coney Island Baby" was a big influence on my first trip to its namesake location, and it would be a huge compliment if a viewer could pick up that influence. (Not that the song has any specific reference to the location, but a lot of his music would actually suit the feel that I wanted with the Coney Island project.)

For most of my photos, I don't want to inspire music as much as simple sounds: the unending 60hz hum of electrical equipment, the clear ring of a drinking glass or a metal rail when it's hit, the clatter of things moving. I suppose I'm just urban (and unrhythmic) at heart, but I also enjoy the incidental sounds around me as just as much as the visual arrangement of objects.

For capturing music and being inspired by it, there's one particular project that I would love to be able to emulate. Afterquake was a project done by two American musicians to raise money for the victims of the 2008 earthquake that hit China's Sichuan province. Based on field recordings of children's songs and the sounds of the reconstruction, it went from concept to completion in a matter of weeks. I find it hugely inspiring as an example of what can be done with a small amount of basic but correctly-chosen equipment under impossible conditions when it's combined with a huge amount of talent and skill. (And as soon as I'm done perfecting the equipment choice part, I'll start working on the rest of it.)

[Zig]

Excellent, Matthew!
Given your attraction to 60-cycle hum and the like, I've decided you'd be our perfect band photographer...now, where was that 'plane ticket...?

[matthew]

Zig, I'm standing by the mailbox every day.

I listened to the music you picked while looking at your photo, and I have to say that it was a perfect match. While the music was still playing, I started looking through some of my own photos, and I have to say that the experience was rather jarring. Not a good match at all.

I'm going to have to think on this a bit more – making a conscious effort to interpret, or be inspired by, a particular piece or style of music might be an effective way to create a cohesive series.