Shooting Joyful Noise
If you have come this far, then you must also share a similar appreciation for live music. What started out as an infatuation in 2001, when I snapped my first ever concert photo of U2’s Bono with a Nikon F100 film camera, has turned into a full-blown obsession that I cannot assuage - - - no matter how many live shows that I attend.
Some of you may be wondering, “What is PIT PERSPECTIVES?” Simply put, PIT PERSPECTIVES is my live music brand that specializes in chronicling concerts in pictures and in words. PIT PERSPECTIVES contributes complete concert review coverage to highly regarded media outlets of the genre, including NYS Music, Sonic Perspectives and BraveWords, and is responsible for coordinating our own show reporting arrangements directly with the band’s publicist, concert promoter or venue.
PIT PERSPECTIVES has been inspired by countless photographers and journalists since our start in the music business more than 20 years ago, all of whom fostered our ambition in the pursuit of our passion. However, photographer Charles Peterson and journalist Lester Bangs top the list with their incomparable body of work. Peterson’s enduring, full-frame captures from the Seattle “grunge” music scene in the late-1980s to the early-1990s speak to me on a guttural level, pushing me to work harder each time I am fortunate enough to find myself back in the photo pit. Bangs was a leading influence in rock music criticism during his all too short career from 1969 to 1982, forever immortalized in Cameron Crowe’s 2000 film Almost Famous, as portrayed by the late great actor Philip Seymour Hoffman. Among the countless accolades Bangs received for his rock criticism, his live review of Iggy Pop at the Cobo Arena in Detroit (New Musical Express, November 5, 1977) is my absolute favorite piece of rock journalism.
In the coming months, you can expect new content from PIT PERSPECTIVES, including live show blogs, featured galleries, interviews, a shop for ordering prints and much more. So please be sure to stop by again!