Welcome to our newest Zone: “Big Shots.” The title refers not only to the extremely talented music photographers we feature each time, but also to the six photographs each photographer chooses to showcase their skills.
We invite amazing camera creatives from around the world – from veteran guys and gals whose images of iconic famous bands and artists have been seen globally for decades, to new and exciting young professionals who are star snappers of the future, and the best of today’s most respected names in music photography – to choose half a dozen shots from their own archive, and tell us why they chose each picture.
The photographs they choose can be live concert and/or festival shots, portraits and/or candid backstage/hotel images. We also give a brief bio of each photographer.
First up to kick off this new series of features is West Midlands-based Jason Sheldon of Junction10 Photography.
BIO:
Walsall-based Jason Sheldon is well known in the music photography world and by music PRs, record labels, music management and many bands and artists themselves. His live, portrait and promo’ photographs have been published globally in newspapers, magazines, on-line, books, album covers and for marketing/merchandise.
His clients include Abbey Road Studios, Live Nation, Neil Diamond, Jerry Seinfeld, Priscilla Presley, Jonathan Van Ness, Daniel O’Donnell, Tony Christie, Black aka Colin Vearncombe, Kennedy Street Artists, B:Music (Birmingham Town Hall and Symphony Hall), AEG and Universal Music Enterprises. Jason graduated with an M.A. in photography during the summer of 2023.
After a successful career in the computer games industry, Jason started music photography in 2006 with The Charlatans at Wolverhampton Civic Hall. Less than six months later he had photographed Elton John, Eric Clapton, Radiohead, Status Quo and the Eagles. He became the music photographer for the UK’s biggest regional ‘paper, The Express and Star newspaper.
Jason is a champion for many professional photographers who have their work used without a licence/payment. His own legal battles after his copyright has been breached has seen widespread media coverage and prompted him to buy the company IP Protection Ltd, to represent other photographers on a no win no fee basis. Jason runs that business as Managing Director, alongside his photographic work.
He also attracted worldwide media coverage in 2015, when publicly calling out Taylor Swift for what he saw as hypocritical behaviour, after she was protesting at Apple not paying artists for streaming their music for a three month trial period, but at the same time she had a photo release contract which all photographers had to sign to be able to shoot her concerts, which contained a “rights grab”.
It meant she could use any photograph without payment, but the photographer was not allowed to use their own photos of her more than once. Her management issued statements after the media picked up on the story, in response to Jason’s open letter to her in his blog, and eventually changed the contract after many media outlets refused to cover her concert because of the document.
Jason has chosen images of Charlie Watts, Blue Man Group, Ke$ha and LMFAO, Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler, Christina Aguilera and Status Quo.
Image 1: Charlie Watts, Coventry 2018.
Jill Furmanovsky is one of the reasons I became interested in music photography, as I was a huge fan of The Police and admired Jill’s candid backstage work and thought back then what a fantastic job that must be. Jill’s profile shot of Rolling Stones’ drummer Charlie Watts for Q Magazine is one of my favourite shots of Charlie and by Jill.
I got the chance to shoot The Stones on Charlie’s 77th Birthday, 2nd June 2018, at Coventry’s Ricoh Arena. It’s not as up close and personal as Jill’s shot – but considering I’m about 120 feet away from the stage and balanced precariously on a rickety kitchen stool at the end of the stage thrust [‘cat walk runway’,] it’s still one of my favourite shots. It has an intimacy about it; almost like a posed portrait and just him and photographer/camera present. Not thousands of fans, the band and crew around him.
Image 2: Blue Man Group, Birmingham 2017.
I was hired to produce the promotional shots for a handful of shows the Blue Man Group were doing in Birmingham. With the theme being, “The Deep Blue Sea” and the National Sea Life Centre being across the street from the venue, it seemed the obvious location. I was told in advance that I couldn’t use flash because of the fish – which posed a problem as the glass tunnel area in which we were going to shoot [which goes through the middle of a huge aquarium] had no ambient light, except for what was filtered from above the aquarium.
I managed to source one of those big 4’ LED light panels they use for TV production. But when we went to set it up, we were told we couldn’t plug anything in to the sockets as it was a trip hazard. I started to panic. It was pitch black and I had The Blue Man Group and their entourage all staring at me. One of the entourage got their phone out. Maybe to text how unprofessional this shoot was turning out to be, but as they typed on their phone I noticed their face illuminated by the screen. That gave me the idea that saved the day. I asked everyone to put their phone torches on, put the Blue Man Group into position and then moved every phone into place to illuminate the scene. The only challenge left after that was trying to white balance the image!
Image 3: Christina Aguilera, Birmingham 2006.
Image 4: Status Quo: Cannock Chase, Staffordshire 2008.
I was shooting Quo at one of the outdoor summer Forestry Concerts for my local newspaper, and I asked the band’s tour manager if I could get a couple of shots from the back of the stage, so I could show some the crowd. He agreed to escort me, once I’d done my three songs in the pit. When we reached the top of the stairs to the stage and he swung the tarpaulin sheet open for me to go through, I started to crouch and try to get a decent angle. At that moment, he tapped me on the shoulder and motioned me to follow him…
He put me right behind Quo’s drummer and said: “There you go.” I stayed for almost an entire song, trying desperately not to topple into the drummer; waiting for the perfect moment where Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt would come together in the centre of the stage. They didn’t! But Francis and bassist John “Rhino” Edwards spotted me, no doubt wondering who the f*** I was and how the f*** I got to that spot on stage. That shot made the front page.
Image 5: Ke$ha and LMFAO, Birmingham 2011.
I was hired to shoot Ke$ha and LMFAO together for a promo’ shot for their upcoming North American tour together. I asked if we could do something on the tour bus. When I saw the lounge area I asked them to mess around a while and I fired off a few shots. I asked Ke$ha if she’d pose with the bottle of champagne I spotted, as if she was about to open the bottle. She said: “Why pretend? Get ready!”, then she popped the cork. As the fountain of foam erupted from the bottle, she put the bottle up to her mouth and poured the champagne over herself, before laying across the laps of Redfoo and Sky Blu of LMFAO.
A few months later someone got in touch to say they’d seen the photo on posters and banners outside a UK venue. Someone at the venue had seen the image on social media and believed it was free to use, so they included it in marketing assets to promote the club. After a lengthy legal battle for copyright infringement, it got to the High Court in London and eventually was settled for £20,000 [with no judgement on liability], after their initial offer of £150 for unlimited use of my work.
Image 6: Steven Tyler (Aerosmith), Download Festival 2010.
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More “Big Shots” coming very soon…
Festival crowd from the ‘big wheel’ photo [top of page] credit: Katja Ogrin
