Case Study - Dean Chalkley
Rising star and NME freelance Chalkley's shots of indie rock royalty were enough to net him the title of Portrait Photographer of the Year in 2006. Two solo exhibitions followed - Now Stand Tall, a collection of his images for NME and others, plus Southend Underground, a visual documentary of upcoming bands from his coastal hometown.
At the time of speaking Chalkley had a packed week - a day's studio shoot with New Young Pony Club followed by a stint on tour with ‘emotional rockers' My Chemical Romance - so who better to give advice on making it big in the business of music photography?
For band shoots Chalkley favours Holborn Studios in London, "because they've got an area that's a bit like a car park, which is unusual," he explains. He also set up a makeshift studio in a kitchen area at the soon-to-be-demolished Hammersmith Palais for the recent NME Awards, coaxing a performance from bands as they left the stage clutching awards.
Getting it right on the night obviously involves a different sort of pressure and energy to a normal day's studio shoot.
"I've done the awards for the past four years and it's quite something else," he admits. "It's a very surreal experience - not only due to the fact that we're in a small, cramped, smelly space, but also because we've evolved it over the years into an area people don't want to leave - because if they do they have to run the gauntlet of the world's press outside.
"But it is chaotic in that you don't know who's going to be coming into the studio next. The picture editor literally says ‘OK Dean, here's Franz Ferdinand' or, a couple of years back, ‘here's Paul McCartney'. There's also quite a lot of drink flowing on the night, so as well as having to shout at people you may only get literally five frames off them." Chalkley makes the point that it's important not to be thinking "one-dimensionally" when approaching a music shoot.
"I love drag racing, so some of the colour and energy from that feeds into my work." he says. "I also like fashion and Mods and rockers, which give me a different perspective on things. Most people think music photography is all about being in the pit and photographing a band on stage, and of course it can be, but it can be more than that as well." Getting images published in Dazed and Confused magazine while he was still at college inevitably gave Chalkley's nascent career some welcome early encouragement, which led to advertising shoots for Ben Sherman and various ‘youth orientated stuff'.
"That's what I'm about really," he adds. "I like anything that's a subculture or is perhaps on the periphery of society. It just so happens that music has penetrated into popular culture, but really I do like stuff that's on the edge."
