Backstage | Pittsburgh | Pittsburgh City Paper: I regularly work with Quantum [Theatre], off the WALL, PICT. I worked for City Paper; we covered entertainment events and I was photographing performances as a staff person. That led to people asking me to do it as a freelance photographer.
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I think this article brings to light something as a manager, I would schedule but not necessarily think about goes into the skills and challenges of this artist. I think it is amazing to think about the instincts needed for a photographer to photograph a play that they don’t know and have never seen before. What is even more amazing is that looking through the archives of shows, photographers always seem to capture the perfect moments. Even when I’m stage managing it takes me a couple days of rehearsal to remember the flow of the show and even still, I have paperwork to help prompt me. Another thing that this article brings up is publicity photos for before the show is in tech. I experienced this for the first time this summer and I was amazed at how the photographer with a little help from the director got such amazing shots from a little improvisation moment. Theatrical photographers are real artists that deserve all the credit they can get for the amazing jobs they do.
In my opinion, photography is often a medium that gets highly overlooked. People constantly ask for lower prices from photographers without knowing all the time they put into their work. For instance, when I take photos I use my own camera just for fun. But I end up taking hundreds and a lot of times thousands of photos for a few hours of any event. After doing this, I upload them all to my computer where I use a photo selection software, select sometimes a few hundred photos to edit, and then spend hours to days editing the photos to my liking. Throughout this process there are many different ways to make the photos look, so when Heather Mull asks what the theme or genre of the play is, it's to recreate that look for the promotional photos. To be separate but a part of a show, taking photos for them, seems like a great experience and something to create a lot of fun with.
Photographing performances is an art itself. Of course, capturing the aesthetics of the show is important but how do you capture the emotional intensity of the show? What moments are the best to capture? These questions need to be made by the photographer in addition to the technical aspects of photography. It amazes me that photographers need to do this before the show has been staged, or have to just get right on it before they have seen the whole performance. That adds an entire layer of artistry, an instinct to be able to identify what are the right moments and how to capture the moods of certain scenes correctly. I personally did not know much about theatrical photographers before reading this article. Their job entails a whole lot of creativity and adaptability. Lots of respect for them and I think they need to be credited more in the industry and generally.
I have to admit that during most of the shows I watch I always catch myself looking at an interesting stage picture and saying “damn, someone should take a photo of that!”. Reading this article was extremely interesting because, as described by Heather Mull, the photographer is given little information about the show before they come in to photograph it. From that perspective, I think that it is interesting to hear so much about her process as a visual artist. I enjoyed how she spoke about keeping the scenes authentic, and not wanting to pause. From my perspective, I could imagine that getting overwhelming and hectic but she describes it as raw and real. (She mentions that when she feels this way she will run a scene again.) I think that capturing human beings is so powerful, and I enjoyed the way she spoke about taking and working with the actors and having that collaborative process.
This is a great article digging into the mind of a photographer, especially for live theatre. Heather Mull goes into a good amount of detail about her process and what is important for taking shots of live action movement onstage. I agree with Heather on shots that are taken in the moment are so much better than staged ones. Granted, I may not have the eye to tell one or the other apart unless I was in the room while the photos were being taken. Like Alexander mentioned above me, I do like the idea of publicity photos before technical rehearsals. It definitely gives the photographer an opportunity to feel the piece of theatre out so when they come in for the actual photo call, they can aim for the best shots possible. So much effort and energy is put into these shots, and a lot of us take that for granted.
Although many of the creators who work for theatrical performances value its ‘liveness’, there is no denying that they do have the moments that they wish to keep and remember forever. I had volunteered to take stage photographs in most of the shows that I had worked on, except for the ones which I was involved as an actress or a run crew. The reason is because it is always very frustrating when I check the photographs after the show closes and find out that my favorite moment was not captured. Nevertheless, taking a photo of constantly moving objects is extremely difficult. Theatrical photographers are required to select the effective, strong, and photogenic moments within the hours of performance. Therefore, I believe preparing for the shoots and having multiple opportunity is necessary. In addition, because this process of interpreting the performance and making decisions is left to the individual photographer, as Cecilia mentioned above, photographing performance can be considered as an art itself.
This might be one of the most stressful jobs in the world of theater, rivaling the work of performers and technicians alike. Going into a show blind and being able to capture important moments and emotion is a really special skill that should be given more credit than it often receives. Thinking back to theatrical reviews I've read, I notice now that I was always more concerned with the art being captured than the actual artistry that went into capturing those images. Not only is photography incredibly important for publicity, but having pictures that capture a design working together with other forms of design makes those images much more powerful when put in a portfolio. Overall, I think that theatrical photography, though the skillset may be niche, is a really under appreciated art form independent of theatrical work. Though I know from experience that photography calls can be a grueling experience for everyone involved, they are a really valuable resource to the success of a production.
Photographing live shows is one of the trickiest things that I have done. I usually have to do it literally right after I've gotten done working on a show for months. At that point, I am very much so attached to every little detail- from the paint treatment on the floor to the way I have dressed the bookshelf. I'm also thinking in the back of my head that in about two weeks, this whole thing is going to be gone forever. So I want to take a picture of every single inch of the set, from every single angle, whilst getting in wide shots and close up. The first show that I photographed, I had so many pictures but none of them were really decent enough to the point that I was proud to blow them up and put them in my portfolio because I had done that bad of a job at taking pictures. I hadn't thought about the lighting and the amount of it that my camera was receiving. I hadn't thought about the fact that the actors were always moving and how I should adjust my camera to receive the motion. I hadn't thought through what angles I should photograph from as the show was in a blackbox and it was in an intimate thrust orientation. There were many things that I hadn't thought about. I thought I could just take pictures and it would be fine. But no. I had a ton of crappy photos, and the scenery was in a dumpster by the point I had gone through the pictures. Needless to say, I learned a lesson, and I have great appreciation for the art of photographing live shows.
The process of taking photos without knowing the context and trying to capture a whole mood of a production when just walking into it sounds insane, but I also think it makes it even more powerful. So often interesting stage pictures can draw the eye and make the intensity of a situation seen through that dynamic position. I think the photos that are captured are a responsibility of both the photographer and the director, to make sure important moments are realized to their fullest extent. I think it would be really cool to work as a photographer for theatre. Over the summer I got to see the media and photography team in action as they captured the operas in their rehearsal and tech phases, and they had similar views to the article, but had more time and more contact with the teams who they were capturing images for. It is great to hear about the fulfillment that is also received by the photographer, because ultimately, that is one of the most important parts, second to getting good photos of course.
The role of any sort of artists that is archiving or documenting a production is actually overwhelmingly critical to preserving the history of stories, artists, and theatres. It is quite a daunting task. Understanding how to capture the life that is literally the point of theatre in an image is a true art form. Being responsible to capture the emotion that theatre evoke in a still image is terrifying. You need to have a solid understanding of the devices being used to evoke those emotions as well. In order to capture the right angles of those critical moments, you have to understand the significance and dynamics created by their blocking, be able to see how the bodies relate to the scenery, the media, and the lighting, and understand how their costumes guide that movement. As most photographers really do just walk into a theatre with no knowledge of what will unfold before them, they have to be able to anticipate what movements will come. On top of paying attention to their own techniques, processes, and equipment, they have to be paying attention to the show itself, to know when we are at critical moments. I am in awe of all they do to support our art.
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