A good friend of mine reached out to me recently with a quandary. He was penciling in a photo shoot for his band, and he was looking for location suggestions here in New York City. I think he was expecting me to fire back a laundry list of suitable spots, but instead, I penned a windy rumination (who? ME??) about the particular challenge.
For a start, I suggested, it depends on what sort of vibe or impression you're trying to cultivate. And with whatever image you envision projecting, the pitfalls are myriad.
The biggest challenge, to my mind, is how to do it with a degree of taste and aftfulness and simultaneously avoid cliché. I mean, think back over the countless iconic photographs and album covers by your favorite New York City bands. I can't think of a specific New York City landmark that hasn't, at one points or another, already been used in a promotional band photo.
The played-out variations are numerous. Many attempt to connote an affinity to a specific locale by posing in front of it. Witness the amount of bands who were captured posing insouciantly in front of CBGB. Similarly, picking a storied strip of notorious real estate can come back and haunt you. For example, can you think of a more tired stance than being pictured in Times Square? It's been done to death.
Sure, Chinatown is cool and mysterious and exotic, but it too has been overdone. Similarly, I'd avoid posing in front of some cool, colorful street art (unless you and your band have spray-painted that street art yourselves). Posing in front of graffiti or urban squalor or burnt-out building...it's all cliché .
The flipside of that coin, of course, is that even though you're in New York City -- one of the most cinematic, imagination-firing cities on the face of the earth -- it simply doesn't really LOOK like New York City anymore. Where once there were cool, atmospheric vacant lots (like the one I shot above as recently as 2002), there are now Chase Bank outlets. Where once there were forbidding, dark alleys, there are now artisinal donut shops and boutique hotels. The New York City of Travis Bickle and Richard Hell and Fab 5 Freddie and Lydia Lunch and the Contortions and the Cro-Mags and the Beastie Boys....well, blame Bloomberg and Carrie Bradshaw, but it just doesn't look the same anymore.
Also, don't pose on a subway platform. Seriously, unless you're a bona fide busker, it's now one of the lamest pictures you could take. Simon & Garfunkel, The Ramones, Anthrax, Token Entry.... they all beat you to it.
So, ultimately, I wasn't really all that helpful. I told my friend to be inventive and curious and explore.
Where would YOU suggest?
Recent Comments