I have traveled extensively between Europe and South Africa to find an answer that is elegant, succinct and practical. And during my travels I've discovered that there are essentially two approaches to best visually depict an audible art form. The first approach is the live performance depiction. Here a musician is photographed in a performance setting such as a festival or event. The objective is
to capture the impact the artist's music is having on his or her environment. Typically, this includes a selection of shots that show the artist with their instrument while they are performing on stage in front of an audience. Key aspects that need to be paid attention to is setting and ambiance. Setting relates to permanent fixtures such as stage structure and set decorations. Ambiance focuses more on variable features such as lighting, choreographed stage performances and of course the emotional response of the audience. These elements combined with subtle post production techniques make for truly vivid imagery. The second approach is a bit more abstract and requires a basic understanding of musical, art and motion picture theory. Here the photographer uses an academic approach to create a visual world that elicits the same emotional response as the musical composition. The audience needs to visually comprehend the emotional journey the music is about to take them on. My extensive academic track record and wealth of practical experience has lead to the successful execution of more than a thousand visual assignments within the music industry.
