Beyoncé standing on stage in a yellow sweatshirt, denim cutoff shorts, and white fringe boots. She is holding a microphone in her right hand and has her left resting on her hip. There is a marching band sitting on risers below her all wearing matching yellow uniforms and holding their instruments. Behind Beyoncé there are sparks falling from the rafters above her.
The 2023 Music Issue The Music Issue

Music Perspectives

Crowd Pleaser

Over the years Whalebone has been lucky enough to come into contact with some of the better music photographers out there—live music to album covers to portraits. But for our third edition of The Music Issue, we’re focusing on the live music scene and asking the likes of the industry’s best what live music means to them and their thoughts on the feeling of live music. Listen listen, this is the good part.

Black and white photo of a man in the middle of a jump to crowd surf. The man jumping is not wearing shirt but is holding a wired microphone. The crowd below him all has their hands up in preparation to catch him. Around the top of the photo is lots of motion blur as the camera attempts to capture the high energy moment.

Sacha Lecca // @sachalecca

Charlie Steen on Shame

Live performance is music’s apotheosis. It’s a special thing to be present in a crowd feeding the energy of an artist or band that is giving you everything. It is healing, and the feeling stays with you always.

Image from behind a stage facing out towards the audience. The edges of the stage are lined with amps, speakers, lights, and other stage props. The center of the stage has a long catwalk stretching in to the middle of the arena. There is a singer in the middle of the stage grasping on to a microphone with their knees bent and leaning backwards. The arena is jammed packed with people on all sides and tons of confetti fill the frame so you almost cannot see the audience.

Todd Owyoung // @toddowyoung

x Japan

For me, live music feels like the closest thing we get to experiencing magic in our daily lives. From the hushed anticipation before the show to the thrilling roar of a sold-out crowd. The exhilaration of hearing the first notes of your favorite song. And feeling like you belong even among a sea of strangers. All of these feelings and more add up to fleeting experiences, but ones that have the power to stay with us long after the encore. For me, that’s pure magic.

Beyoncé standing on stage in a yellow sweatshirt, denim cutoff shorts, and white fringe boots. She is holding a microphone in her right hand and has her left resting on her hip. There is a marching band sitting on risers below her all wearing matching yellow uniforms and holding their instruments. Behind Beyoncé there are sparks falling from the rafters above her.

Mel D. Cole // @meldcole

Beyoncé

To me, live music is everything. Going to see Common way back in 2002 at SOB’s in NYC birthed my photography career. Hip-hop is and will forever be the love of my life. So in this 50th year of the culture that I love so much, I would like to say thank you for everything. Without hip-hop who knows where I would be today.

Arial view of a crowd standing around close to another. Some of them have their arms raised in the air, others are clapping, and some are holding up cameras. There is confetti falling on the crowd and there are blue lights shining on everyone giving the image a blue tint.

Ashley Osborne // @ashleyosborne

Twenty One Pilots

At a very young age, I realized that live music was where I felt most at home: it was my safest place. In 2009, when I was 17, I finally met a photographer who explained to me what a photo pass was. That day, hanging on the rails of the barricades at a Paramore show, planted the seed for my dream of photographing live music. From that moment forward, all I wanted was to photograph the artists I loved and tell their stories. Being surrounded by live music is the reason why I am who I am, it is the heart of my operation. It is the one place as a collective we come together to heal and escape.

Black and white photo of three men on stage performing a song together. The two men on each of the sides are playing the bass and electric guitars and their arms are blurred in the motion of energetically strumming the instruments. The man in the middle is singing in to a microphone on a stand and there is one ma in the background playing the drums. There are a bunch of stage lights shining down on the band from up in the rafters.

Bob Gruen // @bob_gruen

The Clash

There is often a feeling of anarchy when thousands of people are gathered, each free and expressing themselves in their own way with four or five musicians at the center. Nothing compares to the chaotic excitement that you get in the middle of a loud, live show. I think my work is about freedom, not just pop celebrity portraits. Rock and roll for me has always been about the freedom to express your feelings, loudly, in public!

Woman in a long, flowy, yellow dress being held up by the legs over the crowd at a performance. She is holding up peace fingers towards the sky while hands reach up around her and someone sits on another person's shoulders holding up a phone.

Danny Clinch // @dannybones64

Florence and the Machine

Live music is a chance to go into a zone that pushes aside anything that’s cluttering up your mind and connects you with an artist that can take you on a journey that nourishes your soul. Or just rocks your face off.

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