Kimberly Ross: Shooting Live Music with the Lomo'Instant Wide

Kimberley Ross is an Italian photographer from Rome who works mostly in the fashion and music scenes. Here she shows us a series of instant pictures shot with the Lomo'Instant Wide at Joyce Wrice's concert at the Alcazar, in Rome, last December.

Hello Kimberley, welcome to Lomography! You are often shooting live music events, what relationship do you have with this kind of photography? Which are the main challenges while shooting a concert?

I started to work as a professional photographer thanks to music and concert shootings. I know that this may sound like a cliché but being able to merge my passion for photography and the one for music is what really has pushed me into the world of professional photography. The incredible energy you can feel in portraying a music performance from such a close point of view goes beyond words, however, it can be very tricky too. As a photographer, the most obvious problem is that you don't have any control on the subjects and on the lights, hence it is necessary to be extremely quick in adapting and also trying to foresee what is going on on the stage. Live photography may also be very tiring, this is why who choose this profession does it mostly for passion.

Do music tastes and the enthusiasm in shooting a band you like have an influence on your work?

Well, maybe at the beginning of my career. I clearly remember the first time I shot one of my favourite bands, the Arcade Fire, I was terrified. In fact, the pictures I took were very bad. As the time passed I got more experienced and I've learnt how to exploit what happens on the stage. Regardless of my tastes, what happens on the stage is what give you good shots. Of course, as a music enthusiast, staying few meters far from my idols is a privilege, but is surely a positive side of my job, not the most influencing fact.

How do you prepare to shot an artist? Do you reach the venue of the concert with a certain idea of the pictures you want to shoot or do you already have a standardized work procedure?

Except for very rare cases I do not need to study an artist to decide how to shoot him. However, since I have lots of friends involved in the field from all over the world I can often see some tour pictures in advance, so I hardly ever attend a live show completely unprepared. Anyway, sometimes, when I have some ideas in my mind that I want to experiment, I try to figure out how to achieve a certain picture in advance. I always try to stay in line with my personal style, I am not really interested in following trends and, honestly, I do not like who copies the style of other photographers.

How did you feel about going to shoot a concert with an instant camera?

Surely it was a new experience, I can't wait to do it again!
First thing first, I shot lees pictures. This is a thing that I always try to do, also when I shoot with a digital camera, but I actually never do it. Obviously, the final outcome is different and very interesting as well.
Shoot with such a different camera has forced me to really rethink how to conduct a job that I am very used to do, and this was extremely funny.

How were the backstage pictures of Joyce Wrice created?
Where did the dog come from?

All my friends know that I love dogs and surely they'll laugh a lot reading this article. Walking around Rome I discovered that Joyce loves dogs a lot too, in fact, we stop three times to greet some puppies. At the end of the shooting, we met this dog and we literally jump on and start to pet him. Since we were exactly in the place in which I wanted to shoot, I had the idea to ask his owners to borrow us the dog for a picture and they kindly accepted. All the pictures were taken in an extremely spontaneous context, walking around the city and choosing the location according to what inspired us in that moment, like an Indian restaurant we found accidentally. It would have been nice to shoot with the sunlight but there'll be another time.

Which are the features of the Lomo’Instant Wide you appreciated the most?

The first thing that pops up in my mind is the coloured flash filters! It's a thing that I really love to use them and being able to so with the Lomo'Instant was fantastic! I found very useful the bulb mode for long exposure, it allowed me to shoot under very poor light conditions, that would have been impossible to manage otherwise.

Thank you very much, Kim, for sharing these pictures with us! To see other Kim's jobs visit her website and her Instagram profile.

written by lomosmarti on 2018-02-07 #people #rome #alcazar #lomo-instant-wide #joyce-wrice #kimberley-ross