‘It gives you a different high’: Verus Ferreira on three decades of concert photography

A very short window in which to capture the decisive moment. Imploring public relations executives to issue a pass for the stage area. Confetti cannons going off just when the frame is perfect. These are some of the challenges Verus Ferreira has negotiated a three-decade journey photographing music concerts.

But the payoff is more than worth it. “Spending time with some awesome music artists, listening to their great music, travelling to different places to watch them and the best of all, capturing the artists for posterity on your camera, can give you a totally different high,” Ferreira told Scroll in an email interview. “For me, music photography is a dream career, stemming from my work as a music journalist over the last 30 years.”

Starting this weekend, the veteran Mumbai music journalist, who runs a site titled musicunplugged.in and has authored two quiz books about rock music trivia, will exhibit some of his favourite concert images at a gallery in the city.

In this interview, he explained what it takes to be a concert photographer, lays out tips for fans on how to get the best images for their musical idols at gigs and explains how he scored some of his best photos.

What are the challenges of photographing concerts?

Spending time with some awesome music artists, listening to their great music, travelling to different places to watch them and the best of all, capturing the artists for posterity on your camera, can give you a totally different high. For me, music photography is a dream career, stemming from my work as a music journalist over the last 30 years. While it is fun to see your music idols performing right in front of the stage, shooting images can pose a real challenge.

When it comes to international artists performing in India and even overseas, the thumb rule is usually shooting the first three songs or first 10 or 15 minutes with no flash. In that span of time you have to get all your shots done, as once you are out of the photographer’s pit, you can no longer shoot any images.

You are then part of the audience enclosure, which needless to say is jam packed. Most concerts are in low light to sudden bursts of powerful stage lights on the stage and stage truss that sometimes shoot straight into your eyes almost blinding you at times. Besides that, you also have smoke screens that pop up all the time making it difficult to get a good shot at moving singers and guitarists which could make your picture turn blurred.

Other challenges include pyrotechnics, which come in the form of fire flames and confetti cannons with multi-colored confetti popping up. All that goes well with the audience, but could be dangerous for a photographer who is at the edge of the stage.

In India, most concerts are now commissioned to photographer agencies who have multiple photographers at the venue. You will find maybe two photographers below the stage, one in the centre of the ground and two at the end of the concert ground, to capture the concert from all angles. With the result, the media is not given its due importance in obtaining a photographer’s pass to shoot these big ticket concerts.

One has to rigorously follow up with the PR agencies who invite media for these events. Accredited media houses rarely bother to follow-up to send photographers to these events, mostly relying on the PR agencies sending them photos for the next day’s print edition.

Going back to around five to seven years, it was much easier to obtain a photographer’s pass for a concert, but now it’s difficult. As for the indoor concerts, things are much better.

How you started photographing concerts?

It started way back in the late nineties. An Indian record label Crescendo Music was tying up with the Bertelsmann Group of Germany to form BMG-Crescendo. To commemorate the merger, Crescendo Music, invited the pop-rock band Air Supply. Now, I am a very big fan of Air Supply and couldn’t believe they were coming to India. As part of the media team, I was invited to the launch. It was a small gathering and Air Supply performed live. I carried a small Hot Shot spool camera with me, and with that I shot my first concert photos of my favorite band ever. I had to wait until the roll of 24 shots were used and only then give it for processing and then view the photos I had shot. I still have those photos and cherish them. I will be displaying them at the exhibition.

Since then as I progressed into music journalism and got to interview music artists, I always carried my camera with the prime focus to take photos of the music artists I interviewed. As these visiting artists would perform live later that day, this graduated me to take photos of concerts wherever I went. So I have a bunch of music concert photos processed from negatives in my collection. I bought my first digital camera – Fuji Film and then moved on to a Cannon a few years later.

What’s the pay like for the job?

Since the very beginning, music photography has never been given its due credence. Unlike food, fashion, travel, wildlife, wedding or even portrait studio photography, music photography has not caught on in India. There are just a few music photographers in India who really do music photography, per se. I can count them on my fingers. Most photographers out there who want to shoot music photos are happy to do it for free as they get a photographer’s pass and free access to the concert or festival.

Unlike in the West, where concert photography is huge with big bucks paid to the photographer, here it is almost nonexistent. The reason being firstly there are no music magazines left that cater to music specifically and even the newspapers don’t devote much space to music stories. A really sad state of affairs, considering the influx of music artists from the West visiting India nowadays. Add to that the number of music festivals happening all over the country has increased manifold.

What are your tips for fans when they photograph concerts?

Considering fans who use smart phones, it would all start by shooting photos of an artist in a small setting, maybe in a bar or a club and then shooting a top of the line star in an arena filled with thousands of people. Do not use zoom all the time as that might get you blurred photos. You would also need to check the settings on your phone and lock it to night mode as most concerts have bright lights. Enjoy the moment as there would be less crowd in a small venue, but be prepared for bigger artists who perform at small venues and position yourself accordingly.

And of course minimal use or simply no use of flash. If you have a DSLR, it would be if best you stand in your own piece of property in a strategic place in front of the stage to shoot your photos and mark your area, so you get a good view of the stage and the musicians you intend to shoot. If you are right behind the concert ground, don’t worry, believe me, you will get good images of the grand stage set up and the pyrotechnics shooting into the sky.

An Exhibition of Concert photography by Verus Ferreira from November 16-22 at gallery No 2, Bombay Art Society, opposite Rangsharda, KC Marg, Bandra Reclamation , Bandra West, Mumbai.