Christie Goodwin Gets Interview for Six-Part Music Documentary on Sky Arts

It’s not often we find photographers in front of the camera, but when you’ve accrued the kind of experience that Christie Goodwin has, people are going to want to hear from you. The veteran music photographer — whose work we’ve written about before — recently sat down for an interview for a documentary on music photography called “ICON: Music Through the Lens.” The film explores the cultural impact, evolution, and how-to of music photography.

Last year, I was contacted by director Dick Carruthers to be interviewed for a six-part documentary on music photography. He dropped a few names that had signed on already, like [the late] Baron Wolman, Bob Gruen, Terry O’Neil, and Lynn Goldsmith, so I was curious with all these big names why they’d asked me.

Dick explained that he wanted to feature respected music photographers from the past but also music photographers who are making the waves now in the present and that is why they wanted me. So, I said yes.

Interviewees include famous musicians, renowned music journalists, respected social commentators, and top-tier music photographers. The documentary is currently airing in the United Kingdom on Sky Arts and will soon come to the U.S. When Christie saw the documentary, she was a bit surprised at how much she showed up in it. But, again, when you’ve photographed the likes of Ed Sheeran, Katy Perry, and Camila Cabello, people want to hear from you.

I was asked a wide range of questions about how I worked, who I worked with, what I liked about my work, what my pet peeves were, and how I saw music photography in the future. It was quite a long interview. I actually thought my bit might pop up in one episode talking about the present shape of music photography but they used quite a bit of me in five of the six episodes. Seems I have a lot to say. Who knew? 

Christie also shows up in the trailer, mentioning that for her, photography is about “drawing with light.” One of the world’s most well-known concert photographers, Christie is as skilled as they come with regard to working with the dizzying spectacle that is a light show at a musical performance.

In the clip they showed I had just said ‘photography is Greek for drawing with light and that is what you have to learn to do, draw with the light.’ I was talking about the light conditions during a live concert which is very unpredictable and certainly uncontrollable. I often get asked by people who start out in the music photography business how do you get around the challenge when there is little visibility or only red lights or too much smoke or something like that. And I always tell them, don’t fight the light.

The quantity of light, the temperature of the light is irrelevant — whatever the show gives you, you use to paint the perfect picture of the show. When you have a very dark show, for example, then your pictures will be dark and maybe not what you’d like to see; but they do tell you the story of how the live show was.

The interviewers also asked Christie about the three-song rule, which states that music photographers shooting for the press can only photograph the first three songs of the show (they have to leave afterward). Christie usually gets hired by the musicians themselves, so the rule doesn’t tend to apply to her. But she certainly has some thoughts on the matter:

I told them that part of the job of a music photographer is to document music history for generations to come. By depriving photographers this access, we are losing out on having a full and correct archive. If this rule had been in place when Jimmy Hendrix burned his guitar at the end of his show while playing ‘Fire’ at the Monterey International Pop Music Festival, we probably wouldn’t even know about it today. But music photographer Ed Caraeff was there and recorded that moment and to this day we can still relive that moment even though none of us were present.

Christie also reflected on some of her pet peeves. She bemoans photographers who don’t bring their manners with them into the pit just below the stage where photos are taken. Despite certain struggles and setbacks associated with music photography, Christie mostly described the state of the industry in a positive light, in particular with regard to its future. Although music photography has evolved and changed significantly throughout generations, it still plays a vital role in bringing artists to the mainstream.

I have a very positive outlook on it — music photography has evolved and will keep evolving. In the beginning, it was more documenting events for newspapers and magazines, shooting portraits for album covers and posters. The artists were the creatives and often they were in full control of their product and image.

We are now at a point in time where the music industry has transitioned into a highly corporate business. And just like any business that has something to sell, the music industry needs photography to sell their artist, the performances, their merchandise, etc. Music photography has evolved more towards commercial photography where the focus has to shift from storytelling to product selling. But music photography will remain an important part of the music industry. 

See more of Christie’s work at christiegoodwin.com.

Credits:

Director: Dick Carruthers
Executive Producers: Gered Mankowitz, Andy Saunders

Further Reading:

Read more about Christie Goodwin on our Published blog

Check out our other great photographers on our Find Photographers page!