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In the last weekend of July, thousands flocked to the mouth of Newport Harbor in Fort Adams, Rhode Island for the Newport Folk Festival, and Massachusetts-based photographer David Salafia was right there with them.
The Newport Folk Festival is a historic three day festival of some of the best music you’ll ever hear. It’s been two weeks since Newport and I’m still wowed by the amount of talent that came together for three days. Jeff Tweedy, Jack White, Conor Oberst, Jenny Lewis, Dawes, Ryan Adams. Not to mention newcomers like Hozier, Shakey Graves, Leif Vollebekk, The Milk Carton kids. I mean even Jimmy Cliff was there. Reggae at a folk festival. That’s the kind of weekend it was. I am still blown away.
The festival reached out to David to be an official photographer for the weekend, so he was granted access to areas that other press photographers didn’t get to enjoy, including backstage entry. This allowed him to capture intimate portraits of the musicians before and after their performances, as well as scenes of the crowd from the musicians’ point of view.
Getting access to the artists was crucial. My goal was to go beyond just the pit shots. To capture the artists right as they came off the stage—sweaty, elated, feeling good. They just accomplished something big, and I wanted to be right there for it. … I loved meeting new artists and finding the best way to capture their style and unique vibe.
David wanted to embrace the spontaneity and energy of the festival, so there wasn’t a lot of planning involved.
I knew that I wanted to keep my photography natural and be in the moment. I didn’t want a whole lot of set-up to get in the way of capturing the artist’s spirit, energy and natural emotions as they were nervously waiting to go on stage or elated and drained from coming stage. I wanted them to be real, be themselves and help them feel at ease.
The experience opened David’s eyes to the parallels between photography and music, while allowing him to shoot something that he’s very passionate about.
The only thing better than photographing people, to me, is photographing people making things—in this case, artists making music. Capturing real moments in life is a passion of mine. This project gave me the opportunity to meet new people and be a part of the energy and excitement of one of the best music festivals in the country.
Visit David’s website to see more of his work!