Give Yourself to Me (the Infadels)

I had my first concert at Koko as an official Koko photographer, a week ago. I had been contacted to take pictures for the Club NME night. NME is possibly the most famour rock magazine in UK and in the states, and Koko is a really good concert venue. It looks like an old pink theatre (yes, pink!). We can say it’s the english equivalent of La Cigale, a live venue in Paris. I’ve been taking photos as an official photographer for a few gigs, now. But this one was definitely a first. It was my first big assignment. Most concerts where I took photos (I think I could say all of them) did not have this famous fence that separate the band and the photographers from the rest of the world. To me, it means that the bands I usually take pictures of are closer to their audience, in all meanings of the word “closer”. I was not sure I was a big fan of gigs were there are fences. And now I’m pretty sure of that I like to be part of the crowd of music fans. I like to take pictures of bands whose music make me feel something. This fence is some kind of an anesthesiant. When you go over the fence – and that you do not get kicked out, since you have this magic photo pass -, you get in another world, where you’re not here for the music anymore but just for the pictures. The really good thing, though, is that because you’re here for the pictures and because you’ve been selected, the musicians give you special gifts. Camera in hand, set, ready? The musician does something crazy. It might be raising his hands to the sky, as if praying the god of Rock to do something. It might be jumping just in front of you. But they’re posing, possibly more than if you’re in the middle of the crowd. They give the audience the music and give you pictures. But it’s not my world. I take nice pictures when I’m moved by the music. When I’m IN the music.