David Gleave – Rock Concert Photography
In this showcase series we feature the rock concert photography of David Gleave.
David tells us how he got started with photography:
I always had an interest in photographs without really knowing. I am a musician and spent years looking at books about the Rolling Stones and the Beatles etc. Then a few years ago I saw an exhibition of photographs taken on the streets of Manchester from 1870-1900 by Samuel Coulthurst. I was captivated by the people in the street scenes. Looking at their faces long since gone and all the questions the pictures made me ask.
That was about 2 years ago. Now I wanted to actually taking photos myself so I bought an entry level Nikon and started photographing everything from flowers, butterflies, landscapes etc.
David talks about his subject matter and what inspires him:
I was soon aware that I wasn’t really interested in those subjects. What interested me was people. My subjects are street photography, portraits and live music.
I started to study all the great photographers and that’s where I get my inspiration from. I was lucky to be in Paris last week and saw the Garry Winogrand exhibition and bought the book.
I studied Cartier Bresson, Robert Capa, Robert Frank, Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange. I love Bruce Gilden and a few of the other Magnum people. Diane Arbus. Rock photographers like Pennie Smith & Ethan Russell. I look at other websites like your own to see what other photographers are doing and seek inspiration.
David talks about what equipment he uses:
For my live music photography i have a Nikon D600 & D800. One has a 24-70 2.8 and the other has a 70-200 2.8 lens. That’s pretty standard gear as you know for low light challenging situation shooting. You just have to have it.
BUT I have just discovered the Fujifilm X100S. I bought one a month ago and I love it. I carry it everywhere. The big Nikons are not really so easy to take everywhere.
At first I was a bit wary about moving away from Nikons as I’m familiar with the menus and spent ages getting to know them.
But the Fujifilm is brilliant. It can never replace the Nikons but for an every day camera for photographing the street and the environment it’s perfect.
To see more of David’s work, connect with him on Flickr.
Photophique has express permission to publish these images and David Gleave retains full copyright to all photographs featured in this showcase series.